Remember what it was like to sit in the first few rows of a concert featuring your favorite artist, or to wait hours in a line to get a book signed by its author? What about being at a professional sporting event, hoping for an autograph or some split-second eye contact with your favorite athlete?

Plymouth Canton High (Canton, Mich.) junior Anne Morrell knows what it's like. The standout soccer player even has the bathroom towels to prove it.

	Morrell is a two-time soccer All-American.

This past winter, Morrell (born Robynn Anne Morrell) accepted an invitation to practice with the U.S. women's national soccer team in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for 11 days. While there, she not only shared the field with some of the world's greatest women's soccer players, she shared living space and a bathroom. It was an opportunity the 5-foot-3, 140-pound forward says she will never forget.

"It was exciting. It was weird to play with my idols," says Morrell, who names Julie Foudy, Brandi Chastain and Mia Hamm as three of her favorite players in attendance. "But if my coaches believed I could play with them, then I guess I could."

Although she didn't make it onto the roster for the U.S. Olympic team, she is one of the youngest players to make the national team's B squad, which will soon begin training for a tournament in Europe this summer. In the meantime, Morrell has some people in Canton counting on her.

At 17 years old, Morrell is a two-time All-American and a member of the state's Dream Team. This year, she was named Gatorade Player of the Year for Michigan after she tallied 31 goals and dished out six assists for Canton (17-1-2), which finished as co-conference champion with Livonia Stevenson High.

Morrell had to sit out three games for missing Plymouth Canton soccer practice while in Fort Lauderdale, but the team survived without its top scorer. It let out a collective sigh of relief on May 31, when she was back in action for the first round of the district tournament. Last Thursday (June 1), Canton beat cross-town rival Plymouth Salem High, 2-1, in the district semifinals.

"She just brings a lot of excellence to the team," says longtime Plymouth Canton soccer coach Don Smith. "[The girls] pick up the play a lot with her, and when she was missing, they picked it up even more."

Morrell, who has been on divisional U.S. national teams since she was 15 years old, also plays club soccer with the Michigan Hawks and has already verbally committed to attend the University of North Carolina, a perennial women's soccer powerhouse, on full scholarship.

	Morrell will be attending the University of North Carolina.

"People around me make me a better player," says Morrell, who notes her former "technique" coach, Paul Scicluna, has also played a large role in her development. "My sister (Abi, Canton's senior captain) pushed me a lot. And Andy Sied from Stevenson. I played with her in club soccer. She makes me work hard; she's a great defender.

"They are the main two people who make me play hard."

"She's so intense," says Smith. "I can't claim developing her. She came to me with a lot of talent."

But there were some people who made a pretty large impression on the teen.

"Julie Foudy was in the room next to me and Kate Sobrero was in the connecting room," says Morrell of her time with the U.S. women's soccer national team. "Some of them even had kids. We would talk about their kids or my proms. After practices we'd go the movies or the mall or to Starbucks. They are really down to earth and fun to hang out with."

Morrell also got the inside scoop on what it's like to be the gal who ripped off her shirt in celebration of the United States' World Cup victory.

"All the girls goof around with her about it," says Morrell about Chastain's famous action before the opposing team's goal, when she tore off her shirt in the moment of victory. "We'd go to lunch and she's all dressed up in a nice outfit , she's now sponsored by good clothing companies. I asked Sobrero why she always looks so nice. She said, "She took her shirt off.'"

It's the littlest moments that leave the greatest impressions.