There wasn’t a time in Jackie Woudenberg’s life when she wasn’t playing sports. Or, if there was, she doesn’t remember it.
“I think basically ever since I could walk I’ve been in athletics,” Woudenberg said. “Even in kindergarten, my dad would be like, ‘It’s gameday!’ making me get ready for whatever sport I had to compete in.”
Woudenberg, a sophomore majoring in psychology and member of the Crimson Tide rowing team, is one of five children – all of who have been athletes at one point. The family’s athletic prowess didn’t start with her and her siblings, though, it stretches back generations.
Woudenberg’s father was a former defensive tackle for Arizona State University, and her grandfather, John, played in the NFL for the Pittsburgh Steelers and San Fransisco 49ers.
“My grandfather’s last name used to be Van Woudenberg,” Jackie said. “But when he started playing professional football, the full name didn’t fit on the uniform, and he had to drop the ‘Van.’”
Coming from such an established background, Woudenberg played multiple sports throughout her childhood, including track, tee ball and gymnastics. But she admits her first love was soccer.
“I had definitely wanted to play soccer in college, but the right schools weren’t looking my way,” Woudenberg said. “So then there was rowing. I tried rowing once in high school and immediately fell in love.”
From there, she started taking recruiting visits, and major Division I programs began to take interest in she. She was courted by perennial powerhouses such as the University of Oklahoma, but the overall team dynamic and family atmosphere offered by the Crimson Tide ultimately led her to Tuscaloosa.
“I really liked the closeness the girls on the team shared here,” Woudenberg said. “Other schools weren’t really like that. Being a part of something like this, of building the program up with this coaching staff, helped me make up my mind.”
As the women’s rowing team sinks its teeth into the spring schedule, Woudenberg, now a year into the program, will look to contribute more to the group.
“Jackie is a great part of the team,” head coach Larry Davis said. “She’s a very vocal rower.”
Woudenber said that she owes her athleticism to her family.
“Definitely athletics has made me what I am,” she said. “Although I am blessed with an athletic build, being involved with sports has definitely made me disciplined and focused.”
Though much of that drive comes from within, Jackie Woudenberg gained a unique childhood experience with her family’s complete saturation in athletics. Her Dutch heritage also played an integral part, evidenced by her grandmother’s self-professed words of wisdom: “If you ain’t Dutch, you ain’t much.”
Looking over the storied history of her family’s success in sports, he might have had a point.
