BATON ROUGE — For displaying outstanding leadership in the community, LSU senior striker Rachel Yepez has earned a spot on the SEC Community Service Team for the second-straight season and is one of 12 representatives on this year’s squad announced by the league office.
A native of Fayetteville, N.C., Yepez has been a leader both on and off the field throughout her career at LSU as she was also named to the SEC Community Service Team in 2008.
Yepez is a mentor to students at University Terrace Elementary School as part of the Kids Hope USA Program. She has also participated in the Big Buddy Program during which she serves as a role model for local children, as well as participated in the Big Buddy Day of the Mentor.
Not only that, but Yepez has been involved with school children throughout the past year while serving as a tutor and motivational speaker across the Baton Rouge area.
Yepez helped spearhead LSU’s participation in the SEC Together We CAN Drive in which the athletic department collected canned goods to help the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. She is a leader of LSU’s annual Halloween BOOzar in which she leads the soccer station by handing out candy to trick-or-treaters and plays games with the kids. Not only that, but she is involved in the annual Christmas Toy Drive in which the soccer team adopts an underprivileged child and provides them with toys and clothes during the Christmas season.
Her other activities include serving as a volunteer at Operation Take Back: Fight Against Crime event and serving as a 4-H AgMagic Tour Guide in which she has taken local students through a tour of a maze of local animals and plants. She is also a frequent visitor of local nursing homes and children’s hospitals.
2009 SEC Community Service Team
Brooke Rogers, Forward, Alabama
Kathleen Paulsen, Midfielder, Arkansas
Addie Ragsdale, Midfielder, Auburn
Marsha Harper, Forward, Florida
Lindsay Stein, Midfielder, Georgia
Julie Hull, Defender, Kentucky
Rachel Yepez, Forward, LSU
Danielle Johnson, Defender, Ole Miss
Leanna Baldner, Defender, Mississippi State
Kacie Brewer, Forward/Defender, South Carolina
Grace Cuenin, Midfielder/Forward, Tennessee
Megan Forester, Midfielder, Vanderbilt