Charlotte Moran (center) pictured with her good friends Louise Waxler and Sue Ryan.

It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I share the passing of our friend Charlotte Moran. Charlotte passed away peacefully early this morning at her home after a long and courageous battle with pancreatic cancer.

My photo stream on Flickr... http://www.flickr.com/photos/24522405@N08/sets/72157612598365435/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Live Photos from the WPS Draft!!!!", url: "http://www.amandavandervort.com/blog/2009/01/live-photos-from-the-wps-draft/" });

WPS, and our Commissioner in particular, recognizes the unique opportunity social media presents us. I've started to compile a comprehensive list of all the WPS Tweeters. Here's the ones I already know are in the Twitter-mix off-hand (more will follow - I will keep a comprehensive list for you here and on my Big Soccer blog).

A look back at USA's 1999 World Cup victory with WPS stars Brandi Chastain, Tiffeny Milbrett, Christie Rampone, Kristine Lilly, Briana Scurry and Tony DiCicco. If this video doesn't bring tears of joy to your eyes you must be dead.

Before I get started, yes that really is a living albino alligator. Lisa Cole of the Boston Breakers is in San Francisco this weekend watching games, so last night we took a jaunt to the California Academy of Sciences to take in a little NiteLife. This place is AWESOME. Basically, the Academy is a museum/planetarium/aquarium in Golden Gate Park.

Book your trip today! Want more information or to get some first-hand feedback? Read letters sent to the NSCAA by previous participants.

Today I had the great pleasure of speaking with April Heinrichs, who you'll of course know as one of the first players on the United States women's national soccer team and later became the Head Coach.

So I spent the better part of my weekend sorting out all my bookmarks and RSS feeds. Then, I posted all the WPS team Social Media links on my Big Soccer blog at http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/blog.php?b=3803SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The Ultimate WPS Social Media Resource is on Big Soccer", url: "http://www.

The Stover Bulldogs, part of Class 1 District 5, hosted the Lady Bulldog Classic last weekend and took 3rd place

It took just a year and two Lady Bulldog Classics for the Stover girls soccer team to win its first-ever trophy. The second-year program grabbed third place at home April 4.

I was in Chicago this weekend for their home opener. I'd been to two Opening matches already - LA Sol vs. Washington Freedom, and FC Gold Pride vs. Boston Breakers, both were very cool. Los Angeles hosted the Inaugural Match, which by all accounts was the most awesome event I've ever helped organize.

First - I watched a snippet of Maddow in which she interviewed Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson about Cheney, et al. He's the former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell. One of the most interesting (to me) points he made with Maddow was to note what a fearful person Dick Cheney is. I've always seen him as fear mongering - but seeing him as himself fearful was fascinating.

Athletica just scored in the 11th minute when Eniola Aluko got behind the Sol defense and pulled the ball back to an unmarked Amanda Cinalli.

Remember, the Sol can capture the regular season title with a win today.

I got a late start blogging because I'm running around for a light feature for Thursday's Daily Breeze talking to moms, their daughters - and nuns if you can believe it.

WPS Chief Operating Officer Mary Harvey got the crew together with pizza and soda to listen to the Los Angeles Sol vs. Saint Louis Athletica on the audio broadcast. Tony Hubert, who's doing the commentary, did mention I'd get a shout out on the radio... Tony I'm tuned in ;-)

Wanna know more?

Wow! What a year will learn ya.

I looked back at one of my old blog posts called, "Amanda Vandervort's Top 8 SEO Sites," and realize what a rookie I was. While the post certainly has merit, it was less about SEO and more about tools that can help you create an effective website I still use these tools with frequency so if you want to check out the post, it's still a good resource.

The photo above was taken by Howard C. Smith at isiphotos.net.

Let's Identify Ways to Support Women in Coaching

The lacking presence of female coaches at the highest levels of sport is a challenge that the American soccer coaching community is actively looking to improve.

Amanda Palmer is one half of The Dresden Dolls. "Leeds United" is off her solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer?. The track isn't directly about Leeds but the pounding on the keys, the blaring horns, the voice hoarse from shouting/screaming/singing taps into the riot of football crowds. She explains that the whole idea of turning out to support your team & getting into brawls with each other struck her as "Roman" and a good subject for her.

Red Stars Head Coach Emma Hayes is in San Francisco this week watching Stanford, UCLA, USC, USF, and Santa Clara women's soccer teams play. I thought it would be fun to ask her the WPS series of "Off the Field" questions we collect from the players. Hey, coaches have favorite TV shows and i-pod apps, too!

Tonight's Big Match-Up is Florida State University vs. University of North Carolina

This great tribute video was emailed over to me this morning by Gloria Averbuch. It's a nice touch to remind us all that the impact of women's soccer is far greater than Wins and Losses. Check it out: http://all-access.

This blog post takes a brief look at how Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) and its teams have used Twitter. We'll look at the early days of Twitter integration and how it's evolved as a sports marketing tool. Then, we'll discuss a couple ideas for utilizing Twitter's new List feature.

Last night I attended Alex Kotler's Football Partnerships panel, "Tweet: Blowing the Whistle on Social Media." Greg Lalas, Chris Schlosser, Chris Toy and myself were the panelists, and there were some seriously smart people in the room, all with incredible perspectives. It was humbling and insightful to be included among this group to discuss and share information on how we are each using social media to achieve our business objectives.

