The path to a record-setting high school soccer career at Waynesville was laid out for Caleb Rodriguez even before grade school.
"You know how kids usually get a sports ball if their parents are big into athletics? Well, my first ball was a soccer ball," Rodriguez said. "I got on my first soccer team when I was four, and the rest is history. I fell in love with it as soon as I started playing."
That love of the beautiful game can't trace its heartstrings to any family ties to the sport. Instead, they find themselves in a father's support of a game his son was quickly falling for.
"My dad looked up everything he taught me about soccer," Rodriguez said. "That's the way he taught me how to play. Just looking it up. Watching videos. Watching games. That was really just the start until I started working with coaches."
'A Special Player'
The most recent of those coaches being Waynesville's Mike Armstrong. The long-time Tigers coach has been a mainstay in Rodriguez's life the past four years, overseeing his Waynesville record 189 career points.
CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR RODRIGUEZ — CLICK HERE FOR ALL 1 AWARDS NOMINEES
"He's the first freshman I ever put out on the varsity side," Armstrong said.
"He's kind of a special player. He organizes all of our offense. I know he scored a ton of goals, but he's also the No. 1 guy as far as playmaking. He can see the play developing before it really kicks off, and he's unbelievably strong on the ball."
It's goals that Rodriguez relishes. With 29 in his final season as a Tiger and 81 over the course of his career, that's no surprise, either.
"Every kid has that dream of scoring that goal and getting to run to the corner and take your shirt off and celebrate," Rodriguez said. "That's just what I've wanted, and I want to keep working until I get there. It's just a passion I can't really explain."
That passion is now pushing Rodriguez to a collegiate career on the field at Evangel University, where he'll be a part of a soccer program that was winless in its inaugural season in 2015. But instead of running away from the prospect of building a new program, Rodriguez embraced it.
"I wanted to help start up a program instead of being at a sustained one. That's how my personality is. It was all about how much I liked that idea, the school, and that I connected to coach [John] Griffin."
Griffin met Rodriguez while still an assistant at Culver-Stockton College. On a visit at the school, Rodriguez sat down with Griffin for 40 minutes while waiting for Culver-Stockton's head coach. Not long after, Evangel introduced Griffin as the face of a new soccer program, a move that caught Rodriguez's eye.
"I emailed him, he offered me and I gladly accepted," he said. "I feel like at Evangel, we have nothing to lose. We'll have everything to gain. There's everything to fight for when everyone doubts you or thinks of you as an underdog, and I think that's what I want to fight for. That's just how I am and where I want to be."
Setting goals on and off the field
Rodriguez's influence and impact as a Tiger co-existed as one of the leaders in the student section, when they're not cheering him on instead.
"I just love being the hyped one at games," he said. "I love being around sports and around other people who love sports and getting hype with friends. That just sounds like a good time to me."
With that time now over, Rodriguez will be missed at Waynesville for reasons beyond the brilliant goals and that school spirit.
"I'd say his little one-liners and sense of humor are what I'll probably miss the most," Armstrong said. "He's one of those guys you can get on, but he'll crack a smile and go back to work."
It was Central that ended Waynesville's season and Rodriguez's Tigers career with a 3-1 final in last year's district tournament. There were no smiles that day, but plenty have cracked amidst a career highlighted by two 14-win seasons and a 2014 district championship, one of two moments Rodriguez pointed to as the best of his high school career.
"The second was getting to play with my brother my senior year in one of the district games, and him assisting on my seventh goal of the season," he said.
Rodriguez's brother, Alex Rodriguez (yes, he goes by A-Rod), was a sophomore last season.
The two could have seen more time together if not for a freak concussion in a 4-1 loss to Nixa this year that forced Rodriguez out of six games.
"I picked up the ball midfield. Passed it. Made a run in. My teammate played me the through ball and my decision was to shoot instead of dribble around the keeper," Rodriguez said. "The keeper came at me. My shot hit his knee, came square off his knee, hit me in the chin and threw my neck back. I didn't really remember too much after that."
"It was a pretty scary moment," Armstrong, who said Rodriguez was knocked out before he hit the ground, said. "He got knocked out pretty good. That really changed the season for him."
Rodriguez still managed 29 goals and 11 assists in the shortened season, points that Evangel will be hungry for after scoring just four goals in 14 games last year. But Rodriguez isn't going to Evangel just for soccer. He has a career to think about. It just so happens that his career aspirations bring him full circle.
"I'm going to study athletic training," he said. "Being a team doctor. Being a trainer for a team on some level. I want to stay around the game as much as possible."
