COLUMBUS — Soccer is a sport on the rise in the Golden Triangle, with successful local and travel leagues firmly established and a growing popularity at the high school level.
Starkville High School alone saw nine players sign to play college soccer last season, but all ended up at the junior-college level.
While the sport’s increasing local popularity is clear, so far the area hasn’t produced any Division I athletes. That was, until SHS and Heritage Academy alum Meg Rodgers committed last spring to Samford, taking the Golden Triangle with her to the SoCon.
“You don’t really hear much about soccer in the Golden Triangle, so it’s really cool when I get to talk about it,” Rodgers said. “It’s fun to say I’m from Columbus and I played in Starkville. … When I look at my locker and it says, ‘Meg Rodgers, Columbus, Mississippi,’ it was crazy to see.”
Samford’s campus in Homewood, Alabama, is roughly two hours away from Columbus and Heritage Academy, where Rodgers moved following her sophomore year with the Yellow Jackets. But for her, it’s a second home, literally and figuratively.
Rodgers was intimately familiar with Birmingham, having played for seven years at Alabama FC, a club team that’s part of the Elite Clubs National League, a national youth developmental league. The past three seasons, she was a team captain with Alabama FC, increasing both her soccer knowledge and skill level to the point where she began garnering the attention of a number of college scouts.
“Immediately, off the bat, it was evident that the talent was there, both athletically and in her knowledge of the game,” Alabama FC head coach Ben Parks said. “… She was always going to be highly sought after. She did enough so that she had the decision of where she wanted to go to school instead of taking the only option that was in front of her.”
Those 2+ hour trips from both Columbus and Starkville, which often dragged into the wee hours of the morning, made the ultimate difference in her getting to the highest level of amateur football in the country.
“What’s amazing is that she did that for as long as she did,” Parks said. “Kids usually don’t start making those drives until U15-U16. To do it from 12 years old and up is pretty amazing. … That level of work is just very difficult to find.”
‘My heart was set on playing D-I soccer’
Rodgers’ love of the game is evidenced by the lengths to which she was willing to go compete at the highest level. It’s a love, however, that began in Starkville, where she first started playing at four years old.
She quickly worked her way up the local youth leagues, eventually landing a spot playing travel soccer, and soon enough, she was pushing for a starting spot on Starkville’s varsity team as a seventh grader at Armstrong Junior High.
“I knew that she had what it took to get to the level she’s at right now,” former Jackets head coach Abby Phillips said. “Her drive, her dedication, was so apparent. She always wanted to be better. She always asked what she didn’t do well and how she could fix it. That was completely different from the players around her. Soccer was her end-all, be-all and she had a love for it.”
Rodgers played four years for the Jackets before moving to Heritage Academy after her sophomore season, finishing with 53 goals and 22 assists, leading the team in scoring in two of those seasons.
Upon her move to Heritage, Rodgers chose to end her preps career, focusing solely on her club team and the nationwide opportunities it was affording her.
“The grind that I had to take to get to where I am, and if I slacked off in school or practice, I wouldn’t be here,” Rodgers said. “I knew that’s something I had to do. … I would travel 2-3 hours a week and I was gone every weekend in the fall, but I knew that was something I had to do. My heart was set on playing D-I soccer and those were the sacrifices I had to make.”
Her college choice, Samford, was, in many ways, the perfect choice, both geographically and competitively. Rodgers, a midfielder/forward, joined a Bulldog program that doesn’t operate like a typical mid-major, scheduling a plethora of Power Five opponents every season, opponents like Alabama and Mississippi State, to name a few.
Samford has also been a mainstay in the NCAA tournament since 2011, winning the Southern Conference tournament 10 times in the last 13 seasons and earning trip after trip to the Big Dance.
“When I went on my official visit as a junior, everyone was pushing each other,” Rodgers said. “It was a homey feeling. Everyone wanted each other to succeed. … I was like ‘If I go here, this is a place that will challenge me. It will definitely make me grow as a player and a person.’ That’s something that really stuck out to me.”
She was redshirted this season with Samford’s usual deep roster of talent ahead of her. But, for Rodgers, it’s all part of the journey that’s taken her from Starkville to Columbus, and now, Birmingham and the sport’s biggest collegiate stage.
“The fact that I get to say what’s going on back home and where I’m from is a huge thing for me,” Rodgers said. “I love saying where I’m from and talking upon that, and I’m beyond proud of it.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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