Trinity Rodman has said she doesn’t want to be defined only by her famous father after she was selected second overall by the Washington Spirit in the NWSL draft.
The U.S. youth international is the daughter of former NBA champion Dennis Rodman, but she is determined to move out of his shadow as she begins a career of her own in professional sports.
“[Being a professional] has been my dream forever so this is unreal to me,” Rodman said after she was selected. “The one thing I’m most excited for is just to learn from this. [At] the professional level you’re going to learn more than you’re going to do well, really, but I’m excited to learn.
“With my dad I’m just so thankful, obviously he was an amazing athlete and I got those genes from him but I’m excited to be known as Trinity Rodman and not just Dennis Rodman’s daughter, so I’m excited to pave my own path and get better throughout this journey.”
Rodman was set to attend Washington State and play the fall season, but the coronavirus pandemic meant the season was moved to the spring.
Rather than wait for the spring, the U.S. youth international attacker decided to get a head start on her pro career and declare for the draft before playing a single minute in college.
“Washington State is an awesome school, awesome staff, awesome people. I fell in love as soon as I got there, but I think as Covid hit in the environment, I was just kind of feeling stuck in a way,” Rodman explained.
“Obviously professional is a higher level [than college] and I know I’m at a point right now where I could be at that level to get even better than I would be in college, so I was just kind of like, ‘let’s just go, I want to get better. Let’s go.'”
With the first pick in Wednesday night’s draft, expansion franchise Racing Louisville picked Emily Fox out of the University of North Carolina. Fox’s college teammate Brianna Pinto rounded out the top three when Sky Blue FC selected her.