To her, sentiment has its place, but only after a career of tomorrows. Top priority always is reserved for the next game, the next goal, the next corner kick, the next victory.

So it came as no surprise Thursday how she casually dropped the news that she would retire after her current season with the San Jose CyberRays.

"I don't want to make a big deal about it," she admitted, "but I'm ready to move on and start a family and run some soccer clinics."

Hyperbole only wastes time when the topic is Venturini-Hoch, one of Modesto's best-ever athletes. Just read it and soak in the vibe: Venturini-Hoch was a women's soccer pioneer in the USA and, without question, one of the greatest winners the sport has seen.

Her most demanding opponent, of course, was Father Time, a wall of a goalkeeper. Venturini-Hoch, married 1 1/2 years ago, turned 30 in March. The midfielder no longer starts for the CyberRays -- though she did score a goal last month -- and she has ceded many of her old minutes to another veteran, Sissi.

Venturini-Hoch noticed how the injuries healed more slowly in recent years but, more important, she noticed how she changed. The telling sign turned out to be an injured knee, incurred during last year's Women's United Soccer Association All-Star Game.

To her amazement, she actually remained patient while the knee gradually improved. That wasn't the same Venturini-Hoch who played virtually the entire first WUSA season (2001) with a cast protecting her broken left wrist.

"I finally let something heal," she said.

Still, it also told her she was far closer to the end than the beginning. And, after all, what else could she accomplish as a player?

Nothing.

Venturini-Hoch was the first to claim the women's soccer trifecta -- an Olympic Gold medal, a World Cup championship and a WUSA title. Earlier, she merely won four NCAA titles at North Carolina and was named National Player of the Year in 1994.

She also authored perhaps the most jarring numbers ever reported on these pages. We'll just call it The Stat: Between her freshman year at Grace Davis High and her graduation from Carolina, Venturini's teams went 151-1-3.

OK, we'll forgive the loss.

Venturini-Hoch may be best remembered, however, for her role in Team USA's World Cup victory on home soil. This was the Summer of 1999 when the first children of Title IX tugged the nation's heartstrings. A packed house at the Rose Bowl and 40 million on TV watched Brandi Chastain doff her jersey after the decisive penalty kick. At that moment, a new era dawned in women's sports.

Today, they're first-name personalities: Mia (Hamm), Brandi, Julie (Foudy), Michelle (Akers), Kristine (Lilly), Joy (Fawcett) and, yes, Tisha, the core that thrilled a nation and created a league of its own.

Foxboro (Mass.) Stadium, now a parking lot, belonged to Tisha. Inspired by her pair of goals there against North Korea in '99, she did her signature backflip, one of the lasting symbols of that team's flare. And two years later at the same venue, with her CyberRays trailing by one with three minutes left in the first WUSA championship game, Venturini-Hoch delivered the tying goal that eventually spawned a championship.

The goal was typical Tisha. A swarm of players gathered beneath a free kick in front of the net, but somehow, someway -- as it always seemed to do -- the ball found its way to Venturini-Hoch's boot. And, as she'd done for more than two decades, she finished.

In her youth, she was Modesto's own grade-school Annika, the girl who outran and outkicked the boys. So savor the symmetry as she admired Sorenstam's pluck and talent last week on the golf course. Then again, Venturini-Hoch and Company were partly responsible for such activism.

"I'll be purely a spectator, a fan, a face-painter," she said regarding the World Cup's unexpected return to America this fall. As for now, however, she'd rather not be referred to as a "was." Until she takes her last stride for the CyberRays, she's an "is."

Said Venturini-Hoch, "There still might be more story to tell."

Possibly, but may we borrow a Bob Hope line to suit the moment?

Thanks for the memories, Tisha.

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