For Leyden’s Rebecca Rodgers, the month of August represents a sizable next step in her curling career.
The 19-year-old earned a selection to the USA Curling Junior High Performance Program, and she’ll head to her first training camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. Aug. 13-18.
“I’m really looking forward to it from the standpoint of pushing myself physically,” Rodgers said of the impending trip to the OTC. “I’ve been working hard all summer, but being at Colorado and the higher elevation, training twice a day, it’ll be a good test to see how well I’ve been pushing myself and it’ll give me a better idea of where I’m at entering the new season.”
Rodgers, who graduated from Pioneer Valley Regional School in 2018, wrapped up her freshman year at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in the spring. The Junior High Performance teams were announced in April, with Rodgers, Susan Dudt (Malvern, Pa.), Sydney Mullaney (Concord) and Delaney Strouse (Midland, Mich.) all making the cut as new additions. The quartet was combined to form one of the two teams in the women’s program.
It was the culmination of a big winter on the sheet for Rodgers. She took bronze for the second year in a row at January’s Junior National Championships in Two Harbors, Minn., and also finished sixth in what was her second appearance in February’s Women’s National Championship in Kalamazoo, Mich.
After wrapping up the winter season, Rodgers began the application process for the Junior HP program, and ultimately made the cut for one of the coveted slots.
“It was really exciting,” she said of earning an invite. “With the selection came assigned workouts, finding out who my new teammates were, planning out the new season. There’s a sports psychologist, and just a lot of new resources available to us going forward.”
The trip to Colorado Springs will mark Rodgers’ first OTC visit. She’ll train with the HP program for the week, getting to know her new teammates while preparing for what will be a busy fall.
“I got lucky because I’ve played with two of the girls on my team and I know the other girl but haven’t played with her before,” she offered. “It’ll be a good team-bonding experience. Hopefully, we’ll get off to a good start with team chemistry and see how we all work together.”
After the camp, Rodgers will head home for about 10 days before moving back into school for her sophomore year in Wisconsin. She won’t have long to acclimate however, as the HP program’s first practice weekend with her teammates in Chaska, Minn., follows right after her opening week of classes. The curling season begins in September, and usually two to three weekends a month will be devoted to traveling for practices and tournaments.
Rodgers said she took a heavier academic course load during the spring semester to prepare for what will be a hectic fall.
“Traveling has always been a part of curling,” she said. “I’ve been doing that since high school but it’s definitely different at the college level. My college professors have always been flexible with me, opening up office hours and making sure I can keep my grades up.”
The travel will take her and her teammates throughout the Midwest, and stops also include tournaments across the border in Manitoba and Ontario.
“We’ll be a little bit all over the place,” she said.
The Junior HP program, which is for athletes under the age of 21, continues a path that Rodgers has been on since taking up the sport following the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. She said getting to curl among the best in the country has only deepened her love for the sport.
“To do what you love doing and at a high level, it makes it even better,” she said.
The ultimate goal is to one day punch a ticket to the Winter Olympics herself. After players age out of the Junior HP program, curlers will apply for selection to the Senior HP program, where players take to the international level and prepare for Olympic cycles.
“I would say the Junior HP program is a step to possibly get onto a men’s or women’s HP team,” said Rodgers, who has already competed in 10 national championship events. “And then from there, to give yourself a chance to maybe one day represent your country at the highest level, that would be as good as it can get.”