TicketsSept. 20, 2011
By Megan Roehm
The women's soccer team is halfway through the 2011 season and according to head coach Michelle Salmon, the young Cincinnati team is full of dedicated and energetic players with true passion for the game.
One of these talented women is sophomore forward Jazmine Rhodes, from Long Beach, Calif. At Long Beach Polytechnic High School, she lettered in soccer and track and field before deciding to focus solely on soccer, which brought her from California all the way to Cincinnati.
"My high school coach said if I wanted to be really great at one sport I needed to choose one and focus on that," Rhodes said. "My heart wasn't in track; I wasn't as good at soccer as I was track but that's where my heart was so I was determined to be good and make it to college."
Though she was at one point committed to Washington State, she changed her mind when Coach Salmon came to her with the confidence and support she needed to continue playing the game.
"I chose Cincinnati because at some point when I was playing soccer I didn't want to play anymore and Michelle came to me and she believed in me as a soccer player and as a person," Rhodes said.
Rhodes was part of a club team that won the Gothia Cup World Youth Soccer Championship held in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2007 and was four-time league champions and three-time regional champions. When she came to Cincinnati last year as a freshman, she saw action in 17 games, started in 13 and was second on the team in points. Coach Salmon describes Rhodes as one of the most energetic, dedicated and caring teammates. She said the team looks at Rhodes as a sister and the ultimate teammate.
"She's supportive, she's caring and when things are getting tough she wants the ball," Salmon said. "She wants to help and that's an ideal teammate in my mind."
Rhodes has in fact helped her team tremendously already this season, as she scored the winning goal in double overtime for two consecutive weeks against DePaul and College of Charleston. She said as an athlete she takes those opportunities without hesitation.
"Its funny because overtime is when I am the most relaxed and most eager to score," she said. "Good athletes live for moments like that so I love that feeling of scoring the winning goal."
Salmon believes moments like this come from the hard work and dedication of a player like Rhodes. She said Rhodes is the type of player that gravitates toward big moments and believes she is experiencing success because of her commitment to being a good teammate, to off-season training and to everything else involved in the sport.
"In a big moment she doesn't shy away or become small and the bigger the moment the bigger Jaz becomes," Salmon said. "In the overtime games Jazmine is stepping up and doing what our expectations of her have been from the onset."
Salmon views Rhodes as someone who is committed to working on her craft and that's why she is continuing to accelerate as a player. As successful as Rhodes is, she continues to come in and watch film not only of herself but also of other players to see how she can take different aspects and make her game better.
"When you have players like Jazmine forcing you to be better as a coach in turn because they want to get better, it is a win-win scenario at that point," Salmon said.
Though she is pleased with the way the season is going and the way she is playing, Rhodes is a self-proclaimed "go-getter" who is always finding something she wants to improve.
"Whatever I can do to make the team better I try to do," she said. "My job is to score so my goal is to score more than I did last year."
As the season goes on, she believes in herself and in her team. She expects that as a new team, they will work hard to improve and will only get stronger.
Salmon also has that confidence in her team, specifically in a player like Rhodes.
"Jaz is one of the premier forwards in the BIG EAST as a sophomore," Salmon said. "She is committed and doing everything right and that's why she is going to be successful not only in her soccer career but in life."