The six-o’clock shadow was encroaching on Koskinen Stadium, reflecting the dampened mood of the Blue Devil faithful. North Carolina had a 1-0 lead on Duke with the minutes winding down, as if the chance of a tie or victory was fading into oblivion. However, there was one player on the field determined to be the bright light in the impending darkness — sophomore phenom Kat Rader.
Sprinting into the box with multiple players marking her, the forward got her head on a cross from freshman Cameron Roller, just barely deflecting it to the left panel of the net. With exactly one minute left on the clock, the Stuart, Fla., native was the hero, never flinching in the face of unrelenting pressure.
That Sunday was but one example of the raw talent Rader possesses. Coming to Durham as the No. 5 overall prospect in the class of 2022, she was bound for stardom as she led ACC freshmen with 12 goals and tied for second nationally among first-years while playing alongside MAC Hermann Trophy-winner Michelle Cooper. Rader’s nose for the goal earned her ACC Freshman of the Year, All-ACC Second Team and College Soccer News All-Freshman First Team honors.
“[When teams] look at the Duke attackers, her name is gonna be circled,” said head coach Robbie Church at a preseason media availability. “She is a very competitive young lady, so she can thrive in that situation … and wants to score goals.”
Rader has done just that in the 2023 campaign thus far. Leading the team with seven goals, the Jensen Beach alum ranks joint-sixth in the ACC for tallies on the season. The argument could be made that the sophomore is one of the best forwards in the conference and the nation at large.
A certified collegiate sensation, Rader takes the superstar references and pressure in stride, never letting the moment get too big. So how did she get to be the extremely talented yet humble and hard-working heroine she is?
The answer is pretty simple: She was built on a good foundation.
Committing to the game
The third of four siblings, Rader’s first foray with soccer was a result of following in her older sister’s path. Itching at the opportunity to play after watching her sister’s games and practices, the native Floridian finally got her moment when she was four years old. Playing in a local league at the YMCA on the “Yellow Team,” she got her first taste of the game.
“Kat was always there at [her sister’s] practices and couldn’t wait for the chance to play,” Christine Rader, Kat’s mother, told The Chronicle. “But you know, she was like all those younger kids, they just kind of run around cluster chasing.”
While soccer was certainly on the brain, the future Blue Devil was by no means a one-sport athlete. She experimented with different things at the behest of her parents, playing basketball for a year and competing in lacrosse and gymnastics alongside soccer. In fact, the sports world almost saw Rader in a leotard rather than soccer cleats.
“I think for a while I wanted to go to the Olympics for gymnastics,” Rader said. “And then I sort of realized I was probably going to be too tall for that.”
Despite entertaining multiple sports, the Duke sensation started to invest in her soccer career. She moved from the YMCA to a team of mostly six-, seven- and eight-year-old boys, training and playing randomly scheduled games. Noticing her interest, Rader’s parents helped her join her first official club, a U9 local travel team.
At this new level, she excelled, scoring an uncountable number of goals. Her performance was so incredible that it even caught the eye of one of her coaches from her previous team playing with the boys.
“I feel like I’m looking at a future youth national team player there,” Christine recalled the coach remarking.
At age 10, still doing gymnastics and now tennis too, Rader committed to a West Palm Beach club team. The 30-minute drive was worth it for Rader’s parents to see their future Blue Devil develop herself as a player rather than focusing on winning. Nonetheless, Rader still was not ready to buy into soccer alone.
Everything changed when the Rader family traveled to the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada. After going to the first two group-stage games, something clicked for the 11-year-old. In love with soccer and determined to get better on her own, she started going out into the backyard and practicing with the ball. A year later, she quit gymnastics and devoted her life to the sport.
“I kind of realized that soccer was what I wanted to do,” Rader said. “I wanted to go to the World Cup and play like I saw the U.S. play.”
Emerging star
Committing herself to the game, Rader got to practicing. Using the family’s turfed three-car garage, she trained for hours and hours doing technical drills and passing the ball off a wall until she was dripping in sweat.
By 13, Rader had outgrown the local area in terms of club teams. She and her family made the decision to travel two hours from home to Orlando for her to play in the Development Academy (DA) run by U.S. Soccer. Despite the time commitment with three other kids, Christine had no qualms about the driving time.
“When you have a kid that just shows so much initiative and passion, we tried to do our best to help her achieve whatever goals she had,” Christine said.
“My mom has sacrificed so much for me … she would drive me every single day, three to four times a week,” Rader added. “And then my dad is just my biggest supporter … he’s always cheering me on.”
Kat commits
Starting out, the 2022 ACC Freshman of the Year did not know much about college soccer. Her only real experience came from a North Carolina camp when she was nine, and the reason she was familiar with the program was because of its illustrious history. It wasn’t until she was 14 and started to get offers that things began to change.
“She was with the Orlando Pride DA, and they had a showcase, and there were coaches just watching,” Christine said. “Then her coach came out and said, ‘Hey, Duke wants to talk to you, FSU wants to talk to you, Penn State wants to talk to you.’”
While eighth grade seems young to be receiving offers, the NCAA Division I recruiting rules had not yet changed to prohibit such early contact. With a push to get commitments on the part of the coaches, Rader was set to make a choice as a freshman in high school without knowing what the team’s roster would look like when she finally got to her institution.
So the hard question: Where?
Initially, Rader was not overly concerned with playing in college. If anything, she saw Division-I play as a stepping stone.
