By Sarah Moomaw, News Staff

The women’s soccer team opens its season Sunday night at Parsons Field, but the year already looks to be a memorable one.

Northeastern University athletics announced Thursday that 2012 women’s soccer Olympic gold medalist Heather O’Reilly will join the staff as a volunteer assistant.

“I’m excited to join the staff this year,” she said after practice Friday. “I think the girls are a great group. I’ve had a lot of fun with them so far and I’m just kind of looking to help where I can.”

Head coach Tracey Leone said she believes O’Reilly is a great player for the Huskies to look up to.

“She’s an incredible role model for our players to be around,” Leone said. “She’s worn a lot of different hats on [the US Women’s National Team] and has handled her role so professionally … She brings a wealth of experience playing at such a high level for the National Team, professionally, [having been] coached by all different coaches and she can bring some really new ideas to our staff and team.”

O’Reilly said she reached out to Leone when she first moved to Cambridge after signing with the Boston Breakers of the Women’s Premier Soccer League Elite earlier this year. Leone said she thought she’d be a perfect fit for the team and a good chance for O’Reilly to test the waters of coaching.

“She’ll come whenever she can throughout the fall until the [US Women’s National Team] Victory Tour is done, but afterwards, she’s looking to get more involved and come more on a daily basis and see if coaching is something she’s interested in getting into on a more permanent basis,” Leone said.

Her appointment came 10 days after picking up the assist on fellow Olympian Alex Morgan’s overtime goal against Canada in the semifinals, sending the US to defend their 2004 and 2008 gold medals from Japan. O’Reilly became a three time gold medalist (‘04 and ‘08) with the United States 2-1 win and said she is ready to share her knowledge on what it takes to get there.

“I hope to be able to share with [the team] what helped me get to the highest level. I think through the years, I’ve been able to do a good job controlling what I can and that’s my work ethic every single day, a positive attitude every single day, a willingness to learn and a competitive fire that I’m able to bring day in and day out,” she said. “It’s contagious.”

Junior midfielder and captain Hillary Savoy echoed Leone’s notion that O’Reilly will be a great role model and resource.

“It’s so exciting to see a player who’s won multiple golds and just to learn from her experiences,” Savoy said. “She talks about them and how to adjust and adapt in certain situations. I can see [us] learning a lot from her being here.”

The excitement goes both ways as O’Reilly is as equally excited to become a Husky this fall.

“I’ve known Tracey [Leone] for about 10 years and I look up to her a lot,” she said. “I think that she’s a great mentor for me and I think that learning from one of the best coaches out there, I consider myself very lucky.”

The duo first met up on the field in 2002 while Leone was coaching the National U-19 team, on which O’Reilly played. That year they won the FIFA U-19 Women’s World Championship. Her list of accomplishments also includes a decorated collegiate career, playing for the University of North Carolina.

O’Reilly is a two time NCAA champion as a Tar Heel, with titles in 2003 and 2006 that bookended her college career. She also helped lead them to four consecutive ACC Championships while in Chapel Hill.

She finished her senior season (2006) with numerous awards including the NCAA Honda-Broderick award, the 2006 Soccer America Women’s Player of the Year and the ESPN the Magazine All-Academic Player of the Year.

A year later, she was selected – as the second youngest player to date – to the 2007 FIFA World Cup squad.

In 2009, she took her soccer skills to the professional circuit and began playing for Sky Blue FC. In her first season with the Boston Breakers, she’ll rub elbows with recent Northeastern graduate and all-time leading scorer Veronica Napoli.

But on Friday, she joined her newest team for practice at Parsons Field, with a piece of London in tow.

“To see it in person, it was unbelievable,” Savoy said. “I never thought I’d be able to see the gold medal.”