Paula Wilkins knew the greatness of Rose Lavelle, early.
"You know in practice? You have to defend Rose Lavelle every single day," Wisconsin Women's Soccer Head Coach Paula Wilkins says. "And you know she's known for her crafty and her cheeky moves. If you can defend her? When you go to play someone else on the field it's easy. You can't kick what you can't catch, right? So I think from an early age she had to figure out how to evade people with her skills and her quickness. And that allowed her to kind of build a skill set that helped when she did get stronger."
Wilkins is the Wisconsin women's soccer head coach.
Watch: UW Women's Soccer head coach reflects on USA Star Rose Lavelle's time with Badgers
"For us? Rose raised the standard," Wilkins says. "And now we have other players who are going to the pro league who are making very good money and stuff like that. It's just, they create this environment, the expectation of how you train."
And Rose's legendary game-winning World Cup goal in 2019, still resonates.
"It was one of those things, it's probably more like a parent where you were just so happy for her because you know of knew all the work she did," Wilkins says. "I think there might have been a little tear in my eye for that and so just so proud of that."
Now with US soccer in transition? Lavelle has a new role.
"People are drawn to here because she is a little funny," Wilkins says. "Comical. And she is now responsible for the success of this program in terms of just setting the tone of what they want to do on and off the field."
Paula Wilkins says Rose Lavelle is still humble, which doesn't always happen when other players have achieved stardom.
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