Sept. 21, 2001

On first impression, Ginny Rosario-Tull comes across like any new college freshman.

One of 13 rookies on the Baylor soccer team, Rosario-Tull says she likes college classes "because you can sleep later." She lists business as her major, but says she doesn't know what she wants to do after school other than "be her own boss." And she toys with playing the guitar, complaining that there is "no room in the dorm" to play or house the instrument.

But Rosario-Tull isn't your average freshman, or even your average freshman athlete.

"Ginny has the potential to be an all-America-type performer for us," head coach Nick Cowell said. "She is very similar to [former Bear] Courtney Saunders, when she was this age."

High praise for an athlete with only four collegiate games under her belt. Saunders was one of Baylor's first two soccer all-Americans in 1998 and finished her four years at Baylor holding nearly every career mark in the Baylor record book. She is now one of three Bears playing pro soccer in the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), which just finished its first season.

Yet even with her limited collegiate experience so far, Rosario-Tull has shown flashes of what she can bring to the team. Including the Bears' preseason exhibition against SMU, she has three goals to her credit in five games.

"She has a very high rate of work, which is important to our system," Cowell said. "A lot of forwards just wait for the ball to come to them, but she gets back on defense as well. She will chase a player back for us, which really helps set the tone."

So what brought this talented freshman from Mansfield, Texas, down to Waco to become a Bear?

One of Rosario-Tull's first exposures to Baylor came during her time at the Baylor Soccer Camp in the summer of 2000. The camp is quickly becoming a sort of "try-out" for athletes hoping to make the Baylor team, four members of this year's freshman class participated in that camp.

"I had a lot of other visits [to other schools] set up," Rosario-Tull said, "but I verbally committed to Baylor before my senior year and never took any of those other visits."

The transition from Mansfield to Waco was eased for the freshman as she rejoined several former teammates from her club soccer days with the Dallas Texans.

"A bunch of girls from my club team were here, Ryan [Lee], Candace [Reilly], Stephanie [Dempsey], and Cookie [Day, former Baylor player] were all here. I'd been playing with them since I started playing select in sixth grade."

Sixth grade was not the beginning of soccer for Rosario-Tull, though, in fact, it was her eighth season playing competitively.

"I started playing when I was three, actually," she said. "My brother went to sign up, and I said I wanted to play, too. I talked the lady into letting me play on an all-boys team. I played on all-boys teams until I was five or six, and when we moved from Houston to Mansfield, then I joined an all-girls league."

Soccer seems to run in the family for Rosario-Tull, her older brother, Ben, played collegiate soccer at Wesleyan. That level of excellence is evidenced in Ginny's play, as well. At Mansfield High School, she played four years of varsity soccer. During her first season, she was named offensive newcomer of the year, three years later, she was player of the year as a senior.

Having such talent for soccer, however, doesn't mean that the sport rules her life. She enjoys a wide variety of music, and is (admittedly slowly) learning to play the guitar.

"I like playing, but I'm not very good," Rosario-Tull said of her musical skills. "There's no room in the dorm, but I like playing around with it when I can."

And the freshman's most prized possession in the world is not a soccer trophy or medal, it's her truck, a GMC Z-71 she calls "Waylon."

While she says she would love to get a chance to play in the WUSA one day, right now she's "just focusing on school and getting a degree.

"I don't know what I want to do after I graduate," Rosario-Tull said. "I want to be my own boss, maybe open a restaurant or something."

On the field, as well, Rosario-Tull is adjusting to the differences between high school or club soccer and the sport as it is played at the collegiate level.

"Everything is faster here," she said. "The defenders are quicker, they adjust faster. In high school, I'd known everyone for years. Now, we all came in and we are adjusting to new teammates, learning how they play, where they are going to be on the field, etc.

"I think I'm adjusting well. My freshman and sophomore years of high school, I was a forward. Then I had to sit out my junior year after I tore my ACL, and my senior year I moved to midfield. Now I'm back at forward, so I have to get used to running with the other forwards.

"I'm used to making runs with Candace and Ryan, now I'm getting used to the other midfielders."

Rosario-Tull says this year's team is one to watch, noting the team's depth.

"We're good throughout the whole team, really at every position," she said. "We don't have any real weaknesses in any one area, we're strong back to front, pretty solid across the board. Having that depth, with six forwards, gives us a break so we don't get tired."

If Rosario-Tull can avoid getting tired and keep up this pace -- perhaps even improving as the players get more comfortable with each other -- then the sky is the limit.

The Baylor soccer team's next home game is Friday, Oct. 5, when the Bears battle Texas at 7 p.m. at Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field.