CINCINNATI – Fifth grade. Tiny but determined, a whippet-like blur with auburn hair and relentless speed. She had a knack for blowing right past the competition on her Soccer Association for Youth team, deflating girls who knew slowing her was futile.

Her strength was in her left foot, everyone knew that, but on one particular day, none of her teammates wanted to play keeper. I’ll do it. The diminutive form patrolled the wide-netted frame. A shot from the corner. The ball sailed her way. She jumped high and punched it over the goal.

The ref looked at her coach, a volunteer parent. “Is this kid for real?”

A knowing look.

“Oh, she’s for real and her name’s Rose Lavelle,” the coach said.

That was just one play on one day in the life of Lavelle, the Cincinnati-born U.S. Soccer Women’s National Team midfielder on the verge of her first FIFA Women’s World Cup with the full team. The stories Lavelle could tell on her climb up the soccer ladder could fill a thick book: Life at the club level, her high school career at Mount Notre Dame, a storied existence as a three-time All-American at Wisconsin, her post on U.S. Youth National Teams, being the No. 1 pick for the National Women’s Soccer League’s Boston Breakers in 2017, and now preparing with the USWNT in France.

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We at The Athletic wondered: What stories would others tell about her during the different stages of soccer?

With Lavelle’s blessing, we sought friends and family who could relay snapshots of her as a youth, a teenager and an adult. There were things we already knew, like the new Lavelle-inspired mural at The Banks, her quirky Twitter posts, her penchant for bulldogs (inspired by the Lavelle family’s 6-year-old pooch, Wilma Jean Wrinkles), and her diehard fandom for Xavier basketball.

Here are a few lesser-known perspectives on this 24-year-old soccer phenom.

JANET LAVELLE

Relationship: Mother

One thing you need to know about this daughter of Janet and Marty Lavelle – wedged third between John, 29, Nora, 27, and Mary, 22 – is that she does everything in her own time. Rose is stubborn and messy, a procrastinator extraordinaire, but when she makes up her mind about something, she sticks with it. Take, for example, her dedication to soccer.

The Lavelles thought first grade would be a good time to introduce Rose to the sport, maybe ease her onto an organized school team. When she was just 5, though, Rose watched Nora play on a second-grade soccer team. She wanted in.

“She had to do what her sister was doing,” Mrs. Lavelle said. “She’s very insistent and can talk her way into about anything, so to quiet her we signed her up for a league at the YMCA. A little coed league with 5-year-olds.”

Rose Lavelle (left) wasn’t the biggest soccer player on the field at age 9, but she was one of the craftiest. (Courtesy of Janet Lavelle)

Rose was smitten. Within three years she was the fastest kid on any team she played. Her modus operandi was proving doubters wrong, the ones who dismissed her for being too small in a sea of taller competitors. It wasn’t so hard at the youth level when other kids were still learning the game and moving in packs like amoebas. That’s when Rose was her most dangerous.

“She’d kind of hang toward the outside of the group waiting for the ball to get popped free rather be in the crowd. She’d get a break-away and then maybe she’d run into two defenders and she would just stop and wait for them to move. And then she would move around them. She had no soccer knowledge. Marty and I, neither one of us played. We didn’t really watch it much then,” Mrs. Lavelle said. “So she kind of did her own little thing and she would refer to it as ‘tricking them.’ She’d say, ‘I tricked them, Mom. Mom, I tricked those people. That’s how I got by them.’”

Those “tricks” followed her all the way to the national team. If opponents boasted greater size or were about to catch her, Rose would stop abruptly and then beat them again. Her creativity was not lost on Neil Bradford, her trainer and mentor from ages 9 to 14. He called her the fox in the box for her proficient scoring in the penalty area. He helped structure her raw talent.

What’s more, Bradford recognized something special in Rose, Mrs. Lavelle said.

“Neil said to me, ‘She’s a lefty. She’ll be on the national team one day.’ I’ve never forgotten it,” Mrs. Lavelle said.

Rose has said that Bradford instilled in her a love for the sport. He succumbed to a cancer battle three years ago at age 44, a loss so profound that Rose wore No. 8 in Wisconsin’s match at Stanford. The Lavelles didn’t understand the tribute at first. They wondered if she’d forgotten her No. 3 jersey or bled on it but no, Rose said afterward, she thought they’d have known for sure. It was Neil’s number.

Rose Lavelle (left) has credited her longtime trainer and mentor Neil Bradford (center) with instilling in her the love of soccer. Shown here with Maggie Hare (right) in 2015, Bradford succumbed to cancer in 2016. (Courtesy of Maggie Hare)

Mrs. Lavelle is beyond proud of 5-foot-4 Rose, the girl who idolized Mia Hamm and made herself into an elite soccer player. Her tricks are still pretty potent, her mother said.

“A lot of her trickery is reactionary,” Mrs. Lavelle said. “She’s just really that good with the ball that it’s in-the-moment-trickery, like what’s going to work, how do I get the ball here, what are my options? And she’s a lot more confident on the ball, in her skill and knowing that that makes her unique among other players. That’s the trait that separates her.”

