SEC Storied film to feature UF’s Abby Wambach

Former Florida Gators striker Abby Wambach will be the subject of ESPNU‘s eighth SEC Storied documentary, OGGOA has learned.

Abby Head On, which is set to premiere on May 15 at 8 p.m. on ESPNU, will be officially announced by the network later Monday. The film chronicles Wambach’s collegiate career with the Gators, international accomplishments with the U.S. Women’s National Team and quest to break Mia Hamm’s international scoring record.

After surprising the soccer community by choosing to attend Florida over powerhouse North Carolina, Wambach led the Gators to four-straight SEC Championships (1998-2001), two Final Fours (1998, 2001) and an NCAA Championship (1998), which remains the soccer program’s only national title to this day.

Individually while playing for UF, she was a two-time SEC Player of the Year (2000-01) and SEC Freshman of the Year (1998) who was also a four-time All-SEC First Team selection and three-time first-team All-American.

Wambach left Florida upon graduation as the school record holder in goals (96), game-winning goals (24), points (242), assists (49) and hat tricks (10); she maintains the No. 1 spot in each of those categories to this day.

She has spent her post-college career has been playing professional women’s soccer (2002-2011, 2013) and serving as a captain of the U.S. Women’s National Team, which she has been a member of since 2003.

Wambach has helped lead the Americans to gold in two Olympics (2004, 2012) and medals in each of the last three Women’s World Cups. Her 155 international goals are second all-time to Hamm’s world-record mark of 158 goals, a milestone Wambach will likely surpass before the year is out.

She earned her sport’s greatest honor on Jan. 7 when she was named the winner of the 2012 FIFA Ballon d’Or (Women’s World Player of the Year). Wambach became the first American to win the award since Hamm in 2002 and earned the honor by scoring 27 international goals including at least one in each of the United States’ first five matches of the 2012 London Olympics.

A five-time U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year, Wambach was named Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in 2001. She also took home the Bronze Boot and Silver Ball following the 2011 Women’s World Cup and was a last-minute nominee and eventual winner of the 2011 ESPY Award for Best Play.

Wambach’s documentary is the first SEC Storied film to focus solely on the Gators or a UF student-athlete since the series debuted in Sept. 2011. The Play That Changed College Football, a feature on the first SEC Championship game on Dec. 5, 1992 between Alabama and Florida, premiered on Dec. 1, 2011.

Abby Head On is co-directed by Erin Leyden and Gentry Kirby, a pair of Peabody and Emmy award-winners, and narrated by former Gators standout and Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end Jack Youngblood.

“Abby has been a huge part of sustaining and growing the popularity of women’s soccer over the last decade,” said Leyden in a network release. “Her decision to go to Florida instead of one of the more traditional soccer powerhouses says a lot about her, and we’re excited for the opportunity to tell her story to a wider audience.”

Photo Credit: Associated Press