A Standout's Year Apart
Ireton Athlete Tries for Scholarship While Military Duty Scatters His Family

By Josh Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 24, 2007

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."

Unlike most of his classmates, he reads the front page of the newspaper and watches the news with more than just a passing interest. But he does not have extended periods of contemplation. He simply doesn't have the time. He carries a 4.34 weighted grade-point average and is taking three Advanced Placement classes at Ireton, located in Alexandria. After school, the 6-foot-3, 220-pound junior turns to sports; he is a three-year starter at linebacker and wide receiver for the school's football team and was a key contributor on the basketball team. Spring means track, where his main events are the 200 and 400 meters.

Track also presents some scheduling difficulties for a teenager hoping to earn a college football scholarship. While other members of the football team lift weights after school, Rodriguez usually gets in his lifting on his own. Most nights, after going back to his aunt and uncle's home and eating a quick dinner, Rodriguez heads to the U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center in Alexandria. He flashes his military dependent identification to gain entry to the base and heads to the weight room.

"It's hard work, but I enjoy making gains," Rodriguez said. "I don't enjoy pushing myself like that, but it's worth it when you get stronger and faster."

Rodriguez hopes the work in the weight room will pay off next week, when he will attend an invitation-only combine in New Jersey. So far, college teams have yet to offer him a scholarship. Rodriguez was invited to attend a game at Notre Dame last fall -- against Army, ironically -- but the assistant coach recruiting him was fired after the season.

Tony Verducci, Ireton's interim head coach, has sent Rodriguez's highlight tapes to several other schools, but acknowledged that without seeing Rodriguez in person many colleges are skeptical because the reputation of Ireton's football program is not particularly strong.

Rodriguez, a team captain, said he has a list of about 10 colleges from which he would like to choose. (His older brother, David, plays linebacker at Gettysburg College.) Army, his father's alma mater, is on the list, but Rodriguez said he has not decided whether he would like to pursue a college or career that includes the military, though he is certain that Navy is out of the question.

"My dad wouldn't be angry with me; he would expect me to go to Army if I went into the military," Rodriguez said.

From occasionally going to work with his father to visiting injured soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Rodriguez has received an introduction to military life. Many of the things he learned by observing he tries to carry over into athletics.

"The army is really based on leadership," Rodriguez said. "I got to see on a first-hand basis the type of leadership it takes to be successful. The best lesson my dad taught me about leadership is lead by example: Be the best, work the hardest, do everything and inspire others to follow you."