Charmaine Hooper is one of the greatest strikers in soccer history. Most readers will know her from her 71 goals for the Canadian National team or her years with the original Atlanta Beat of the WUSA. But, many may not know that Hooper is also a United Soccer League legend.

Hooper was born in Guyana but moved with her family to Ottawa at a young age. She was a student-athlete at North Carolina State in the late 1980s and still holds the all-time and single season school goal-scoring records. Following her NCAA career, Hooper traveled around the world playing professional soccer in Norway, Italy and Japan.

In 1995, she would return to North America and join the Rockford ‘Dactyls for the inaugural United States Women’s Interregional Soccer League - more commonly called the W-League season. Hooper would lead the ‘Dactyls to an 8-1 record and a playoff appearance. While records are incomplete, she ended that season as the top scorer with 31 total points (goals counted for two points and assists one point each).

For the next five years, Charmaine Hooper’s club career consisted of playing summers in the W-League and overseas to play professionally during the traditional soccer season. While the W-League was the first national women’s soccer league in the U.S. it was still officially an amateur league. But, in practice, some players would be paid for playing in the W-League, including Hooper.

The 1998 season was a breakthrough year for the W-League. The league split into a W-1 elite division and a W-2 lower division. A large number of U.S. National Team players signed for W-League teams that season which raised the level of competition. In addition, that season the ‘Dactyls moved to Chicago becoming the Cobras.

In prior summers, Hooper would spend a lot of time away from the W-League with the Canadian National Team, but in 1998 she concentrated on the Chicago Cobras and the W-League. That season Hooper ended as the W-1 league’s top goal scorer with 23 goals and 6 assists over a 14-game season. She would also win the W-1 league’s MVP.

Hooper earned $3,000 to $5,000 per month with the Cobras during the three-month 1998 W-League season. In comparison, Hooper reportedly earned over $100,000 per season playing in Japan.

Photo credit: The Canadian Press, Rob Kruyt

The following season, the Chicago Cobras ended the W-1 regular season undefeated. The team made it all the way to the W-League final before losing 3-2 in a shootout to the Raleigh Wings. That season Hooper only played five matches but still managed to score 10 goals.

The 2000 season would be the epitome of Charmaine Hooper’s USL career. The striker only played in nine of the Cobras’ 14 matches but still ended the season as the W-1 division’s top goal scorer. The team went undefeated with an incredible 51 goals for and only 2 goals against.

Chicago won the 2000 W-1 final and ended Raleigh’s hopes of a W-1 division three peat. The Cobras beat the Wings 4-2 in a shootout after a 1-1 draw in regulation and extra time. Hooper scored the Cobras only goal in the 53rd minute to tie the match.

Following the 2000 W-League season, Charmaine Hooper signed with the Atlanta Beat for the inaugural WUSA season. The WUSA was the world’s first fully professional women’s soccer league. Hooper would be one of the league’s top goalscorers over the three seasons of the WUSA’s existence. She is the co-owner of the career WUSA scoring title and is the second all-time goal scoring leader in WUSA history.

In 2002, Charmaine Hooper was inducted into the inaugural USL Hall of Fame. She was the only woman inducted in that first class. Other inductees were three U.S. Men’s National Team members (Bob Gansler, Brian McBride, and Chris Armas), Dennis Viollet (manager of the 1995 U.S. Open Cup champion Richmond Kickers), and legendary Rochester Raging Rhinos manager, Pat Ercoli (which won the 1999 U.S. Open Cup).

Following her time with the Atlanta Beat, Hooper’s late career would focus on her time with the Canadian National Team. She returned to the USL for a couple of short stints with the Chicago Cobras in 2004 and New Jersey Wildcats in 2006. Following that year she also retired from national team duty - the first Canadian player to achieve 100 caps.

- Dan Creel