A Standout's Year Apart

Ireton Athlete Tries for Scholarship While Military Duty Scatters His Family

Andrew Rodriguez's life pretty much fits in a brown Honda Accord that's older than he is. His football cleats, track spikes and other gear are in a duffel bag on the back seat. His Bishop Ireton school uniform -- khakis and a polo shirt -- are strewn on the front seat and the floor. There are Gatorade bottles and about a dozen wire clothes hangers in the trunk, along with a black backpack he uses "as a suitcase."

Rodriguez, a three-sport standout with hopes of landing a football scholarship in the coming months, has everything he needs in the 1990 sedan. A typical weekday includes commutes from school to practice, then to his aunt and uncle's house in Alexandria, then out again for more workouts. Weekends, he's usually at his mom's condominium in Alexandria.

His laptop is especially handy so he can e-mail his father, Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez, commander of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division stationed in Afghanistan. Andrew's mom, Ginny, has relocated to Fort Bragg, N.C., where she volunteers in support of the 82nd during the week, then drives five hours to spend the weekend with the youngest of her four children.

"I know a lot of other military families struggle" with the decision to move the kids or separate the families, Ginny Rodriguez said by phone from Fort Bragg. "I just felt like it was a little difficult to ask Andrew to come down here for my benefit. Andrew doesn't have a normal situation. He wanted to be with his friends. He wanted to be captain of the football team. He knew if he came here, he'd have to start over again.

"He's just a kid that is trying to make everybody's life work. He knows it's very hard for us."

For most teenagers, this set of circumstances -- which also includes having an older sister in the Army and currently in Iraq -- might be extremely challenging. Rodriguez, though, simply shrugs his broad shoulders.

"It's definitely different," said Rodriguez, who will turn 17 next month. "It's great when I get to see my mom and I love when she comes up. It's a really great thing my mom is doing, making a sacrifice for me because she thinks this puts me in a better situation to succeed."

The Rodriguez family has lived on military bases throughout the world and there have been times when David Rodriguez was separated from the family. Andrew was only 10 months old when his father first went to Iraq as part of Operation Desert Storm in 1991. His father went back to Iraq with the 4th Infantry Division in 2003 and returned two years later in charge of the Multinational Forces Northwest in Mosul, returning to Washington in March 2006 before being assigned to the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg one month later.

"As one can imagine, it's a challenge to move and change schools, teams and systems when you are a high school student, but all the children are adaptable and overcame the challenges very well," David Rodriguez wrote in an e-mail interview.

Andrew Rodriguez e-mails his father almost daily and the two speak roughly once a week. He said he is more worried about his sister, a West Point graduate who was sent to Iraq in January. Her name has been withheld at the family's request.

The fact that his father and sister are stationed overseas is not something Rodriguez likes to share with his classmates.

"I don't talk to them that much about it," he said. "A lot of people look at you differently when you say, 'My dad is in Afghanistan' or 'My sister is in Iraq.' I don't like to bring it up that much. Some of my teachers know, but not all of them."