LEESBURG, Va. — Trinity Rodman sometimes has to remind herself that she is not dreaming.
Four years ago, she watched U.S. women’s national team stars like Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan win the World Cup in France. Ahead of the 2023 tournament in Australia/New Zealand, Rodman — yes, she is the daughter of NBA champion and Hall of Famer Dennis — finds herself calling Rapinoe and Morgan teammates, feeding them passes from the left wing.
“To be a part of it, to even talk about Trinity Rodman in a World Cup and putting my name with other names, I can’t even wrap my head around it,” Rodman told USA TODAY Sports last month, a few days after her 21st birthday. “But it’s so exciting.”
Rodman is among the youngest of the 23 players U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovksi selected for the World Cup, which begins July 20, providing Rodman an opportunity to show the country — and the world — there is a lot more to her than the last name.
Meet Sophia Smith:She’s the next face of the USWNT. And she knows it.
Being young nothing new for Trinity Rodman
Being one of the youngest is nothing new for Rodman.
The Washington Spirit selected her second overall in the 2021 National Women’s Soccer League draft, making Rodman, then 18, the youngest player ever drafted.
Rodman never even played collegiately; she briefly attended Washington State but the Cougars’ 2020 season was wiped out by the pandemic. And in high school, she played her freshman season at Corona del Mar High in Newport Beach, California, and then transferred about 16 miles away to JSerra Catholic School, but she never stepped foot on the soccer pitch.
With the national team, Rodman has notched 17 caps following her debut at the 2022 Concacaf Championship. In four matches this season (all friendlies), she is tied with Rose Lavelle — who filled the role of precocious youngster on the 2019 World Cup squad — with three assists.
Being around the USWNT, even someone 14 years her senior in Rapinoe, doesn’t make Rodman feel younger.
“When you’re playing soccer, when you’re all there for the same reasons, it’s hard to even see age,” Rodman said. “You’re all working just as hard and you’re all playing at the same level.”
Rodman credits the veterans for creating a supportive atmosphere and put herself in position to make the team, especially after the injury of Mallory Swanson, and to potentially crack the starting 11.
She doesn’t necessarily see it that way, yet.
“I think everybody on the outside is like, ‘Trin’s definitely going to make it.’ But in my head I don’t see a secure spot at all,” Rodman said prior to the June 21 announcement she made the World Cup roster. “I am still working my butt off to make it there. And once I get there, it’s filling whatever role. I don’t expect to play if I get there, that’s my mindset.”
Record contract, rocky start and ‘ignoring pressure’
Rodman isn’t afraid of calling the start of her NWSL career “rocky.”
Washington Spirit coach Mark Parsons is the fourth person to hold the job in Rodman’s three seasons with the team.
“I mean, that alone says a lot,” Rodman said.
The Spirit were one of several NWSL clubs investigated by the league for workplace toxicity, with Washington being referred to as an “old boys club.” There was an ownership power struggle that ended with Michele Yang assuming control of the team.
“I’ve learned so much. I’ve gone through a lot. Our team’s gone through a lot. Right now, I’d say we’re thriving,” said Rodman, who was complimentary of Parsons and his approach to developing everyone, from the best player to the last one on the bench.
“As a young player, she had a lot of responsibility and faced a lot of adversity with the club and in the league, along with all the players,” Spirit assistant coach Angela Salem told USA TODAY Sports. “She had to grow up a lot quicker than most and was exposed to some negative things and challenges early on in her career. What’s been incredible is she’s been able to persevere through and bounce back and still represent this league and this club and the national team at the highest level.”
Rodman made history two months after the Spirit selected her by signing the first million-dollar contract in league history.
The hard part for Rodman was trying to balance how others would feel about her being the first player to reach that threshold instead of legends like Rapinoe, Morgan or Crystal Dunn.
“I’m not trying to say I shouldn’t have got it, because I did work very hard,” she said. “But it was hard for me to work through the fact that all these players who had put their blood, sweat and tears in for 10-plus years, who had been to World Cup and the Olympics, didn’t get it. It was so hard for me to understand. I truly was just like, ‘What? Me? It took that long?’”
Almost immediately, she showed why she was worth the paycheck, scoring off the bench in her first game and recording an assist in the next.
“Being that it went so well so early, it was also very hard, because you had the pressure of, ‘Oh, she proved that she can keep up. Now she has to keep up,’” Rodman said.
More attention — “Trinity Rodman Is Dicing Up All These People at 18,” as she put it — was paid to her. Hard times followed and she questioned herself throughout that rookie season.