“I think I sort of knew that I always wanted to play in college, because that’s like the natural pathway. But my real goal was to play for the national team,” Rader said. “And if going to [a] good Power 5 [school] is going to help get me there, then that’s obviously what I need to do.”
It was one of Duke’s former assistant coaches that put the school in the front running. Talking to the future Blue Devil about the team and institution was enough to convince the Rader family to visit Durham. Apart from the beautiful campus and opportunities for academic and athletic success, it was the people that drew Rader in.
“I’m a big people person … I wanted to go to an environment that was going to also feel like my family,” Rader said. “I really connected with the coaching staff here and just really felt like they cared about me a lot as a person and also as a player.”
“She really liked Robbie [Church] and just thought they were great people,” Christine added.
With that, Rader became a Blue Devil.
The collegiate stage
Nearly four years after her commitment to Duke, Rader finally arrived in Durham.
She still, however, had to deal with learning curves. While high-level club competition and international experience were her best forms of preparation, the speed of play was unlike anything she had encountered before, along with the attacking and defending intensity. Fortunately, the newly minted freshman had people in her corner to advise her. Senior Sophie Jones and Cooper were instrumental in guiding her through the opening stages of collegiate athletics, while her parents prepared her before she even got to campus.
“My biggest advice was to be ready,” Christine said. “Control what you can control and let the rest happen. And you can’t let any of that other stuff affect you mentally.”
While Rader had fun in the preseason, the start to regular competition did not go exactly as planned. Heading into the third game of Duke’s 2022 campaign at Tennessee, the forward had not scored her first collegiate goal yet. On top of that, she had found out she wasn’t starting the game, adding insult to injury.
For Rader, though, there is something about an away crowd. In front of a sold-out stadium with fans heckling her team, it was her moment. Locked at a 2-2 tie in the 81st minute, Cooper fired a long ball from midfield to graduate student Delaney Graham. The midfielder drove into the box before passing the ball off to the freshman, who executed flawlessly.
“I don’t even think I realized that I actually scored my first goal. I just kind of realized that we were now winning the game,” said Rader. “But it was really special after to reflect on … it was a relief off my shoulders to finally … help my team win a big game.”
Rader scored 11 more times that season and combined with Cooper for 31 of the team’s 46 goals on the year. In that time, Duke had tremendous postseason success with wins against Virginia, Texas and South Carolina as well as a penalty-kick shootout loss to North Carolina and a double-overtime heartbreaker against Alabama that were each indicative of the team’s capability.
The international stage
While she has made a name for herself collegiately, Rader still has her eyes on the ultimate prize — playing for the senior U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team.
Starting with her idolization of striker Alex Morgan, the Floridian has been a lifelong fan of the storied program that has made a name for women’s soccer. The sophomore can instantly name her favorite player on the roster.
“Right now, I would probably say Sophia Smith,” Rader said. “I really admire [how she has] confidence on the ball and just takes people on, scores from all different areas of the field in all different ways.
Following in the footsteps of her idols, the forward has already gotten her first tastes of international acclaim. After getting her first call-up at 13, she has not looked back. Most recently tabbed to the U20 team for the CONCACAF Women’s Championship this summer, Rader has represented the U.S. alongside fellow ACC talents such as Maggie Cagle of Virginia and Ally Sentnor and Tessa Dellarose of North Carolina.
A self-described “people person” who thrives in community settings, Rader fits right into the supportive and team-oriented environment of the national team. Though she has undoubtedly improved through the high level of competition and quality of play these experiences bring, the women beside her on the pitch define her memories most.
“Just getting to meet different girls who are just as passionate about the sport as I am and have the same goals as me [is really cool],” Rader said.
“To represent my country at any stage, even if it’s just a domestic camp, is always such an honor,” she added.
Wearing the red, white and blue for the senior squad is certainly the endgame for the Duke star, but the dream is about more than fame or fortune. It goes deeper than winning or scoring goals or lifting a World Cup trophy. At its core, this athletic acme is not about the name on the back of the jersey; it’s about the crest on the front.
Back to the present
Over a year after her collegiate debut, the sophomore is back with the same scoring drive but a different role. With Cooper gone, Rader has assumed much of the scoring responsibilities while creating opportunities for her teammates. She has performed admirably with her seven tallies on the year combined with two assists.
While her position on the pitch changed from a scoring perspective, it is her leadership that is now taking center stage. Going from a debutante to veteran in the span of a year, Rader is now tasked with being the mentor and role model for freshman players. The superstar, though not the most talkative, leads through the way she carries herself and presents her work ethic. It does not take a vocal leader to model what the Duke women’s soccer program is about.
As Rader looks forward to the rest of her sophomore campaign, she has complete faith in her team despite a bumpy few games. With just two contests left in the regular season, she is already looking forward to her squad’s postseason potential.
“I want to help our team win the ACC tournament, because I think that’s the nearest goal right now,” Rader said.
With a rare combination of unimaginable skill and fierce humility, Rader has already written an incredible chapter in Blue Devil history. Her star-studded future in Durham is sure to produce many more pages, but after hanging up her Duke-blue cleats, No. 2 will still have one final story to pen — the tale of a little girl from Florida, fulfilling her hopes and dreams in the stars and stripes.
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Mackenzie Sheehy is a Trinity junior and associate editor for The Chronicle's 120th volume.