by Ashley Bourdier
LSU Sports Information
The sound of dumbbells being put back on the rack resonates in the weight room of the indoor football facility as the sun rises on a hot June morning. Most college students are sound asleep at 6 a.m., but for members of the LSU soccer team, off-season training has just begun.
Such a daily routine was simply part of their summer. These student-athletes trained for 10 months to produce a “relentless” mindset while most of their classmates took time off with their families and friends.
Since the end of the 2006 season last November, they have worked to transform themselves into fitter, faster and stronger soccer players. One member of the team who has emerged from the rest of the pack is sophomore Rachel Yepez.
Yepez’s incredible talent was showcased growing up in her recreational league in Fayetteville, N.C., as she competed in a 13-year-old boy’s league at the tender age of 7.
Her ability to beyond her years gave her the opportunity to compete against the very best players in the Southeast in the Olympic Development Program.
“I’ve always played, but sometimes you don’t always get to play with the best,” Yepez said. “ODP is different because you play with the best of the best. I came in with a bunch of great players; you learn to work hard and better yourself for them.”
Yepez had her pick of top colleges as she quickly developed into one of the premier recruits in the country, being named a Soccer Buzz Top 75 Recruit for the Class of 2006 as a senior at Terry Sanford High School in her hometown.
Head coach Brian Lee and the rest of the LSU soccer nation were thrilled when Yepez made the decision to become a Tiger.
“We had known Rachel for a long time as both a player and a person,” Lee said. “We knew her coming up as a dynamic and attacking player, that she was a good kid who would work hard to improve both on and off the field.”
Yepez said she had a little help when deciding to continue her playing career in Baton Rouge.
“I wanted something close to home,” Yepez said. “Nikki Bush and I had always remained close through the years. I knew she had signed to play here, and when I came on visit with my dad, we picked Nikki up and I fell in love with LSU.”
Yepez has followed a respectable freshman campaign in 2006 with a breakout sophomore season this fall. The striker has already been named Southeastern Conference Offensive Player of the Week once and is currently the SEC’s leading scorer with nine goals and 20 points.
“She has really bought into everything we have shown her,” Lee said. “Being a year older and a year more experienced, she worked hard to get good spots and does well. She has turned her high school talent into talented results on the field.”
Yepez has already been named to four National Teams of the Week to this point in the season. She has been named to both the Soccer America Women’s National Team of the Week and the Top Drawer Soccer Women’s College Team of the Week, while she has twice been named to the Soccer Buzz National Elite Team of the Week.
Her play has been a key factor in LSU’s rise to a No. 6 ranking in the latest Soccer Buzz Central Region Top 15.
“It’s nice knowing how hard I’ve worked, but this is all for my team,” Yepez said. “This all comes from 10 months of each player working hard. I see how hard my teammates have worked to get better and focus on team chemistry, and I only want to improve myself for them.”
The 2007 campaign got off to a rough start for Yepez after she sprained her ankle in a pick-up game back home prior to the start of preseason camp.
“I was very frustrated. I couldn’t take things slow like they wanted me to,” Yepez said. “I was in the weight room doing every little extra thing to make myself stronger.”
That determination and relentless effort did not go unnoticed by her Tiger teammates.
“Most people usually give it time to heal and then get back to work,” said junior captain Casey Crawford. “I’ve never seen so much fire in her eyes to get better. Rachel was determined to overcome the injury, and she never showed her pain.”
But it’s been Yepez’s commitment to fitness during the off-season that has everyone believing she is going to make a huge impact in the SEC.
“She will definitely be a factor in the SEC,” Crawford said. “This year she has the strength to hold people off. She’s not getting pushed around. She had a hard time finishing last year, but this year she’s on the ball and finishes. She knows what to do and that’s what we need in a player ? a finisher.”
Perhaps the greatest help for Yepez along the front line didn’t just come from the weight room, but from junior All-SEC standout Roslyn Jones. The two have been a compliment to one another this season, constantly running down balls and using their speed and ability to take advantage of opposing defenses.
That could be the No. 1 reason why LSU is the top scoring club in the SEC after 11 games. Yepez and Jones are mirror images of one another according to their head coach.
“They have really started to develop chemistry,” Lee said. “They work really hard together, and they both have the dimension to win balls and get people off their backs so they can score.
Their teammates feel much the same way.
“Yepez and Jones are a great duo,” Crawford said. “They work for each other and for the team. They run until they can’t run anymore … and then run some more. They are winning on offense as well as defense.”
High expectations accompany the LSU soccer team this season. The squad is competing with its most talented roster in the 13-year history of the program. Driven to succeed on the field, the Tigers will hold nothing back in their run for an SEC championship and trip to the NCAA Tournament. The team has made a commitment to “be relentless” in 2007.
When asked what the term “relentless” means to her, Yepez chuckled and said, “relentless, well that’s what my teammates are.”
“Relentless is giving 110 percent for the full 90 minutes that we’re on the field. It’s not just in games, but also in practices and in the weight room,” Yepez said. “It means to go at every drill hard and give everything you have at the time. You can’t hold anything back.”
With the stakes now higher, Yepez faces new challenges to maintain a high level of performance with each passing game. After 10 months of off-season training, Yepez has improved herself both on and off the field. While those daily 6 a.m. workouts may have limited Yepez’s summer, the results on the field to this point in the season have made it all worth it.