Paul Rothrock’s road back home

RENTON — It’s taken years and stops in Indiana, Washington D.C., Toronto and Tukwila; time in lower leagues; lots of introspection; and an incredible amount of work, but Paul Rothrock is finally home in Seattle as a more fully-actualized version of himself. It’s no fluke that he’s arrived at this point, and although he may still climb even higher, his hero’s journey up to this moment has helped him to become a key part of a strong Sounders side.

“I feel proud about it,” he says. “I think it’s been quite the journey, and the journey has ultimately been the best thing for me, and the best part of my development.”

A former Sounders Academy player who grew up in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, Rothrock played in college after the academy, first at Notre Dame then at Georgetown where he helped win the program’s first NCAA title, then entered the 2021 MLS SuperDraft. He was selected 63rd overall, a point in the draft where some teams had already opted to pass rather than pick. Suffice it to say, no one selected after him has enjoyed anything like the success he’s currently experiencing. Heading into the regular-season finale against the Portland Timbers on Saturday, Rothrock has 8 goals and 4 assists across all competitions and is a nearly written-in ink starter.

“I’ve come in under-looked on pretty much every single team I’ve ever been on,” Rothrock says, describing how he’s been perceived throughout his career. “I’ve never been the highly recruited prospect that’s coming in.”

Despite an impressive if not eye-catching youth career he struggled to get meaningful minutes during his two years at Notre Dame, not even playing as a freshman. Following his sophomore year at Notre Dame, Rothrock transferred to Georgetown where he had 13 starts — as many starts as he had appearances for the Fighting Irish the season before — in 24 appearances, and scored 4 goals and had 7 assists in 1,003 minutes as he helped the Hoyas win their first ever NCAA title. He followed that up with 2 goals and 4 assists in 809 minutes during an abbreviated 2020 college season.

For all that he showed during those two years at Georgetown, Rothrock was selected in the third round by Toronto FC then signed with TFC II in May 2021 and spent the better part of two seasons there. He was signed to two short-term loans with the TFC first team and made his MLS debut on May 8, 2022 as a last-minute sub in a 1-0 loss against the Vancouver Whitecaps, but Toronto never seemed to have any first-team plans for him.

Feeling a sense that he’d hit a road block, he reached out to then Tacoma Defiance head coach Wade Webber, who had coached him with the Sounders Academy, to see about an opportunity. That offseason he signed with the Defiance, returning home, but without any promises beyond getting a chance to keep playing in a familiar environment.

Rothrock now admits that he was starting the question the road he’d taken.

“I think in some of those moments: when, you know, Toronto didn’t pick me up, Toronto didn’t take me to first-team preseason and I’m a 23-year-old on a second-team roster. Then at Tacoma I’m 24 years old living at home … There’s a lot of times where I kind of asked myself, ‘what am I doing?’”

Playing at home proved to be the platform he needed. He had 7 goals and 5 assists in 1,633 minutes with Defiance. At times he was training as a fullback, while playing on the wing, because there he thought it might make ease a move to the first team.