BRIAN PAGE

Relationship: Coach

Quick. Nimble. Humble. Joyful. That’s Rose Lavelle in sum, said Brian Page, Cincinnati United’s former director of coaching. Neil Bradford was Rose’s trainer but Page was involved too, seeing Rose bi-weekly for about a decade. Her creative thinking was problematic for opponents, just like at the grade school level, but she was second to none when it came to her passion for the sport.

Page can’t remember any other kids as smitten with soccer as Rose Lavelle.

“Let’s just say it was rare. Some kids show up to practice and that’s the only time they’re with a ball. It was evident that she was always with the ball. And she just enjoyed the ball. She enjoyed being clever and creative, always, because she was so little,” Page said.

Page had a soccer ball juggling program called Juggling Masters that promoted footwork. He challenged players to juggle, say, 500 times and posted videos of the tricks online. Although she was only 11 years old, Rose mastered that challenge and was for a time the only person who accomplished the feat. She’d flick the ball onto her back and hold it there, then loft it in the air and catch it with her foot. Page filmed the spectacle.

“She looked in the camera and was like, ‘I’m Rosie Lavelle and I’m 11 years old.’ It was this proud, cute smile. I get chills up my back thinking about it. You could just see that this kid absolutely loved soccer,” Page said.

He wished he’d had the foresight to know that someday she’d be a key cog on a World Cup roster, but predicting that was near impossible. Talent was just part of the equation. Opportunity, interest, health and perseverance were other intangibles.

That said, Rose typically played up on older teams and improved at every level, Page said. He watched her play in college and wishes he could be there for her in France. The trip didn’t work out for the Reading High School economics and personal finance teacher, but he’ll be rooting from afar.

“It’s hard to put into words just how proud I am of her. It really hit me once when I saw a picture of a little girl walking into a stadium holding hands with her mom. She might have been like 5. She was wearing a Lavelle jersey,” Page said. “I get choked up thinking about it, like, ‘Oh my God, this kid has made it.’ I’m just really proud of her. It’s just a credit to her and all of her hard work and all of her support. Her family could not be more supportive. You couldn’t ask for a better family.”

NORA LAVELLE

Relationship: Sister

Nora and Rose were teammates on Mount Notre Dame’s varsity soccer team for just one season, the fall of 2009. It didn’t bother Nora that she, a senior, did not start and Rose, a freshman, did. Nora knew from an early age what kind of talent her sister possessed – after all, Rose received interest from her first collegiate suitor, Purdue, when she was just 12 years old. Nora considered herself among Rose’s biggest fans.

The Cougars faced undefeated Lakota West in the sectional tournament. The match was tied at 1 with less than a minute to go when Mount Notre Dame quickly advanced the ball up the field. A Firebirds player tried to clear the ball at the top of the box but Rose reeled it in, eluded a defender one-on-one and booted a right-footed shot. Score.

Her go-ahead goal with 25 seconds remaining ensured the Cougars’ win. The first person she hugged was Nora.

“It was really exciting. I was just pumping and running towards her. It was such a fun environment to be in and I feel like she’s always been in those positions under pressure where she can make goals in the important moments,” Nora said.

Rose (left) was a freshman on the Mount Notre Dame varsity team with her sister Nora (right), a senior. (Courtesy of Janet Lavelle)

The outcome dismayed Lakota West’s Maggie Hare, one of Rose’s closest friends growing up. They were club teammates who made each other better with head-to-head challenges; for example, they’d work on juggling at their respective homes – Rose in Kenwood, Maggie in West Chester – and compare notes the next day. Hare, a center-mid whose college career at Xavier was derailed by a left foot fracture that led to four surgeries, still remembers the sting of that loss to Mount Notre Dame.

“I remember turning around and not being able to get there in time. I was too far away at this point. I saw Rose with the ball. In my head, I was like, ‘It’s over.’ She was one-on-one with one of our defenders and I just knew the game was over. And then she scored,” Hare said.

Maggie Hare (left) and Rose were longtime teammates and friends. Many years later than their youth soccer days, in high school sectionals, Rose scored a game-winning goal to lift Mount Notre Dame over Hare’s undefeated Lakota West team. (Courtesy of Maggie Hare)

Nora witnessed Rose’s penchant for the improbable during their childhoods. They spent hours kicking around the soccer ball outside their house, making up soccer-centric games with neighborhood kids and using the kickback goal their parents bought. Rose’s athleticism was so heralded that eventually, Nora’s senior-aged friends wanted Rose to go out for varsity basketball.

Rose played other sports but soccer was her true love.

“She has a very distinct way of touching the ball. I think we were at nationals for the SheBelieves Cup and someone was like, ‘Which one’s Rose?’ And they were pointing to people and all of a sudden one was like, ‘Oh, it’s this one over there. I can tell by the way she’s dribbling the ball right now,’” Nora said.

Rose’s touches were controlled yet light. She appeared to dance with the ball. It was hard not to be proud of Rose’s skills, and so Nora embraced them.

