Gavin Rodgers '24 Recruiting Profile

Soccer has always been my favorite sport and it would be a huge honor to play at the collegiate level. Along with soccer, education has been my number one priority. All throughout middle school and high school, I have retained a high honor roll and taking more difficult and challenging classes. As soon as I was eligible to, I was nominated by my teachers to be in the Junior National Honor Society, where I was able to claim the role of being the secretary on the executive board. I am now a member of the Senior National Honor Society for my school. I have many educational goals that I wish to accomplish. I want to keep pushing myself and take classes that will be challenging as well as keeping my role in the National Honor Society. Along with that, i want to keep my grade point average (GPA) to a 95 or higher.  

I have been playing soccer for 10+ years, and I push myself each and every time at practice or during games. Before I was able to play for my school soccer team, I played for Concord FC, a club team out of Fredonia, New York. This club team was run and coached by SUNY Fredonia's mens soccer head coach. With this level of coaching, I was able to learn a lot and develop my skills. At the start of my seventh grade year, I dislocated my shoulder, which put me out of soccer for my modified season. Even with this challenge, I still went to every practice and game, and helped my coach with lineups, drills, and team morale. I was able to create strong relationships with my coaches and teammates. Since my eighth grade year, I have been playing for a club called Southern Tier Storm. I have started every game and we play games in Buffalo, New York and travel out of state for some tournaments. Once I was cleared from my dislocated shoulder, I played soccer as soon as I could. During my eighth and ninth grade years, I was the captain of the school's modified soccer team. Halfway through my ninth grade season, I got moved up to our school's varsity team. I had the opportunity to play and practice with the kids that I looked up to, and I was able to hone in on new skills. Although my team won sectionals, due to COVID-19, there was no regional or state tournament games for New York in 2020. 

This past varsity year, the 2021 - 2022 season, our team made school history, as the first soccer team to make it to the state tournament in Middletown, New York. I started during each and every game of the season at either defensive center mid or right wing. During practices, I would try my best no matter the circumstance, and I would work as hard as I could. For the rest of my career, I plan on working as hard as I can whenever I can, during practice, at home, or in a game. I also plan to keep my academics a priority, as well as soccer. I have proven that I am able to balance academics with soccer, and I believe I can keep that on track at the collegiate level.