Mitts wins Hottest Female of ’04

Mitts survived an opening bracket so tough it would make the NCAA hoops committee blush, and eventually dispatched reigning champion Jennie Finch and fading former champion Anna Kournikova with ease. She captured better than 30 percent of the quarter-million votes cast in the five-woman final.

	This may be the closest Heather comes to pulling a “Chastain.”

Seeing beauty like this mixed with the skills that made the 25-year-old defender a star with both the University of Florida and the WUSA’s Philadelphia Charge, we knew we had to get to the bottom of the new champ’s appeal.

But we were afraid some of our folks might end up with a restraining order instead of an interview, so we put Page 2’s cool and collected Mary Buckheit in charge of peppering Heather with 10 Burning Questions. Mary diligently traced Heather’s whereabouts to Costa Rica, where she is training with the U.S. National Team.

It wasn’t easy — country codes can be so confusing! — but after a series of missed connections and emails, the international operator rang the office and asked if Mary would accept a collect call from Heather Mitts. And Mary didn’t need Carrot Top to tell her what to do. She gladly accepted the charges to the Worldwide Leader, trusting that the boys running Page 2 wouldn’t be able to take their eyes off this footballing femme fatale long enough to notice that she’d dialed in collect from Costa Rica … twice.

Heather has a very healthy relationship with Eagles backup quarterback A.J. Feeley. While we’re very happy for the two young lovers, we don’t feel the least bit sorry about having to wreck this home. We have some words of advice for you, A.J.: “When you love something, set it free.”

Heather is ours now. We promise to take good care of her.

1. Are you prepared to take on all the rigorous responsibilities incumbent on Page 2’s Hottest Female Athlete?

Oh my gosh, I’ll try my best! Are you serious? What are the responsibilities?

The Road to Victory
Here’s a look at the very hot competition Heather beat out for the coveted crown of Page 2’s Hottest Female Athlete of 2004.

The personal appearances? The global tour? There’s a code of behavior involved here.

Oh, sure! Absolutely. As long as I can fit that into my Olympic training schedule.

Great. I’m sure the coach will be very understanding of my Page 2 responsibilities.

2. How did you find out that you were the new champ?

My publicist wrote me an email and let me know that I had won. Not only am I, of course, very honored by this very prestigious nomination, but I was completely shocked that I had won. Actually, before my publicist told me that I’d won, my step-sister had informed me about the poll through an email a few days before; and, of course, I went to check out the site.

Yes, I did, and everybody on there was beautiful! I figured I’d be lucky to finish in the top five, no joke. There were a lot of gorgeous girls on there.

I have to admit that it pays to have a lot of family and friends and loyal Philly fans. I think my boyfriend may have voted about 2,000 times.

	The picture that may have put Heather Mitts over the top.

Oh, I know. Very serious. I’m very serious about it, too. I actually didn’t vote because that would be illegal. Oh, my goodness, I could not have won by that much. I have to ask A.J. how many times he voted, bless his little heart. I thought Anna would win hands down!

I did?? Oh my God. She is appearing in the swimsuit issue!

I don’t know! Hopefully! We’ll see!

3. Have you ever met Jennie Finch?

No, I haven’t. But actually, this is kind of ironic because as we were flying out here to Costa Rica, I opened up a USA Today and she was all over it. She had a big spread in there that day. So I had just read about her. And actually, I remember her from last year’s contest. I remember her picture and everything. I think she is very pretty.

Was she even in it this year?

That must have been the day that A.J. was online.

Well, she won it last year, and she totally deserved it. But you’ve gotta keep it interesting. Change is good. So I’d say thanks for letting me get a piece of the pie.

4. Who do you think is the Hottest Male Athlete around?

Umm, hands down, A.J. Feeley. Hello!

Oh yes. I have to. I owe him now.

5. You’ve dated a couple of athletes. You used to go out with Philly Pat Burrell …

Yeah, but we don’t have to talk about that, do we?

Umm. If I didn’t say football, I’d be in big trouble.

