Olympic Gold Medal winner Todd Rogers spoke to San Marcos High School student athletes at the San Marcos Athletic Department Fall Assembly today. Rogers spoke to the student athletes about his experiences as an All-CIF student athlete in two sports and the importance of academics while still excelling on the playing field.
Rogers is an alumnus of San Marcos High School, graduating in 1991. Rogers played for two nationally recognized coaches, Jon Lee (volleyball) and Abe Jahadhmy (soccer) while attending San Marcos, and was All-Channel League in both Volleyball and Soccer, as well as being named All-CIF in both sports. Team wise, Rogers was on a CIF-SS Championship Volleyball team and also on a CIF-SS Academic Champion Soccer team.
Rogers stressed academics and said he was just as proud of the Academic Championship with soccer as he was with the Volleyball CIF-SS Championship. He also told the crowd he was very proud of San Marcos being the number one ranked public school in CIF-SS academically. “I hope you do it again this spring” stated Rogers.
Johnny Manzo, who is the San Marcos High School ASB President and a member of two varsity sports stated, “even though he came with all these athletic achievements, it was great that he stressed the importance of academics, priorities, and goal setting.”
Rogers also praised multi-sport athletes saying the balance between the two made him a better athlete overall. After listening to Rogers, junior Vanessa Wieland said “I used to participate in two sports as a freshman, but last year as a sophomore I only participated in one. Todd has inspired me to want to go back and try two different sports again.”
Todd Rogers won the 2008 Beijing Olympic Gold Medal in Beach Volleyball with his long time playing partner, Phil Dalhausser. Rogers has also won numerous pro beach volleyball tournaments, and along with Dalhausser this past year set a record by winning 9 tournaments on the FIVB World Tour. Rogers was also named All-American while playing volleyball at UCSB.