From fields to arenas, Rogers is cash crop
Vital Stats:
Name: Tess Lynn Rogers
Year: Junior
Position: Outside hitter
Major: History
Picture the pastoral ideal: rolling hills, sagebrush and wheat
fields as far as the eye can see. Now envision the volleyball court
at Moby Arena: loud and intense, the epitome of complexity in
action. These scenes are two worlds apart, but junior outside
hitter Tess Rogers is proof that they can collide.
Rogers grew up in Merino, a small rural town near Sterling with
a population of 246. She attended Division 1-A Merino Junior-Senior
High School and graduated with a class of 18 students (including
three foreign exchange students).
While on the high school volleyball team, she shattered kill
records and blocking records left and right and also competed in
basketball and track.
She has continued to harvest volleyball records in her tenure at
CSU, starting with 20 kills in her first collegiate match. Swinging
her way through her freshman season, she racked up single-season
freshman kill records at CSU and in the Mountain West Conference in
2002.
Last year, Rogers hogtied a single-season record for kills in
the MWC Championship with 61 and was selected as the tournament
MVP. In 2003, she was also a MWC All-Conference Selection. She
surpassed her 100th career block and 800th career kill last year,
and she has already gained 200 digs this season.
It appears that Rogers is at home and running rampant across the
MWC range, despite having foot surgery this summer. And she’s only
a junior.
The transition from wide open spaces to rush hour on College
Avenue is a marked one, but Rogers has acclimated well. When she is
not in class or at practice, Rogers enjoys the rare occurrence of
relaxing in her bed.
As far as pet peeves go, the quickest way to illicit a negative
reaction from Rogers is to be “one of those responsible people” who
bring up forgotten assignments due in class. That’s almost as bad
as mentioning extra conditioning promised by head coach Tom Hilbert
as the team walks out of the gym after practice.
On the entertainment front, Rogers enjoys listening to Newfound
Glory, Maroon 5 and John Mayer. However, she resorts to her country
roots with her favorite song of all time, “I Can Love You Like
That” by John Michael Montgomery, not to be confused with the
version by All 4 One.
When it comes to culinary preferences, Rogers is on a Johnny
Carinos kick lately, but she likes to switch it up all the time.
She can always chow down on chili con queso, her standby food of
choice.
Rogers exhibits a flair for comedy with her top movie choice,
“Tommy Boy.” She favors photography by Ansel Adams over classical
artwork, but she likes some Picasso because of his unique
style.
This flair for distinctive art has translated into an
interesting potential tattoo design she has been planning for
awhile.
“I want to get an outline of a sun with a volleyball in the
middle because I’m convinced that when I am old I am going to
forget the one thing that I was really good at, that I could do
right and that no one could interfere with,” Rogers said.
Speaking of the future, this self-described “aggressive,
competitive and powerful” player plans to spend a few years
continuing her volleyball career at the professional level in
Europe. After this, Rogers wants to reconnect with her past by
teaching and coaching in a small, rural town.
Maybe in the future, as a volleyball coach, Rogers will find
another
needle in some haystack that knocks dust off old record books
and pounds volleyballs down, rattling loose boards in small wooden
gyms.
Maybe she will find someone to chase her records and follow in
her footsteps at Moby Arena. For now, Rogers is busy disturbing
tranquility as the Rams continue stampeding across their MWC
adversaries.
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