Rene Rodriguez is the embodiment of Chattanooga FC's full player pathway.
Rodriguez started playing for the Chattanooga FC Foundation's Operation Get Active (OGA) program when he was nine years old. OGA is an after-school program primarily for fourth and fifth-graders. Rodriguez did not apply himself to soccer until his time with OGA.
After COVID-19 subsided and life opened back up again, Rodriguez was an eighth grader without a club. His dear friend and his friend's father invited him to play for a U13 and U14 CFC Youth team. Rodriguez would play for CFC Youth in the fall and in the spring with the Howard High School Hustlin' Tigers. Rodriguez's coach at Howard, Coach Jose Otero, is regularly heard over the Finley Stadium speakers at Chattanooga FC matches as the club's PA announcer.
Rodriguez did not plan to play beyond high school. But he tried out for the Chattanooga U20 UPSL Division 1 team in the summer of 2025 and made the team.
Rodriguez also exemplifies the spirit of hard work that runs through Chattanooga. He works for a framing company during the day with one of his teammates and practices at night. Work takes him all over the Greater Chattanooga region, sometimes as far as Dunlap. Rodriguez will send Chattanooga FC U20 Head Coach John Miglarese a photo of his worksite to let the boss know when he will be late to training. Miglarese and Assistant Coach Emanuele Cocuzza have been understanding of Rodriguez's work commitments.Â
The U20 team has taught Rodriguez more about tactical preparation for matches tailored specifically to upcoming opposition. It has also ingrained more discipline in him. On nights that he cannot make training due to work, he will run along the river for over an hour and practice his shooting well into the night.
"There has definitely been a change of commitment that I've seen in Rene," said Cocuzza, who also serves as the CFC Youth Senior Boys Program Director. "Last fall I really started seeing Rene become invested in the team and our games. He would encourage his teammates when the level would drop. He helped us a lot towards the end of the season when we were fighting for a playoff spot. There has also been a change of intensity I've seen. Our style of play involves a lot of pressing and high-intensity running.
"At first, I don't think Rene loved that! (laughs). But he has really developed his understanding of the importance off-the-ball running. Our philosophy is to run for 30 per cent of the match so you can have it for 70 per cent of the match."
Cocuzza also credits Rodriguez for being an important bridge between the youngest players on the team with the oldest ones. Rodriguez regularly plays Sunday league matches with full-grown adults from a myriad of cultures, further deepening his understanding of the game and rapidly maturing him.
When Rodriguez joined the U20 team he heard that there would be an opportunity for players that excelled in that environment to train with Chattanooga FC's MLS NEXT Pro team.
CFC Sporting Director Sebastian Giraldo asked Miglarese and Cocuzza to build a sheet to track the progress of U20 players. During the off-season ahead of the 2026 MLS NEXT Pro campaign, Giraldo asked the U20 coaches to send any athletes they felt were ready for the next step to train with the professional team during its 2026 preseason.
The coaches believed Rodriguez was ready for the experience. Rodriguez showed he could play in the No9 or No10 position and never backed down from opposition both physically and emotionally.
Rodriguez received an invitation from Giraldo to join the first team during preseason along with two of his team-mates, JJ Grimaldo and Luke Rosellini.Â
"The first session was a windy and cold day," said Rodriguez. "During the warm-ups I had a flashback to when I was with OGA, went to a CFC match and I told myself, 'I'm going to play here with the pros one day.' When I was younger I would see people's parents at games, but I have had to do it mostly alone. When I was little before I would leave the front door, my parents would tell me, 'Eche las ganas', which means 'Go for it' or 'don't give up'."
Rodriguez's parents were able to finally watch him last spring during his high school matches. Before that, Rodriguez would send his dad clips of some of his goals; proof of progress.
He even made an appearance for the Chattanooga FC first team in a closed-door match during preseason, playing over 20 minutes.
"It felt like some of the Georgia vs Tennessee High School All-Star games I would play in at Finley."
Rodriguez says that his conversation with captain Alex McGrath and Tate Robertson will stick with him the most; the latest chapter in his journey up the Chattanooga FC pathway.
Eche las ganas.