“You start to rethink,” Rodman said, “and you’re like, ‘OK, maybe I don’t have it.’”
Eventually, Rodman realized the pressure she felt amounted to saying “don’t fail.” She shook herself out of the funk.
“This is going to sound weird,” she begins, “but I’ve noticed that the best thing about pressure is just ignoring it.”
The Rodman family: ‘There’s so many headlines’
The tattoo of two tulips sprouting from the ground on her right wrist is Rodman’s favorite.
For one, it is the favorite flower of her mother, Michelle Moyer, who raised Rodman and her older brother, Dennis Jr. (“DJ”). The siblings are extremely close, Rodman said, mostly thanks to their mother’s lessons that friends and teammates come and go, but family is forever.
“You don’t damage that,” Rodman said. “You don’t get in stupid fights and not make up.”
Loyalty is arguably Rodman’s most admirable trait off the field, Salem said, adding, “She’s really easy to talk to.”
DJ Rodman, a year older than his sister, will play alongside Bronny James on the Southern California Trojans men’s basketball team this fall after transferring from Washington State.
“LeBron James’ son and Dennis Rodman’s son on the same court is going to be insane,” said Trinity Rodman, who said she has tried to help DJ with his confidence.
“The amount of time he spends watching film, the amount of time he spends watching my dad from years and years ago — it wasn’t even the same type of basketball. But being from a dad who rebounded to being a player who can rebound, who can take charges, who can hit threes, who can drive to the basket — he is trying to be the best,” Rodman said of her brother. “I think a lot of schools really wanted him. For him to finally get the recognition was cool. To see how excited he was, was the best feeling as a sister, and it paid off.”
In November 2021, after Dennis Rodman attended a Spirit postseason game, Trinity published an emotional Instagram post of her embracing the five-time NBA champion.
“My dad doesn’t play a big role in my life at all and most people don’t know that, we don’t see eye to eye on many things,” she wrote. “I go months if not years without his presence or communication.”
Moyer kept her and DJ out of the public eye in their childhoods, but now that era of their lives is over. The attention can be overwhelming at times, Rodman admits.
“There’s so many headlines. People say so much. But at the end of the day, I’m here to play soccer. And I want to be the best I can,” Rodman said. “And if other people are saying that, that’s great, and I’m hoping that the headlines are always (positive) and not something else.”
Taking pride for loving the game
Playing for her youth club team, the Southern California Blues, at national tournaments and scoring goals with college scouts in the crowd, Rodman — roughly 14 years old at the time — had a feeling soccer was her future.
Luckily for her, she loves the game.
“Always being in a mental space off the field to enjoy on the field,” Rodman said of maintaining that love. “Because if you’re not good off the field — if it’s family, if it’s finances, if it’s friends, if it’s anything — you’re not going to like being on the field every day. You’re not going to play your best every time you’re on the field.
“I’ll never get on the field and dislike it. I’ll never allow myself to get to that point.”
In February, Andonovksi said he would like to see Rodman develop a “ruthlessness” on the attack and generate multiple scoring chances per game.
“We’ll use those moments as learning opportunities so we can show Trin how she can be even better,” he said at the time.
With the Spirit, Rodman plays in the center forward spot. For the USWNT, she’s expected to play on the left wing, where she’ll be mostly creating scoring opportunities rather than finish them.
Andonovksi still wants to see Rodman’s NWSL level of play translate to the international game.
“She can change the game in a split second,” he told USA TODAY Sports, “and that’s very welcome in our environment.”
Rodman said she has taught herself how to have the openness and vulnerability to be coached, but the discipline and self-esteem to know that everything a coach says doesn’t define her.
“Because if I didn’t make that team, I would look at myself and be like, ‘I’m not enough. I didn’t do enough,’” Rodman said. “I think now, I’ve gotten to a place where I’m doing everything I can.”
That includes making the World Cup roster and playing whatever role she can to help the U.S. to a third straight title. Winning a NWSL championship tops her 2023 to-do list, however.
“Our team, we’ve grown into something I thought we never could be with the stuff that we went through,” Rodman said. “You can tell there is something special.
“I don’t know, I just really want that championship this year.”
And with all of that to accomplish in the coming months, what drives Trinity Rodman to stay focused and succeed?
The answer is quite simple.
“Myself.”
Contributing: Nancy Armour
Follow Chris Bumbaca on Twitter @BOOMbaca.
