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First, the team name speaks to the players' collective irreverence. Chichita is Spanish for, um, a woman who is not well endowed. The credit, or blame, for that label goes to a boyfriend of one of the players (wouldn't it figure?) who noticed that everybody on the team had something in common other than the fact that most played for the University of Wisconsin women's soccer team. Second, they never lose. Ever. The Madison-based Chichitas have won seven straight Women's Open championships at the President's Cup, which is one of the largest, and best, Midwest indoor soccer events of the year. Players still in college, and many fresh out of school, comprise most of their competition at the tournament, which was held at Break Away Sports Center and KEVA Sports Center in Middleton. Third, they never practice. The Chichitas, who range in age from the mid-20s to mid-30s and live all over the Midwest, say hello to each other before each tournament, and then trot out on the playing field and kick butt. After collecting the trophy, they drive back home to their husbands and kids in Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Chicago or wherever. "We just play and go on with our lives," said Jaime Barbian, the team's manager and one of nine former UW soccer players on the roster for the national tournament. Fourth, they don't have a coach. And forget about jealousies and all that other emotional baggage that drag down even the best men's teams. Not on the Chichitas, who dominate because of their great chemistry. "It's beautiful to watch," said Chichitas midfielder Leia Schneeberger, a Madison West alum who played Division I soccer at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. "Each girl is so fundamentally sound. We know where we're going. The passing is phenomenal. We have a team of girls who can all score and that's not very common." Finally, these women are good because they were, are and always will be, great athletes who love to play competitive soccer. How else do you explain why Mara Wyttenbach -- who went by her maiden name, Mara Miller, while playing at UW -- plans to play in Las Vegas after giving birth to her first baby less than two months ago? "She's been working out, she's going to be in shape and she's going to be playing in this tournament," said Schneeberger. "She's not missing this thing." The Chichitas' trip to the national tournament is noteworthy because this is the first year that the President's Cup has been sanctioned as a qualifying event. That has created another first for the team. It is actually going to practice twice before heading to Las Vegas. "Break Away and KEVA have been generous enough to split our registration fee to send us there so they are giving us an hour of preparation time on their soccer fields," said Barbian, 32, who grew up in Waunakee. "So we thought we'd take them up on that." The Chichitas have found unparalleled success for seven years because their roster is so deep that they can absorb losing a player to injury or pregnancy. Four players on the roster for the national tournament are mothers and most are over 30. They also are a team full of scorers who compete well against younger competition because they play shorter shifts. They also have a fabulous goalie in Katie Wilkin, who grew up in Oregon and went to school at Lawrence University in Appleton. "In the tournament we do two-minute shifts. It's more like hockey. We do two minutes on, two minutes out," said Schneeberger. "You sprint as hard as you can and then you're out. "I think that gives us an advantage in the tournament. The competition hasn't figured that out. They'll play five-minute shifts and they're getting tired while we always have fresh legs on the field." But the real key to the team is that the personalities of the players mesh so well. It helps that there are two sets of sisters -- Wyttenbach and Mandi Wright are twins while Jaime Barbian is nine years older than Amanda Barbian -- and one set of sisters-in-law in Erica Strey and Cathy (Strey) Hartjoy. "This is the friendliest group of ladies I've ever played with," said Schneeberger, 29, who loves the fact that she gets to play with former Madison Memorial and UW standout Cathy Strey and former Sauk Prairie and UW standout Maria Andres because she grew up admiring them. "There's a mutual respect for every single player on the team," Schneeberger added. The Chichitas are serious competitors but, as their name suggests, they are too smart to take themselves too seriously. "It definitely doesn't reflect our team anymore but it did at one time," Schneeberger said of the name. "This team has a bunch of soccer moms. But the name has stuck." So has the winning attitude. The Capital Times, Rob Schultz
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If wagers can be made on the outcome of the Women's Open at USIndoor’s National Indoor Soccer Championships -- and that should be possible considering the event will be held next week in Las Vegas -- put all your money on the Chichitas.