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Philly's Heather Mitts hosts Nicktoons' 'Soccer Superstar'

South Jersey's Carli Lloyd became a national hero Sunday when she propelled the U.S. women's national team to victory against Japan in the World Cup, with an unprecedented hat trick in front of a record number of fans watching on TV.

Heather Mitts, gold medalist and former U.S. women's national team member, hosts "Soccer Superstar" and shares her soccer knowledge with a group of girls hoping to emulate Carli Lloyd's success.
Heather Mitts, gold medalist and former U.S. women's national team member, hosts "Soccer Superstar" and shares her soccer knowledge with a group of girls hoping to emulate Carli Lloyd's success.Read moreNicktoons

South Jersey's Carli Lloyd became a national hero Sunday when she propelled the U.S. women's national team to victory against Japan in the World Cup, with an unprecedented hat trick in front of a record number of fans watching on TV.

On Wednesday night, her buddy and former teammate Heather Mitts is helping make even more Carli Lloyds.

Gold medalist Mitts has settled in Philadelphia since her soccer days, with husband and former Eagle A.J. Feeley, and their 1-year-old son, Connor ("It's home now," she said of her adopted city). Mitts, who is also a sideline reporter and team ambassador for the Philadelphia Union, will host Soccer Superstar, a new reality miniseries premiering 9 p.m. Wednesday on Nicktoons.

The four-night event, from Kris Lythgoe, searches for the next female soccer great. Fifteen teen girls from around the country - culled from tryouts in California and Florida - are judged on their soccer skills by National Soccer Hall of Famer Marcelo Balboa, Olympian Angela Hucles, and youth soccer expert Dan Metcalfe.

"You couldn't ask for a better timing for the show," Mitts said by phone on her way home from working as an analyst for Fox Sports during the World Cup. "My inspiration for being on the national team was seeing the World Cup in 1999. Soccer Superstar will help the sport take off and reach a demographic that will want to play on the national team too."

(Mitts goes right from working the World Cup to hosting her annual soccer camp in Media on Saturday.)

For Mitts, the medium of reality TV has great value, especially for the show's demographic - young girls - who have been raised on it. Her role, as she sees it, is to create a connection with the competitors and the audience.

"I really introduce the audience to what the girls are doing, are thinking," Mitts said. "It's a typical reality show that takes you behind the scenes. You become entrenched in these girls' lives and who they are. You fall in love with them as people."

Mitts experienced that firsthand. Toward the end of shooting, she was hanging out in the house with the girls watching a national team game. She asked whom they were focusing on. Lloyd, they said.

"She's one of my best friends," Mitts told them. In these girls, she saw the team camaraderie she had had with Lloyd. It was gut-wrenching to see competitors get eliminated, especially after they'd taken her tips to heart and incorporated them into their game.

The young women show off their skills in drills and organized games. The winner received a trophy and the title of Soccer Superstar.

While that may seem like a lot, the goal of the show is more important than hardware. It's girls, not boys, who are up on screen competing for that title.

"When I was growing up, I never had female role models. I always looked up to men. Those were the posters on my wall," Mitts said. "But now they have role models on the national team that are women they can look up to."

TELEVISION

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Soccer Superstar

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@mollyeichel