Pillars of perseverance
By Brittany Brownrigg, November 5, 2009
Rachel Whipker, 21, is a senior soccer player at Franklin College. Whipker’s journey as a soccer player has come to an end. However, her hopes and dreams for the sidelines and off the field continue.
Whipker started playing the game she loves when she was very young.
“I started playing [soccer] when I was in kindergarten,” Whipker said.
Whipker’s school was handing out flyers to promote the soccer team and she still remembers taking the paper home and saying, “Dad I want to do this.”
In order for Whipker to play, her dad, Steve, had to become the coach. Rachel admits that neither of them knew very much about the game at the time, but they learned together.
Whipker said she and her dad would go to the library and soak up what they could learn about the game of soccer. Learning the game together, and the relationship that formed between them is an unforgettable, Whipker said.
“It was good bonding between me and my dad,” Whipker said.
What started out as a little kindergartener longing to be involved grew over the years into a clear passion.
Whipker had to play on male teams until around middle school when there were finally enough girls to form their own team. Whipker says that this was a good experience for her, and that she liked the way she played the game when she was playing against males.
“I always had to prove myself,” she said.
All of her practice and experience helped her as she moved into high school where she attended Seymour High School. Seymour had over 1,000 students during Whipker’s time there so girls had to battle for a spot on the soccer team.
Whipker remembers being a freshman in high school and receiving the honor of making the varsity team. This acceptance also meant that three seniors were cut from the team. Whipker said she cried over the experience because she simply did not think it was fair that she got to play and they did not. Whipker said she learned from this experience, and ended up playing soccer all four years of her high school career.
Throughout Whipker’s junior and senior years in high school, she played on a travel team called the Bloomington Cutters. She had to drive herself an hour and a half to practice. One of the things that she says she loved most about the travel team was meeting people.
“You meet friends that you would not have met in any other circumstance,” Whipker said.
The transition from Seymour High School soccer to Franklin College soccer was not an easy one. Whipker says she went from a competitive team in high school to winning just one game with no subs her freshman year at Franklin.
Whipker and Shay Skene are the only two senior soccer players left from that freshman recruitment class.
“It’s down to the two of us . . . it has been an experience here [at Franklin],” Whipker said.
Whipker says that her and Skene have gone through a lot over the past four years on the team.
“Shay and I have been through three coaches . . . we’ve had to play a lot of minutes, had to play hurt, and had to find a way to motivate our team,” Whipker said.
Although the past four years have been a challenge for the girls, Whipker is ending her soccer career as a player on a high note.
“We finally got our first conference win this year, . . . [and] we’ve won more games this year than ever before [in my career],” said Whipker.
Whipker said she stuck with the team for four years because it has been fun.
“We always bond . . . we always mesh really well . . . you win as a team and you lose as a team . . . I truly believe that,” Whipker said.
Whipker also said that being a positive role model on the team, and helping find ways to motivate the girls have been jobs that she has taken on.
“I’m here to help change what can be,” Whipker said.
Whipker wants the girls on the soccer team to believe in themselves.
“I want them to know they can make a difference on the team . . . they have a bigger influence than they think,” Whipker said.
Skene and Whipker also coach at the local Boys and Girls Club.
“Shay and I have done a lot together since we’ve been here these four years,” Whipker said.
Whipker said that she has learned a lot from coaching children about how to play the game.
“I got to go figure out how to talk to kids . . . [and] teach them different things,” Whipker said.
The leadership and values that Whipker has learned through the game of soccer are going to help her after she graduates from Franklin College as well. Whipker is an elementary education major with an endorsement in middle school English.
Whipker said her goals for the next five years include having her own classroom, and that she will go wherever she can get a job.
Whipker hopes that this season does not signify the end of her soccer career, but rather an opportunity to give back to the game.
“I would love to have a coaching position,” Whipker said.
Whipker has been through fun, successful, rocky, and learning times while being a part of Franklin College soccer, and will take the lessons she has learned with her into the next phase of her life.
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