After a successful high school career, sophomore midfielder Sara Rodgers signed her National Letter of Intent to pursue her goal of playing college soccer for the Idaho Vandals. Rodgers, who visited Moscow before signing, knew that the Vandals were the perfect fit for her.
“The biggest part for me was the girls,” Rodgers said. “Compared to other schools I visited, the girls here seemed like the most loving and less drama-circulated group I met, and they all seemed to care about each other. I think that was something I noticed right away.”
Rodgers, who hails from Snohomish, Washington, was not even sure she wanted to play soccer growing up. With her older sister playing basketball and soccer, she wasn’t sure what sport she wanted to do until she got to high school.
“Growing up, all the way through middle school, I didn’t know what sport I wanted to play,” Rodgers said. “I was pretty solid at both; I had a hard time deciding, and especially with my sister also playing both, I decided that soccer was my sport my freshman year of high school, and I decided I liked it more.”
After she made her decision, Rodgers attended Snohomish High School. The first time head coach Briella Dodge saw Rodgers, she knew she was going to be a great player on the pitch.
“I got to meet her when I was an assistant varsity coach; she automatically had this presence of not being a freshman,” Dodge said. “She walked into our program with the confidence and composure of an upperclassman; our immediate [impression] on Sarah was that she was going to be pretty darn special for our program for the next four years.”
Rodgers starred for the Panthers, playing pretty much every position on the field. For her first two years, she was a lockdown defender for the Panthers before she switched to forward, a transition that paid off for her and the Panthers in her senior season.
Dodge, who was in her first season as varsity head coach, used Rodgers everywhere on the field to try to get the best out of her senior star.
“We could put her anywhere on the field and she was going to be successful,” Dodge said. “The joy as a coach about a player like that is that there’s no bad place for her, but the difficulty for a coach is, shoot, where am I going to put her that’s the most effective?”
Rodger’s versatility and willingness to play all over the field helped her and the Panthers reach state. Rodgers scored a program-record 32 goals in her remarkable senior campaign and added 10 assists.
Rodgers so greatly impacted Snohomish that Dodge and the Panthers talk about her legacy and play to this day.
“She’s still somebody today that we talk about periodically throughout the season,” Dodge said. “Girls who are young and have never even played with Sarah, they know Sarah Rogers. They know the name, her legacy that she left in our program and what it means to be cool like Sarah.”
After her successful high school career, Rodgers headed to Moscow to start her next path. After appearing in seven games as a freshman, she scored her first collegiate goal against Northern Colorado.
After the program’s first-ever Big Sky Championship, the Vandals had some key players leave from key positions, one of which was the holding midfielder.
All-Big Sky midfielder Jayd Sprague, who had two great seasons on the Palouse, transferred to the University of Oregon and left Idaho with a new starting holding midfielder. Rodgers won the starting job in the spring and has impressed ever since.
In her first full year as a starter, Rodgers has started in all 12 games and scored one goal last Sunday against Portland State. Rodgers may not show up on the stat sheet often, but her impact on the Vandals is huge.
Her ability to connect the Vandals’ defense and front line and her composure on and off the ball make the Vandals’ midfield one of the best in the Big Sky.
Rodgers credits her success to the time she spent under Sprague and her teammates, making her feel comfortable in a new role.
“Jayd was a really great person to look at on the field,” Rodgers said. “I worked as hard as I could [so], I could step into that role when needed.”
When Rodgers is not on the field or at school, she enjoys being a college student. Her hobbies include hanging out with her teammates, reading and watching TV and movies.
Rodgers also has one more secret weapon to her success on the field, and it’s quite hairy.
“My hair is a big thing. I always need to have my hair a certain way and if I do badly in that hair, I’ll switch it.”
After Rodgers graduates from college, she wants to continue with soccer.
“I definitely want to stay in the soccer world,” Rodgers said. “I feel like I don’t want to step away from that right away.”
Catch Rodgers and the Vandals next as they head to Cheney, Washington, to face Eastern Washington University on Sunday, Oct. 6 at 1 p.m.