Empowered Women Series: Sonia Rodriguez

The youngest of 10 children, Sonia Rodriguez has always loved running. Her father passed away when she was eight years old, so she didn't grow up in a sports household.

"The only activities that I usually did were in PE and I always loved whatever," Rodriguez said. "But one of the ones I loved was running."

They would have timed 20-minute runs and she remembers always being the first girl, but she wasn't very fast. One day at lunch, a man approached Rodriguez and her friends and asked for one of the girls, but wasn't at school that day. He asked if any of them liked running and if we knew anyone who was interested in running cross country. He was the coach at Vista High School.

"Some of the ladies at the table pointed at me because they knew I was the first girl finishing up the running part," Rodriguez said. "He asked me some questions and then he asked me what my name was. And when I told him my last name, he just looked at me and then he asked me, are you such and such's sibling, is that your brother? And I said, yes."

Rodriguez's brother was Vista High School's and the county's top runner in the 80s.

She got her start as an official runner her freshman year at Vista. While she loved running, she wasn't in the best shape. She struggled a lot during that year, but the team environment is what kept her going.

"I had never been a part of a team," Rodriguez said. "And so that's what kept me coming back every day, as horrible as I felt or as sore as I was, just that whole feeling of team and the way that Coach brought on like the family aspect like we're a family was so huge for me."

By her sophomore year, she had moved her way up from the back of the pack to the top seven spots for varsity. And she didn't stop there. She kept working and by her junior and senior years, she wasn't just the top runner for her team, but the county and the state. Rodriguez continued her running career at the University of California, Irvine.

"I did get a little overwhelmed at UCI just because I was also a really good student and so academics was so huge for me," Rodriguez said. "And unfortunately, I was a little bit struggling with adapting and so I felt like I had to make a choice to try to focus on, on what my number one goal was."

The first in her family to attend a university, she put a lot of pressure on herself. She stopped running and began focusing more on her schoolwork. She graduated in 2000 as a double major in history and Spanish with a minor in sociology.

After graduation, she moved back to North County and got a job as a receptionist and then an employment recruiter. After two years, she got a call from her coach at Vista High School.

"He said, 'Hey, we're going back out of retirement. We're going to go back to coach Vista High for a few years. We would love if you would join us and help us and be an assistant," Rodriguez said.

She was the assistant for about three years and the coaches decided to step down and wanted her to take over the girl's program. Rodriguez stayed there for 14 years before coming to Palomar.

Rodriguez took over the women's cross country and women's track and field programs. She has had numerous runners compete at the state level and move on to four-year schools. In the 2019 season, the women's cross country was a top 10 team who won a conference title, performed well at the SoCal regional level, and qualified as a team for the state championship. Her top runner finished 12^th overall and received an All-State selection honor.

Still coming into her own at Palomar, Rodriguez has been trying to transition from the high school coach, where she worked with athletes for up to four years, to a community college coach.

"I only have a few years at Palomar, but, it's just a whole new learning process," Rodriguez said. "The different changes, like what it's like to go to school for the two years and then transfer. So those things I'm also learning as well, but it's been rewarding."

One of the many things she loved about her experience as a runner, was the team atmosphere and the support she received from coaches and teammates.

"I think it's so important that they're [her team] a part of something like that because it's great to be a part of a group that you see every day that, that is there a few that's that family-like support and that they're going to help you, you know, whether it's academically or they're going to help push you, you know, in workouts or whatever it is to help you like reach your goals and your dreams," Rodriguez said.