With the draft coming up, I thought it might be a good idea to put the WPS Player List in one place for everybody to see. Basically, listed below is the WPS Player Rights Held by Teams. Who do you think each team will draft in the first round? Who [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Good luck to all my friends at the WPS franchises!

I've been grinding through some bad HTML all day long, so if I can get just one more person to sign up for it, I'll feel like a success... If you have a second and you want to know all the information about what's happening at the League, go here.... THANKS! And if you haven't joined [...]SHARETHIS.

Behind the scenes at the NSCAA Convention. Day 1.SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "An Exclusive Video with NSCAA Staff", url: "http://www.amandavandervort.com/blog/2009/01/an-exclusive-video-with-nscaa-staff/" });

... and her daughter, Yael Averbuch from UNC Chapel Hill, was just drafted in the first round of the WPS Draft. Wow, pretty amazing! I'm honored to be part of this very special moment. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "I'm sitting next to Gloria Averbuch...", url: "http://www.amandavandervort.com/blog/2009/01/im-sitting-next-to-gloria-averbuch/" });

The inaugural draft for Women's Professional Soccer's did more than stock the league's teams with players, says Goal.com's Greg Lalas. It captured the spirit that the new league needs if it is to succeed.SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Greg Lalas, "It captured the spirit that the new league needs if it is to succeed.

My Big Soccer Blog: http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/blog.php?b=3210SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "I can't believe I've started a Big Soccer blog", url: "http://www.amandavandervort.com/blog/2009/01/i-cant-believe-ive-started-a-big-soccer-blog/" });

Dear athlete,

Whether you know it or not you are, quite literally, a marketable product... but unless you're one of the few headliners in your league, chances are you just can't afford a team of people to get your name out there, build a cool website, or create a personalized marketing campaign.

It's been an absolutely crazy couple months here at the WPS League office so instead of sitting down and writing one long drawn out blog post, I'm pledging one blog post every other day for the next two weeks with one unique update each time.

Today's update: Interns.

I feel incredibly lucky to have had worked with incredibly motivated, talented interns throughout my career.

In a game that started at noon local time, the Los Angeles Sol's undefeated streak ended at home. Saint Louis midfielder Amanda Cinalli got the only goal of the game in the 11th minute, with Hope Solo needing four saves in the shutout. "The loss today is a small bump in our successful season," Sol coach Abner Rogers said.

Chicago Red Stars player Cristiane battles 9 year old soccer player Renae Blevins to see who is the ultimate soccer juggler. This is simply too amazing not to post.... Seriously Peter Wilt: Where did you find this girl?

Other WPS All-Star blog posts on Soccer Science:
WPS All-Star Weekend Begins
WPS All-Star Weekend II: WPS Awards Ceremony through Kick-Off

We've just finished editing the videos from the WPS Awards Celebration and thought it would be nice to post links to all of them here so you can see the acceptance speeches.

In November, Alex Kotler of Football Partnerships is putting on a rockin' panel to discuss how social media is affecting the sport of football, and yours truly has been invited as a panelist. (I'm super honored/excited to be a part of this! Details below.)

So I'm calling on all my Social Media gurus out there to help me prep!

Tonight, October 19th, at 5pm PST / 8pm EST, a lecture: "Facing Off Over Facebook: The Impact of Social Media on Women Sports" is going to be broadcast LIVE online from the Tucker Center at the University of Minnesota. http://www.cehd.umn.edu/tuckercenter/lecture/default.

Check out this video by U.S. Soccer in advance of the USWNT vs. Germany match tomorrow!!! They do such good work with their video diaries, props guys. My favorite part of this video, though, is at the end when Pia Sundhage talks about playing against German National Team Coach, Silvia Neid, in 1995, and what that means for players' potential career ambitions of coaching at the highest levels today.

As you may have heard by now, unprecedented storms have struck the Michelle Akers Horse Rescue and Outreach Farm. Over four feet of rain water overwhelmed the barn and destroyed some of the pastures. She almost lost everything including all of her horses. Saving the horses and farm has required her to work tirelessly for 48-hour stretches.

There are two types of Wordpress blog owners: Those that have seen the white screen of death, and those that will. And once you've seen it, plan for a full adventure to find the cause.

Summary of my Troubles

• I upgraded to Wordpress 2.9 and updated my Thesis design on the same day.

Amanda's top 8 social media sites. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Amanda's Social Media Sites Exposed", url: "http://www.amandavandervort.com/blog/2009/01/amandas-social-media-sites-exposed/" });

When I was in college, I spent my summers in the beautiful North Woods in Eagle River, Wisconsin, at a little summer camp for girls called Chippewa Ranch Camp. It wasn't an accident that I landed here, since my best friend from High School's (Abby Adler) father owned and operated this magical little place.

Planning for South Africa 2010 has officially begun... Jen, Enyo & all those on board with the helicopter plan (Franz Beckenbauer flies a chopper to get from game to game, why shouldn't we?), here are some quotes I tracked down to get us fired up.SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Melissa, this quote's for you.

Go here for the official site: http://www.depor13.com/redstarswebcast_hd.htm

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Left to right, top to bottom: Don't Mess with Mer, Wheels Julian, Solid as a Rock Ben, Master Trick-Meister Cy, Shoot from anywhere Matt, goalkeeper Gaston aka "The Wall", yours truly, Quick Teet Jung, This is my Recovery Run Dana, Rocket Shot Amy, and El Capitan Josh. (not pictured: Juke-em Justin, Collected Christian, Touch & Go Megan, and Leave them in the dust Dixon.