Park City senior Carver Rodman has been a key contributor on the defensive line this season after missing his junior year pursuing other endeavors
PARK CITY — Football is not Carver Rodman’s biggest passion like some of his Park City teammates. Skiing off cliffs or studying marine biology are more his cup of tea.
Don’t be mistaken though, the senior is loving playing football this season after missing his junior year learning about the oceans in the Bahamas, and his emergence defensively is a big reason the Miners are playing for the 4A state championship on Friday.
Rodman has been dominant on the defensive line with 70 tackles, and his presence has allowed fellow standout defensive lineman Coco Lukrich to flourish mostly on the offensive line.
“Carver allowing him to be able to do that has made us better,” said Park City coach Josh Montzingo. “And on top of that Carver is a special player himself. He’s hard to block as last week showed when he got his jersey completely torn off him.”
In the second half of last week’s semifinal, Rodman had to change jerseys as his No. 50 jersey was falling off, and coincidentally enough the spare jersey at the top of the equipment bag had the same No. 62 he wore during his sophomore year. It’s what he’ll wear on Friday in what will be his final moment as a high school student.
You see, Rodman has already graduated. He’s a student at the Winter Sports School in Park City, and commencement for his class was last Friday, the day after Park City’s semifinal win over Pine View. Rodman was part of the 30-member graduating class of athletes who attend the school from April to November, which then allows them to focus on their winter sports without distraction.
His peers participate in a variety of winter sports, but for Rodman, big mountain skiing off cliffs and natural features is his passion.
Last winter he competed at IFSA junior events across the country, but this winter he plans on “just free skiing,” and following the powder.
“I got my hands all freed up. Now I’m really just going to focus on skiing as much as I can this winter before I got to college. Do as much traveling as I can within the country and out of the country, storm chasing is something I want to do with the skiing,” said Rodman.
Rodman’s dad was a mogul skier, something he competed in as well until about five or six years ago when he started chasing the thrill of big mountain skiing.
He’s competed all over the country, including locally at event held annually at Snowbird. He said the biggest cliff he’s jumped off is probably 50 or 60 feet.
His football coach said it amazes him when he sees video of Rodman’s antics on the slopes.
“Nothing fazes him. Those big mountain skiers are a different breed, not much rattles them. They’re incredible athletes and they’re just fun-loving guys and he’s no different,” said Montzingo.
Park City’s fourth-year coach knew how important Rodman’s success would be to the team this year, but it wasn’t until springtime that he confirmed Rodman indeed wanted to play his senior year. All along, Montzingo wondered if the slopes of South American would be more enticing for Rodman this past summer.
After a so-so experience his sophomore year playing on the offensive and defensive line, Rodman had no problem forgoing his junior year when he was accepted to the 100-day semester program at the Island School on Cape Eleuthera in the Bahamas.
“Football wasn’t really what I wanted to do with my life which is why it was a pretty easy decision,” said Rodman.
Despite living in landlocked Park City, Rodman always had a passion for the ocean developed during family trips to Kauai as a kid. He was allowed to pursue that passion more in depth during his three years of middle school as his parents sent him to a weeklong camp at Cape Eleuthera each year.
Last summer’s semester away was an intense program for aspiring marine biologists as they worked directly with scientists on a variety of different projects and team-building activities.
The experience confirmed that his childhood passion for the oceans was real, and Rodman said he hopes to start college next fall at Cal Poly which he said has an excellent marine biology undergraduate program.
This week is all about football though as Rodman focuses with his friends and teammates to try and claim the first football state title in Park City history.
from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2Xv78HX
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