Having lead the Bears to four consecutive national titles, 2001 NCAA Division III Player of the Year Tasha Rodgers is ready to move on.
By Anthony Wilson
May 18, 2001
While many other gradu- ates sit in comfort knowing that a job or graduate school awaits them in the near future, Tasha Rodgers knows not what is to become of her in the next few years.
That, however, doesn't seem to bother her too much.
Having lead the Bears to four consecutive national titles, 2001 NCAA Division III Player of the Year Tasha Rodgers is ready to move on. |
It seems as if this should be the time that Rodgers would start scrambling --looking for a job in the "real world" or planning out a path to law school, her intended goal. But she isn't doing any of those things. She merely waits, patiently, with a quiet confidence that has permeated her since long before her arrival at the University.
Don't get her wrong, though. Rodgers is not lazy, shiftless or bored. She's ready for the next step in what could become a burgeoning career --in basketball.
Rodgers, one of the best Division III women's basketball players to have ever graced the hardwood, is looking for her shot. The 2001 NCAA Division III Player of the Year in women's basketball, Rodgers waits as her agent works diligently to try to find her a free agent signing for a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team.
"That's what my agent is for," Rodgers said. "I let him worry and fret, and then he comes to me with the results. I'm too young to be getting stressed about 'my future.'"
Even if no WNBA teams come beckoning (and it's possible they won't --she was passed over in the league's recent draft), Rodgers still anticipates a career in basketball. She plans on extending her playing days by heading overseas to Europe, where she will continue her dynamic and electrifying style of play that helped spark the Bears to four consecutive national titles.
"Tasha has helped take the program to another level," said head women's basketball coach Nancy Fahey. "She was an outstanding contributor all four years and really rose to the occasion as a team leader in her senior season."
Despite the possibility of playing so far away, Rodgers still seems undaunted. No stranger to being away from home, she spent her last three years of high school at the Illinois Math & Science Academy one hour west of Chicago, and five hours away from her family's house in East St. Louis. Her extended stay away from home --she was only able to come home for a few months each year --fueled her decision to come "home" for school. She entertained offers from Emory, Illinois Wesleyan and other universities, but decided the 20-minute drive from her doorstep to Washington University was perfect for her. She has lived with her family, a tight-knit group, for all four years at WU.
But Rodgers is ready to move on.
"There are so many things I haven't been able to do because I've stayed at home," Rodgers said. "I don't regret it at all, but now it's time for me to expand. I want to travel, especially."
With all the pressure many graduates feel, Rodgers seems impervious to it all. She hopes to continue playing basketball for another "five or six more years, or however long I feel like it," and then move on to law school. The 5-foot-10 basketball star seems as comfortable with not knowing her future as she was on the court.
"There are so many things I would eventually like to do," she said. "I'd like to go to law school, I'd let to get an MBA. But I'm only 21. I don't need to know all these things just yet. I've got time. I'm too young to stress myself out."
Part of her confidence stems from the superior education she has received at the University. She said she has especially enjoyed her marketing classes in her four years here. And while insisting that she had no one favorite class, she knows that she is set for life.
"I love Washington University," she said. "I'm happy to be graduating and moving on. I know I have a great background behind me because of this University."
No matter what happens to Rodgers in the next few years, she's sure of one thing.
"No matter what happens," she said, "I'll still be successful."
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