OK, besides A.J. — make sure you get that in there! — I think I’d have to say soccer players. David Beckham — yeah, he’s easy on the eyes.

	Never thought we’d say this, but backup QBs have all the luck.

6. How is it that backup QBs are snagging the famous honeys? A.J.’s got you, Tim Hasselbeck has Elizabeth from “Survivor,” Jesse Palmer is “The Bachelor” … What gives? You guys don’t deserve the starter?

You know what? I don’t think it matters. Honestly, I had pretty much decided at one point that I really didn’t want to date another professional athlete again. But the circumstances that I met A.J. under were kind of different. I mean, when I met him I just knew that he was unlike anybody that I’ve ever met.

Umm, sure. Haha. Oh,man. Well, it was kind of funny. Like I said, I really didn’t want to date any more athletes, and especially a football player! He happened to come over one day because his roommate was dating my roommate. It was kind of one of those things where I knew he was coming over but I really didn’t care all that much. I didn’t really know him, but I wasn’t that interested in the whole thing. I was just kind of ‘whatever’ about the situation. So he came over and I’m just relaxing, wasn’t really dressed very nice. I was just frumpy, hanging around the house. So he comes over and I answer the door and I see him and I was like, “Oh, hi.” I’m thinking, “He’s kinda cute!” So … I go back upstairs, get all dolled up, come back down and we just totally hit it off.

A little over a year now.

Oh no! Good thing I won. I’ll only serve a one-year term, now. Oh well.

7. Would you ever perform a Brandi Chastain sports-bra-style celebration?

The chances of that happening are slim to none, because I am a defender and I will probably never score a goal. And if I did, it would never be in those circumstances.

Ha. Thanks, but there are definitely at least five other people who they’d rather see standing out there.

Yes. I’ll wiggle out of that question.

8. What’s going on with the WUSA these days? Any word on reorganization?

	She may never score a goal, but she’s scored plenty of points with Page 2 readers.

Awww, I don’t know. Geez, I hope so. Actually, we know for sure that we have three weekends scheduled in June — the WUSA Festival Weekends — where we travel to three different cities and do a couple of different exhibition games and some events. We want to let people know that we are still around and we’re still planning on a 2005 season.

I don’t know. The feeling is definitely positive, but we still need to get the word out there some more and try and get a lot more sponsors to bring this back.

Yeah, I definitely have thought about that. Luckily, I’m playing with the National Team right now. But if I weren’t, I’d be thinking more seriously about what I have to do to continue my soccer career. I’ve thought about the move overseas; but obviously if I had a choice, I’d definitely want to stay here.

Yes, I have. It’s definitely something I would consider. I would love to.

Ha! Yes. Is that where you are right now?

Oh, bless your heart. But it can’t get any better than working at ESPN! I’d love it! Do you like it? How long have you been there? — Oh, sorry, I’m getting off the subject. And I’m calling collect — from Costa Rica! I’m sorry!!

9. If you could invite any three people to dinner, who would you choose?

Muhammad Ali. Oprah. And, umm … Man, this is so random! I have no idea! And Julia Roberts.

Shoot, he does, doesn’t he?

Oh, man. Now I feel bad.

Yeah, there we go. He can be in the kitchen cookin’!

10. The Mitts bobblehead doll giveaway drew the Charge’s biggest crowd ever, right? Did you know that?

	We thought you’d enjoy this picture more than one of her bobblehead doll.

Yeah.

Yeah, they let me keep two.

No, two boxes.

Yep.

Yeah, sure.

I may have some extras floating around.

Hah. Oh, man. A.J. is not going to like this one bit! He would hate that. My gosh. He was stressing out about the poll.

Oh boy, this is all very interesting.

Umm, I hear it a little bit from them sometimes. With the Charge, some of the girls would poke at me, but it was always in good fun.

No! I haven’t said a peep about this!!

Oh, man, I’m actually really glad we are out of the country right now. There’s not much of a rumor mill here in Costa Rica. This is a very good thing right now!