Meet The Desert Sun Girls' Athlete of the Year: Indio multi-sport star Sienna Rodriguez
Shad Powers
When you're in a huddle with Indio High's Sienna Rodriguez you feel like you can accomplish anything.
"Of course, she's a tremendous athlete, but it's her mentality and leadership that really set her apart," said Indio girls' water polo coach Marcos Perez. "Her ability to instill confidence and self-belief in her teammates is truly amazing. And her voice in our team huddles was instrumental in keeping the girls confident and focused."
As a four-sport athlete, Rodriguez was in plenty of huddles this past season, and when her teams broke those huddles, it was almost always to do some winning.
Rodriguez, a senior, was a starter on the Rajahs' volleyball team that went 14-0 and won a DVL championship. She was a starting outfielder on the Rajahs' softball team that went 14-0 and won a DVL championship. And she was one of the top goal-scorers on the Rajahs' girls' water polo team that had the moment of the entire desert high school sports season when they went on a spirited and unlikely run to a CIF-SS title. She even participated on the track and field team to run one of the relays during her softball season.
For all those exploits, Rodriguez earned the title of The Desert Sun's Girls' Athlete of the Year.
'What's water polo?'
Rodriguez was a softball lifer. She played it for years as a kid and when she entered high school, she knew that was going to be her sport. But like all seniors in the Class of 2024, her freshman year was mostly wiped out by COVID, particularly regarding athletic competition.
Being a social person, that time away was difficult, so when the fall of her sophomore year came around, and she had some friends who played volleyball, she decided to try that sport. Then, the winter sports season began, and the idea of her playing water polo surfaced.
"To be honest, I didn't even know what water polo was when I got to high school," Rodriguez said, reflecting back on her humble beginning in the sport. "And here I am as a sophomore in the pool with a bunch of other girls, most of us having never played before, and it's pretty amazing to think back to then and then for us to just ball out together and win CIF this year."
Naturally, that sophomore-year version of the Rajahs took a lot of lumps in the pool, but Rodriguez was hooked. The junior year team started to get some wins and made the playoffs for the first time in school history, losing their first playoff game.
This year's team? They went on one of the most unbelievable postseason runs in desert history and wound up holding the CIF-SS Division 6 champion's plaque after a stirring 9-8 win over El Modena in the final.
Rodriguez had the second-most goals on the team and usually defended the other team's best player, but again, her voice in the huddle may have been most important.
"We had sort of a vision board that we made, and our No. 1 goal was to win a playoff game, just get past the first round, which had never been done here," Rodriguez said. "During the regular season, we play so many good teams with really good girls who have been playing a long time, and having to be competitive against them was how it started. When we got to the playoffs, my biggest word for us was 'confidence.' We go into the pool with confidence, never scared.
"For years, that sophomore year especially, we would look at the other team and think 'Oh we have to play this team, they're so good,' but this year when we would start to do that again and I would be like 'Why are we scared? If we're already thinking we're going to lose, we're going to lose,'" Rodriguez said, remembering those in-huddle moments. "'So let's be confident. We got this!' And once we built our confidence together as a group, I think our bond just got so strong that we couldn't lose."
How miraculous was the Rajahs' title run? Consider this:
- They had never won a playoff game before and had to win a wild-card game to make it into the Divison 6 bracket, which they only won by one goal.
- In the quarterfinal, they trailed Webb by six goals and came back to win 18-16.
- In the semifinal, they trailed Anaheim by two goals with 3 minutes left and rallied to win 14-13
- The El Modena team they beat for the title was the No. 1 team in the division and had beaten Indio 15-6 earlier in the season.
And when the final buzzer rang on the championship game victory?
"There's just no way to describe it," Rodriguez said. "That feeling is something I had never felt before. It's everyone's dream in high school to make it to the finals and win, right? And being there in the moment it was so surreal. Hearing all of our fans who made the trip all screaming, we were just in the pool looking at each other like, 'Wow! We did this.'"
Multi-sport star
While the water polo title was a once-in-a-lifetime moment, Rodriguez is also a talented athlete on dry land.
On the volleyball court she was a consistent player for the Rajahs and made second-team all-league for the undefeated Rajahs. Not bad considering, just like water polo, she had never played before making varsity as a sophomore.
According to volleyball coach Meagan Nolasco, Rodriguez was particularly lethal from the service line.
"She did a great job at playing consistently on offense and at the service learn where she went on large point runs for us with her serve," Nolasco said. "She also was dependable in crucial moments of tight games, making smart choices. She played a big part in our undefeated DVL title, and it was great to have her around for all of those years."
On the softball diamond is where Rodriguez felt most at home. Patrolling left field, She hit .309 with 26 runs scored and 12 RBIs for a talented Rajahs team that not only burned through the DVL undefeated but made it all the way to the Division 6 CIF-SS quarterfinals.
When Rodriguez heard the track team didn't have enough available girls to run the relays, she stepped in and helped out when it didn't conflict with softball.
Playing multiple sports in an era where specializing is the more common practice was important to Rodriguez.
"Softball I always knew I was going to play. It was where I was supposed to be," Rodriguez said. "But I really like to be busy and keep myself on my toes, I guess, with new things. I'm a very active person and very social so to meet new people and be around these amazing friends that I have because of these sports has been amazing. Connecting with other people is really what I love to do."
Post-sports life
Rodriguez, who excels in all these sports and carries one of those grade point averages that is way above a 4.0, will attend UC, Santa Barbara in the fall.
She said she doesn't plan to play any of her sports at the college level, and that's OK with her. She's moving on with the rest of her life but can already look back fondly at her high school athletic career.
"It brought so much to my life on a daily basis, knowing I had things to look forward to every day," she said. "Like I have to take a big test in the day or something, I always knew that afterward I would get to go to the pool and see my coaches or learn more about volleyball or whatever. It was fun being with my girls and challenging each other."
And then, as if ripped from a promotional video for high school sports, Rodriguez explained how being a high school athlete will help her move forward.
"I think my communication skills have definitely developed tremendously and I think it will be easier to communicate with adults around me because I've had so many interactions with different adults and different coaching styles," she said. "So I guess different professors or people around me, I feel like I'll already know how to communicate with them. Looking forward to making new friends and being around people and with sports that can be something you have in common, like 'You did that in high school? So did I' and you can meet people that way. And, of course, playing sports challenged me in the classroom, too, time management, homework and that stuff. Playing high school sports did so much for me."
Shad Powers is a columnist for The Desert Sun. Reach him at shad.powers@desertsun.com.
Your choice
We gave you five of the top female high school athletes of the year to vote for online and you, the readers, chose as your girls' athlete of the year, Palm Desert freshman Katelyn Gallagher. Gallagher had a remarkable year, playing soccer and basketball simultaneously, helping both teams make the playoffs. The first-team All-DEL basketball player averaged more than 20 points per game.
Top girls' athletes
Here are the female athletes that The Desert Sun as the top players in each sport during the 2023-24 high school season.
- Volleyball: Juliette Rothe, Xavier Prep
- Cross Country: Julia Fernandez, Shadow Hills
- Tennis: Isabella Pimentel, Shadow Hills
- Golf: Joana Bushnell Crist, La Quinta
- Basketball: Victoria Hyatt, Shadow Hills
- Water polo: Mia Buelna, Indio
- Wrestling: Kaylin Montano, Shadow Hills
- Soccer: Reagan Van Horn, Palm Desert
- Softball: Jaeda Diaz, Indio
- Swimming: Ava Otteson, Xavier Prep
- Track and field: Malia Strange, Xavier Prep