Women's Soccer | Sights Set on the Spring Season

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers women’s soccer program entered the 2020-21 season with a strong core of veteran returners, a nationally ranked incoming class, and a brand new, state-of-the-art facility set to open. The only thing missing was a schedule of games on the calendar. 

Shortly after reporting in August for the preseason of the 2020 fall campaign, the Big Ten announced the postponement of competition due to ongoing health and safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Scarlet Knights soon after began their online learning, another adjustment over the last year of adversity, while also training with extensive protocols in place.

The group would return home to spend holidays with their families, before arriving back on campus in January for the 2021 spring academic semester with hopes of a tentative spring season. 

“It was a really great feeling to be back playing with the team. The team is our family and playing this sport is what we love most,” said junior back Shea Holland. “The first week all we did was play to get back in the rhythm of things, and everything started to click right away. The smiles have been endless at practice and It truly shows how much everyone missed being away from the pitch.”

Then right before that first full week of training had concluded, Rutgers received the long awaited news. 

“We found out about the schedule release right before training last week all together as a team. Coach Mike pulled out the paper with the lineup of the dates of our games, and as he read them out loud to us you could feel energy rising,” said junior midfielder Nicole Binkley. “Although we constantly bring high energy to training every day, that day the intensity and competitiveness was at a level like no other.

“All of the preparation and work we put in day after day through the Fall and Winter with no schedule or season in sight, was finally seeing a locked in date with our first conference game.”

The Scarlet Knights finally had a day to circle on the calendar – Saturday, Feb. 20 – for the start of an 11-game conference schedule.

“In times like this we are so grateful to be having a season. This past year has been extremely difficult as we all know in our own way, and soccer provides us an escape. The Rutgers staff and medical professionals have worked endlessly to provide our sports with a safe way to continue what we love doing, and we cannot thank them enough,” said Holland. 

The announcement of the schedule came a day after the program unveiled the Gary and Barbara Rodkin Academic Success Center to the team. The building provides a hub for Rutgers Athletics academic support and the new home of the women’s soccer program. The new state-of-the-art facility includes various study rooms, 1-on-1 tutoring areas, a nutrition station, and more. 

A brand-new locker room for the Scarlet Knights provides access to practice fields just 15 yards away. Everything a student-athlete needs, all under one roof. 

“Being a student-athlete, one has a lot of responsibilities and our team was constantly jumping from place to place to train and to do our studying. The Rodkin Center has provided us a beautiful home with a locker room of our own and all different kind of studying locations, where we can focus on our academics. It is truly a student-athlete’s dream, and we are so grateful to everyone who was a part of making it happen,” said Holland.

The building is a game-changer for the Scarlet Knights' first and foremost focus and dedication to work the classroom, where the team boasted a 3.679 grade point average this past Fall semester.

“The Rodkin Center has already provided us with such an amazing opportunity to be housed in the same building as our coaches, academic support, and athletic support. Having all aspects necessary to student-athlete success brings an unreal perspective of what success and opportunity looks like to us. We feel so lucky and thankful to have been included in an amazing building like this,” added Binkley. 

A new home with tremendous features to catalyze success. An official schedule to bring new enthusiasm to training. All paired with the most crucial motivation of all – the motivation the Scarlet Knights find within one another. 

“Our motivation comes from each other. We are all individually competitive athletes, and everyone is looking to keep growing and developing as a player. As we go through this together, we keep each other in line of our goals and the team’s goals of where we want to go and how we are going to get there,” said Holland.

“Our teammates are our sisters and we move forward every day as a unit of one,” echoed Binkley. 

The Scarlet Knights are poised to enter the 2021 spring season strong. With everything now lined up for the year from academics to athletics, the Scarlet Knights have new energy ignited into their pursuit of excellence in the classroom and on the pitch. 

“The team goals this season are to stay healthy and happy, and focused, as we move into the Spring season and to win a Big Ten Championship,” said Holland.

“It feels so special to finally have an official schedule in our hands to look forward to beginning February 20th. The last year has been a grind to fight through the adversity as a team,” said Binkley. “But with the support and constant hard work from our coaches, medical professionals, and administrators, it’s been possible to finally have the season we’ve been waiting for. 

“We feel so blessed to have this opportunity to play and compete again.”