BYU women’s soccer coach Jennifer Rockwood on why BYU is a winner

Trailing the University of North Carolina 3-0, BYU women’s soccer coach Jennifer Rockwood remembers feeling “frustrated” and “quite mad” during halftime of the NCAA tournament quarterfinals on Nov. 24, 2023.

Before addressing the team, the coach worked hard to mask her internal feelings. She knew from experience the team wouldn’t react well to anything negative, yet getting back from such a deficit against the Tar Heels seemed improbable. Was this really how Brigham Young University’s memorable season was destined to finish?

But there was hope. Many of the ladies had played in big games before, including the national championship two years earlier.

Standing before her team, Rockwood calmly wrote “79” on the board.

“That’s what number of goals you might have scored this 12 months,” the coach said. “You’re the leading goal-scoring team within the country. You’ve averaged over three goals a game in every game you played in. You know how you can rating. … So go do your thing. Just rating one goal at a time, the momentum will shift.”

Following more words of encouragement, the Cougars returned to the sphere with a surge of confidence and pulled off a legendary 4-3 victory that is not going to soon be forgotten.

“The girls just said: ‘Let’s go do that. We’re not going out like this,’” Rockwood said. “We saw all of it occur and unfold in 45 minutes of play — something that rarely happens in a women’s soccer game.”

Rockwood told the story as she reflected in an interview with the Church News on the success of the BYU women’s soccer season.

The Cougars, which featured 10 returned Latter-day Saint missionaries, finished the 2023 season with an overall record of 20-3-3 and went undefeated in Big 12 Conference play (7-0-3) of their first 12 months within the conference. The season ended with a 2-0 loss to Stanford University within the semifinals of the NCAA women’s soccer tournament in Cary, North Carolina, on Dec. 1.

Following the season, five BYU women’s soccer players were chosen within the National Women’s Soccer League draft, essentially the most BYU soccer players drafted in a single season.

“What a remarkable 12 months for us,” Rockwood said. “[We] had an excellent special team, an incredible group of young women who got here together, played big, were seen far and wide, and represented themselves and every thing there may be for us to represent on the very, very highest level.”

Honor Code advantage

As a non-public university sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, BYU students comply with live by an Honor Code that reflects Church standards, including regular participation in Church services, avoiding profane and vulgar language, living a chaste and virtuous life, grooming and dress standards, and abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tea, drugs and other substances.

Rockwood sees the Honor Code as a bonus for BYU women’s soccer.

“When I’m going out and recruit, I’m recruiting girls who know exactly what the Honor Code is, they usually wish to be at BYU — not necessarily due to soccer program — but due to every thing that BYU is, since it’s unique, since it’s different,” the coach said. “Most of my girls have dreamed to come back play at BYU for the reason that time they began playing. … The Honor Code is incredible because that’s why the women come. They wish to be an element of BYU, the atmosphere and the environment, and every thing that gives that they will’t find at other schools.”

Missionary impact

Along with the leadership and experience of 11 seniors, the BYU women’s soccer team that reached the Final Four this last season featured 10 returned missionaries.

Rockwood said that while developing an elite team with players leaving and getting back from missions can at times be “tricky” — more like a “juggling act” — it is usually a “blessing.”

“It definitely has been a blessing. … The maturity level is amazing,” she said. “It has been an important example. … These girls have worked their whole life to get to this spot. To surrender a scholarship, surrender a spot, surrender every thing they’ve worked for, to go and serve the Lord and bless the lives of the those that they’ll are available in contact with, knowing that they may come back to much more uncertainty than once they were freshmen. That has taught me rather a lot about faith and trust, and all I feel as a team we’ve learned together due to that.”

Sunday play and missionary moments

In 2021, the Cougars used penalty kicks to beat defending national champion Santa Clara University within the NCAA semifinals.

As a result of BYU going to the finals, the NCAA rescheduled the national championship game from Sunday, Dec. 5, to Monday, Dec. 6, to respect BYU’s request to avoid Sunday play.

That Sunday, as an alternative of specializing in soccer, Cougar players and coaches attended church meetings at a neighborhood Latter-day Saint meetinghouse. A photograph was shared on social media.

“The Sabbath is a delight,” BYU women’s soccer wrote on X, formerly often called Twitter.

BYU ended up losing to No. 1-ranked Florida State University on penalty kicks, 4-3, but the general experience was a classic missionary moment for the ladies’s soccer team.

“That was a special moment,” Rockwood said. “The NCAA had to alter their championship date. That’s been my goal since I first began coaching back in 1995, to try to make the NCAA change the national championship from Sunday to Monday. Why? Because BYU doesn’t compete or practice on Sundays. … That was an enormous moment for us.”

Missionary opportunities come wherever the players go, including the people they meet at airports, hotels, on the bus and even opposing players, coaches and fans. Earlier this season, after BYU defeated a Big 12 opponent in a road game, the opposing team’s best player and oldsters approached Rockwood because they’re fans of this system and appreciate the Cougars’ variety of play.

Multiple bus drivers stay involved with the BYU women’s soccer team because they’re so impressed with the players, the coach said. The team even received a Christmas card from one driver in California who often requests to drive the Cougars around.

“The girls make an impression, whether it’s planting a seed or possibly opening a door,” Rockwood said. “Because now we have so many missionaries, I guarantee you most of them have had a conversation. They are very comfortable sharing their testimonies and sharing what we’re, who we’re, what we stand for, where we wish to go and why we’re doing what we do. That’s special, and it happens very often.”

Developing professionals

Following their successful season, the BYU women’s soccer team had five players chosen within the National Women’s Soccer League draft on Jan. 12:

• Round 1 — Brecken Mozingo, pick No. 4 overall, Utah Royals.
• Round 2 — Olivia Smith-Griffitts, pick No. 20, Utah Royals.
• Round 2 — Olivia Wade-Katoa, No. 23, Portland Thorns FC.
• Round 3 — Jamie Shepherd, No. 30, Bay FC.
• Round 4 — Laveni Vaka, No. 55, Bay FC.

The five join 4 former Cougars already playing skilled women’s soccer:

Rockwood has known most of them since they were 12 or 13 years old and watched them grow, struggle, develop and work to play at the best levels of girls’s soccer. She is pleased with their achievements and needs to see others follow of their footsteps.

“People are quite aware of our program, our university and the individuality of it,” Rockwood said. “Most coaches, they know the standard of our girls. As a coach, that’s the proudest thing you could possibly say. Not only are they good, but they know the character and the standard of our players. It shows on the sphere.”