“When I started playing in high school, people would say, ‘Oh, I heard you have a sister who’s really good.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, she could probably beat everyone on the team right now,’” Nora said, laughing. “So it was never really weird in that sense. I always enjoyed playing with her because I feel like I knew the space I could get in and I knew where she would go as well.”

PAULA WILKINS

Relationship: Wisconsin women’s soccer coach

Not long after Rose Lavelle arrived on campus as a Wisconsin freshman, coach Paula Wilkins noticed a series of odd events. One of the Badgers’ players showed for practice wearing a side ponytail. Weird. But OK, Wilkins thought.

Then one of the Badgers’ players walked to practice in high heels. Another called her “Mom” for an entire day. Some girls wore their sports bras over their shirts or donned wigs or penned Mother’s Day cards to Wilkins.

“I was like, ‘What is going on?’ Well, Rose had brought a game to our team called the Odds Game,” Wilkins said. “What would happen is, you would say, ‘I bet you won’t call Paula ‘Mom’ for all of practice.’ And they’d say, ‘OK, odds between 1 and 10.’ They’d go ‘three, two, one’ and say a number, and if they said the same number, you have to do it. Things would happen and you’d be like, ‘Oh, somebody lost the Odds Game.’ The players loved it.”

Rose (left) and Micaela Powers, living their best lives at Wisconsin. (Courtesy of Micaela Powers)

Rose Lavelle was a prankster, no doubt about that. Wilkins said Rose made a habit of stuffing loose pine cones into her shoes for fun. She slipped banana peels into Wilkins’ coaching folder. As a freshman, she convinced the Badgers to do a group dance before other Wisconsin athletes, which turned out to be a big hit even though Rose herself was absent. She’d been called to national team camp.

There certainly were times when Wilkins made clear she didn’t have time for jokes, but looking back now, the pranks were pretty funny. She came to see them as Rose’s readiness, so when she came across a banana peel, it was a good sign.

Skills-wise, Rose continued to rely on trickery and create space with her footwork. Staying healthy was another challenge.

“She battled some hip flexor issues and some sprained ankles and some back issues. Part of it was how she plays. For people to stop her, they would physically do something to her, so she took a lot of pounding as a player. And I think that kind of wore on her body a little bit as she went along. As she has matured, she has recognized that she’s really got to take care of her body and do the things that she needs to do to stay healthy,” Wilkins said.

Wilkins coached Rose as a teenager in the Olympic Development Program and believed she had a chance to be in a class of her own. Rose validated that theory in the ODP and at Wisconsin, where she was a two-time Big 10 Midfielder of the Year and four-time All-Big Ten selection. Top Drawer Soccer named her the No. 1 player in the country before her final season in 2016.

She was at her best when she was consistent. That part of her game improved with repetition, coaching and film studies.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever watched a sport you don’t know and go, ‘That person is better than everybody else.’ Rose kind of had that,” Wilkins said. “I think if you were watching a game and you were a big soccer fan, you’d be kind of like, ‘Oh. That kid’s special.’ And I think that’s what you could kind of see with her, the stuff she could do with the ball. It was just interesting to see if her consistency was going to be the way it is. She grew into that, being a consistent player.”

MICAELA POWERS

Relationship: Olympic Development Team and Wisconsin teammate

Micaela Powers has been friends with Rose Lavelle since they were 13, but some of her favorite memories came as Wisconsin teammates. They shared an apartment as seniors and made a habit of crashing on the couch, ordering pizza and rehashing their matches. They dug into areas they wanted to improve, dreamed of the future.

It was a long way from their initial meeting as middle-schoolers. Rose was quiet and funny at soccer practices but her jokes were always under her breath. You had to pay attention, Powers said.

“It was funny because that’s the kind of soccer player she was, too. She was always tiny. Tiny, tiny, tiny. And everyone was always like, ‘There’s no way that she’ll ever amount to anything. She’s really good on the ball but you push her over and she’ll fall over.’ But she somehow eventually learned to run around everyone. If you’re fast and good on the ball, you can’t take it from someone who won’t let you have the opportunity,” Powers said.

They had their share of soccer heartbreak, falling short in ODP tryouts on different years, but the midfielders landed on the same teams and collegiate path. Powers said she still gets chills thinking about Rose going first overall to Boston in the 2017 National Women’s Soccer League draft. (The Breakers folded in 2018 and Rose now is with the Washington Spirit.)

Powers, a Beavercreek native, learned the draft news while composing a social media post about how proud she was of Rose.

“I have known her for so long and we always had this friendly competition. It was never out of spite. It was always out of growth. There were times she got awards that I wanted and there were times I got awards that she wanted. We were never pulling each other down. It made us both better and it created a friendly competition. So seeing her where she is now is super cool because I got to see where she came from,” Powers said.

Micaela Powers (center back) played with Rose (center front) on the Olympic Development team and at Wisconsin. (Courtesy of Micaela Powers)

Rose never failed to make her laugh along the way, whether it was singing in the shower, dancing in the locker room or coming up with offbeat observations. Powers plans to cheer on her old friend in the World Cup and beyond.

“I can’t wait to see where she goes professionally and personally,” Powers said. “I’m excited to see what happens.”

(Top image: Jeff Curry / USA Today)