Middleton sprinter De'ja Rodgers signed her letter of intent to run track at Murray State, Thursday, overcoming a high school career fraught with obstacles.
The Summer of 2013 was a summer that 100m and 200m specialist De'ja Rodgers would like to forget.
It's also one that is indelibly seared into Rodgers' psyche. It started way back in February of that year. Rodgers was just horse-playing around her house when she injured her right hip. It was a minor injury, one that she trained through her junior year at Middleton. Rodgers was the Class 2A District 9 champion and she ran the fastest qualifying time in the 100m prelims at regionals. Then it happened.
"I felt it (the hip) in the 4x100m," Rodgers said. "By the time I got to the 100m final, I couldn't even move my leg."
Rodgers started the race and promptly dislocated her hip. Somehow she finished the race but failed to qualify for states, leaving her just one last season of high school track to make her mark. Rodgers wanted it bad. She'd competed as a sophomore and freshman at Manatee High where she looked up to Alexis Love. Love went on to Murray State where she was the 2012 Ohio Valley Conference Female Track Athlete of the Year. Rodgers always had her eyes on Love's career and on Murray State in Kentucky. With just her senior season left, no offers, and an ailing hip, things looked pretty bleak for Rodgers. Then things got even worse.
On June 8, Rodgers got a phone call that her father, Craig, had been shot and killed. It proceeded to turn Rodgers' life upside down. Rodgers remembers the whirlpool of emotions devouring her at the time. Then, six days later, at the funeral, Rodgers had a moment of clarity. While clutching her father's cold hand, she heard a voice say, "do you want it". In that moment, Rodgers world flipped another 180 degrees. Three days later, Rodgers was back training again.
"I remember, even early in football season, De'ja would be out there training," Middleton track coach Derrick Rackard said. "I'd be trying to coach the running backs and I'd tell her to go and do some exercises and she'd just go do it. None of the other girls were out there working like that."
Rodgers' focus had narrowed to pin-point precision. Making states, going to college all took back seats to cutting her times. And so she endured the grueling summer and an only slightly less grueling fall.
"I was going to do whatever it took to get to states and to get on that podium," Rodgers said.
By the time track season rolled around, Rodgers was taking no prisoners. She claimed second place in the 100m and 200m in the season-opening Charles Johnson meet at King High School. Then she really turned it up, winning county champ in the 100m and runner-up n the 200m. Rodgers then won district titles in both events. By the time regionals rolled around in April, Rodgers was peaking. She set down times in the 100m and 200m that now hang in the gym at Middleton. Rodgers was regional champion in the 100m, running an 11.94. She was runner up in the 200m in 24.85. Both times are now school records at Middleton. Rodgers was going to states, finally. Furthermore, she'd drawn interest from some schools, most notably, Murray State.
Rodgers finally competed on the grand stage at the University of North Florida in early May. Her times were a little off from her regional marks, a 12.32 in the 100m and a 25.48 in the 200m. However, they nabbed her fifth in the 100m and seventh in the 200m and they put Rodgers atop a podium that seemed oceans away just one year ago.
"I thought, 'I did it', I put my mind to it and I did it," Rodgers said.
Next, the call from Murray State came in. Rodgers had not only been accepted, she'd be receiving a full scholarship for track.
The desk laid out with Rodgers' many medals and other track awards told the story of her high school career as she sat among friends, family and teammates for her signing ceremony at Middleton. Rodgers' mother told a story about how De'ja got her name, about how she dreamt of the child she wanted and De'ja was the exact vision she had. She named her De'ja for Deja Vu, the phenomena. De'ja Rodgers has become a bit of a phenomena herself, certainly among her peers and classmates. Rodgers is the first track athlete to accept a scholarship offer in the last three years under coach Rackard. While Rodgers' high school track career is over, her collegiate career is set to begin. There will undoubtedly be bumps in the road. None should be able to slow down Rodgers. She's cleared plenty already.
More Coverage