Portland State senior Frankie Ross was five years old when she took up soccer, and her sporting career has come a long way since then. Her career began in northern California when her father decided to coach her and her friends, and it hit a high point last season when the Portland State women’s soccer team won the Big Sky regular season championship.
Since arriving at the Park Blocks for her freshman season in 2007, Ross has scored 11 goals and 11 assists, giving her the second-highest assists tally and the fourth-highest number of goals scored in the Portland State record books.
Ross was a leading member of Portland State’s Big Sky Conference regular season title-winning team last season, the Big Sky Golden Boot award winner in 2008 and was honored as an All-West Scholar by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America in 2009.
“Frankie is one of our leading goal scorers and assist leaders,” head coach Laura Schott said. “She is a very composed player. She can keep the ball and is very dangerous in front of the goal. She adds a lot to our attack.”
Her mother, Jean Ross, added that she had always excelled in sports.
“She even played baseball until she was 12 years old, before deciding to concentrate on soccer,” Jean said. “She has always been very competitive, a very fast runner and competing with boys in youth soccer and baseball made her more confident and assertive.”
While playing in California, Ross won a host of accolades at Bishop O’Dowd High School and with the California North Stars club team.
“Frankie played with the same core of friends and teammates through high school,” Jean said. “They traveled all over the country and played in prestigious tournaments. Her U-13 (under 13 years old) team won the Northern California State Championship and then lost in the finals of the Far West Regional tournament.”
As a sophomore, Ross’ high school team won the Northern California Section Championship. She earned such awards as Freshman of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year and Most Outstanding Player as a senior captain in high school. Ross said that she held a part-time job and maintained a high GPA while competing on her year-round club team, in addition to playing for her high school team.
At Portland State, Ross is the sole member of her freshman class that is still on the team. As a Viking, Ross has seen as many highlights and awards as in her high school career.
“The highlights of my career at Portland State thus far are definitely winning the Big Sky Conference last year, taking the Golden Boot in 2008, scoring my first collegiate goal against the University of Nevada-Reno in 2007 and being named three-time Academic All-Big Sky,” Ross said.
“Winning the Big Sky Conference last year truly felt surreal,” Ross added. “Taking first place was something that we had all worked toward each year, and to finally have reached that accomplishment was an amazing feeling. I’d never been more proud to be a Viking.”
Ross said that winning the Golden Boot Award in her sophomore year was an honor she hadn’t been expecting.
“Honestly, I had no idea the award even existed before I won it,” Ross said. “All the goals that I scored that season were in-conference, and all were game-winners, so winning the award made them that much sweeter.”
Ross feels that her parents, coaches and teammates have all been instrumental in getting her to the stage she is at now.
“My parents drive me to practice every day and they encourage me,” Ross said. “The coaches—Laura, Rochelle, Mel—and my teammates, they make me work harder every day in practice.”
Ross recounts the 1-1 draw against Eastern Washington in Cheney, Wash., in last season’s Big Sky campaign as her most memorable event on the field.
“It was the last minute of play, and our central defender Toni (Carnovale) came aboard and scored the goal to tie the game,” Ross said.
Despite some injury concerns earlier this season, Ross leads the team with four goals and assists and has already set her eyes on the big prize: the NCAA Tournament.
Schott said that Ross has been working hard this season to get to this point.
“She came into camp a little banged up, but since then she’s gotten healthy, she has been performing really well,” she said. “She is always on fire during Big Sky, so I look forward to see what she has in store for the rest of the games.”
Ross’ focus though, isn’t solely on her individual performance.
“I love winning,” she said. “I love when my teammates do well; I love helping other people score. My goal is to win the Big Sky conference and get into the NCAA, whatever it takes. I think we will be first in the conference and first in the tournament, and [I think we’ll] go to the NCAA.” ?