Athletes of the Week – September 15

MALE

Dustin Rodgers, Columbus East junior soccer player

Rodgers scored two goals Saturday in the Olympians’ 5-1 win against Fishers. Earlier in the week, he scored the game’s lone goal in a 1-0 win at Bedford North Lawrence.

His performance last week: “I guess overall, it was a pretty good week for me. I liked a lot of the practices that we had. We did a lot of shooting and technical work so we’d be ready for the games that were coming up, and we’d score a lot of goals.”

Do you do anything special to prepare? “I go through the activities that (agility coach) Buster Copas has ready for us, and then I just go through my warmup.”

Favorite drink: “Arizona Sweet Tea”

Favorite food: “Spaghetti”

Favorite book: “The first book in the Aragon series and the last book in the Harry Potter series”

Favorite class: “I really like my engineering classes. It’s computer-integrated mathematics”

Role model: “Wayne Gretzky”

Best advice: “As long as you try your hardest and work your hardest, good things will happen.”

Athletics goal: “I want to be able to play the most goals for my team and be able to play a full 80 minutes of soccer without rest.”

If you could travel anywhere: “I’d travel to Russia in 2018 to watch the FIFA World Cup.”

FEMALE

Mady Johnson, Columbus North senior volleyball player

Johnson led the Bull Dogs with a combined 41 assists and six aces Saturday, when they went 3-0 to capture the Jennings County Invitational title. Earlier in the week, she had 14 assists in a three-set win against Southport.

Her performance last week: “I told myself on Saturday since my serves haven’t been great, I needed to get them in. I got them all in and had a lot of aces, so that was good.”

Do you do anything special to prepare? “Before every game, we sing the song ‘Halo’ by Beyonce, and that gets us pretty pumped up.”

Favorite drink: “Milk”

Favorite food: “Italian chocolate cake from Johnny Carinos”

Favorite book: “The Fault in Our Stars”

Favorite class: “English”

Role model: “My dad (Ty Johnson).”

Best advice: “Just go out there and give it your all, and if you make a mistake it’s OK. Just don’t get down on yourself.”

Athletics goal: “To have zero errors in setting during a game.”

If you could travel anywhere: “I would probably go to San Francisco because I’ve never been on the west side of the country, and it looks really cool and I’ve always wanted to go there.”