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San Diego Spirit

defunct American women's soccer club

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ2219436 ↗
Source-derived summary

The San Diego Spirit were a professional soccer team based in San Diego, California, that competed in the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA). The team played its home games at Torero Stadium on the campus of the University of San Diego. The Spirit began play in 2001. The league announced on September 15, 2003, it was suspending operations.

The founding members of the Spirit were Julie Foudy, Shannon MacMillan and Joy Fawcett. The team reached the playoffs in the 2003 season, losing to the Atlanta Beat in the semifinals. Other notable members of the Spirit included Scotland's Julie Fleeting, Brazil's Daniela and Canada's Christine Latham, as well as U.S. national team players Jenni Branam, Aly Wagner and Shannon Boxx.

Year-by-year

Players

The "founding players" of the Spirit were Julie Foudy, Shannon MacMillan and Joy Fawcett of the 1999 U.S. Women's World Cup team.

2003 Roster

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “San Diego Spirit” as defunct American women's soccer club. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2001, 2003, 1999—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2001. The account is most persuasive where Diego, Spirit and defunct can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as defunct American women's soccer club. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2219436. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2001, 2003 and 1999.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “San Diego Spirit”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow San Diego Spirit primary sources, San Diego Spirit archive and Diego research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “San Diego Spirit”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “San Diego Spirit” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.