By Loni Ekins
From player to coach, BYU women”s soccer head coach Jennifer Rockwood is “The Rock” when it comes to BYU women”s soccer.
Rockwood has been involved with BYU women”s soccer in some facet or capacity for the past 17 years. The Lake Oswego, Ore. native was a Cougar player for four years and has been a coach for the past 13 years.
Rockwood was a four-sport athlete in high school. She played basketball, softball, soccer and track. She is the oldest of five children and the only female child in the family. Her four younger brothers were also highly involved with athletics. All four attended and graduated from BYU, as did big sister.
“We are a really close family,” Rockwood said. “I figure I have had a brother here in Provo with me for the past 15 years since they all graduated from here.”
Two of her brothers served as the public-address announcer for the women”s soccer games, but now that they are graduated, her older sister fills the void.
“It”s just not the same without them here,” Rockwood said.
Following high school graduation, Rockwood accepted a basketball scholarship to Ricks College in Rexburg, Id. in 1985. She said although she was playing basketball, her second love, she still really missed the soccer field.
She only attended Ricks (now BYU-Idaho) for one year. She made the move to Provo, where she played on the BYU women”s soccer team when it was only a club group.
During her senior year at BYU, Rockwood began what would be her very successful coaching career at the youthful age of 21.
Rockwood coached girls” high school soccer at Waterford High School, a private school in Provo. The school was moved to Sandy, renamed Meridian High School, and made a public institution. Rockwood took the head coaching position for both the girls and boys soccer teams.
“I think that year of coaching high school when I was a senior gave me confidence and experience even though I was coaching on the college level when I was only 22,” Rockwood said.
Rockwood graduated from BYU as a business finance major in 1989, but the road she was on took a slight turn when she was offered the head coaching position of the women”s club team.
“It was definitely a surprise,” Rockwood said. “I was coaching girls I had just finished playing with.”
Rockwood coached the women”s club soccer team for six straight years compiling a winning record of 128-25-9. While the club coach at BYU part time, Rockwood sought income from teaching as well. She taught algebra and world history at Meridian High School where she was also the middle school supervisor.
“I really liked working with kids,” Rockwood said. “I have done basketball and soccer camps since I was 15 or 16.” Rockwood coached in the Premier Youth Soccer League and in the Olympic Development Program for three years.
In 1995, the BYU women”s soccer team was sanctioned as an NCAA team. Much to the surprise of Rockwood, she was offered the head coaching position yet again.
“We just wanted to get the club program to the level that it could be competitive if it got sanctioned,” Rockwood said. “I didn”t really think I would get the job.”
After BYU was sanctioned Rockwood continued to teach for only two more years. She ended her 10-year teaching career to focus on BYU soccer.
“Any coach knows how emotionally and physically draining coaching is,” Rockwood said. “I am very fortunate to be where I am because my coaching career came about in sort of an unconventional way. I was in the right place at the right time.”
Rockwood said she has found that coaching on the collegiate level is more demanding that she thought it ever could be.
“It is much more difficult than I had anticipated,” Rockwood said. “Unless you are a coach on the college level, I don”t think anyone can understand the time and energy and emotional commitment that comes with coaching. You want your players to succeed in the classroom as well and not just in the sport.”
Rockwood attributes much of her success to the university and to her exceptional coaching staff.
“We are very fortunate to be supported by the university so much,” Rockwood said. “As a head coach I found it very important to surround myself with excellent people to make me better.”
Rockwood cited assistant women”s coach and men”s soccer head coach Chris Watkins as “instrumental” to the success of the women”s team as well as men”s and women”s assistant coach Brian Jolley.
Rockwood”s success has come in the form of several awards and a winning record. The long but distinguished includes 1996 WAC Coach of the Year, 1996 Soccer Buzz West Region Coach of the Year, 2000 Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year, and leading her team to the NCAA “Sweet Sixteen” in 1998 and 2000. In 2001 Rockwood is ranked fifth among the Division I NCAA coaches.
Her current BYU overall record is 112-26-2, which does not include the 2001 team”s 10-6-1 overall record. This year the Cougars are holding the No.1 position in the MWC with a 4-1 record, and have been ranked in the top 20 nationally throughout the season.
Through 17 years of involvement with BYU women”s soccer, Rockwood has seen the evolution of the soccer program and said she is proud to have seen the progression.
“I have obviously seen the program come a long way,” Rockwood said. “It wasn”t that great when I got here, but each year it has improved and over the past 17 years it has grown and developed to what it is today.”
Rockwood enjoys the single life and her home in Springville with her chocolate lab Jessie, and said she is happy being a Cougar.
“I never dreamed or anticipated coaching on the collegiate level but I have been very fortunate. My coaching career has evolved and I am very happy with what I am doing,” Rockwood said. “There is no where else I want to be.”
BYU hosts long time rival University of Utah on Saturday, Nov. 3, at South Field. Kickoff time for the last regular-season game is scheduled for 5 p.m.
