West Lauderdale has hired Brandon Rodgers as its new girls soccer coach.

Rodgers, who’s coached the Clarkdale girls for the past six seasons, takes over a program that has won four state championships and made the MHSAA Class 4A state finals each year from 2016-2021. It’s also a homecoming for Rodgers, who is a 2002 graduate of West Lauderdale and a former Knights soccer player.

“It feels good coming back here,” Rodgers said. “I’ve been gone for a while but kept up with the program and with the school. I’m very familiar with a lot of the girls on this team, and I’ve probably coached just about every single player (in recreational/travel leagues), so I’m familiar with where they play and their strengths and weaknesses, so I’ll use that going forward.”

Alex George retired from being head coach of the Lady Knights following this past season, as did assistant coach Sonja Rowell, who started the girls soccer program at West Lauderdale in 2002. The two of them turned the program into a girls soccer dynasty, and Rodgers said he’s excited to take over a program with such high expectations.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Rodgers said. “I like to have high expectations for myself, and I’ve had that at Clarkdale for the last six years I’ve been out there. I know what’s expected out here, and I think those are some goals we can achieve.”

Both principal Shane Rodgers and athletic director Jody Hurst said they were impressed with the job Brandon Rodgers did at Clarkdale, where the Lady Bulldogs were a perennial divisional champion and playoff team that also made the MHSAA Class I state semifinals in 2020.

“We have a very successful program here that Coach Rowell and Coach George did a great job building up over the years, so we were trying to look for the very best (coach) we could move forward to carry our program on and continue the championship level we’ve been playing at,” Shane Rodgers said. “We feel like we found a great person to continue our program and lead it forward.”

Said Hurst, “We hope Coach Rodgers just keeps doing what Coach George and Coach Rowell have been doing, and we expect our girls to continue winning state championships.”

Brandon Rodgers said his immediate focus is scouting his returning players, and he’s eager to get started with his new team.

“I want to try and figure out where these girls fit in to how I want to play, which is possession-based soccer where you play quick and fast with a lot of one- and two-touch stuff,” Rodgers said. “I’m excited to work with this talent they have out here. It’s been one of the programs that’s been at the top of the state for a good while now, so I’m just looking forward to getting out here and working with them.”