Across the back of Savannah Jordan’s neck, in ink, reads "The Dash."
It signifies the dash in between the date someone was born and the date someone dies.
That dash represents a person’s life, what they accomplished in it and the impact they made on those around them.
Jordan wants her dash to be meaningful. She wants it to be spent playing the game she loves with the people who matter most to her, even if it wasn’t always the dash she envisioned.
With the raw talent and abilities that Jordan displays on the soccer field for the Florida Gators, one would think that she was born juggling a soccer ball. That, however, was not the case by any means.
Jordan grew up in a sports environment.
Herself, along with her three sisters, were very active and outdoors a lot throughout their childhood in Fayetteville, Georgia.
"I was more of like the tomboy in the family that really wanted to be into sports," Jordan said.
But soccer was not her first sport.
Before she put on her first pair of cleats when she was 12, Jordan was a black belt and junior Olympic champion in taekwondo.
Jordan said she made the transition to soccer because she wanted to be part of a sport that she could have more of a collegiate and professional future.
Mission accomplished.
So how did Jordan go from a brand new soccer player at age 12 to getting college offers before her freshman year of college? She gives credit to her long time coach and trainer, Mac Williams.
Jordan said coaches had difficulty finding a position for her to play in her first year of club soccer.
"I wasn’t good at anything else," Jordan said, "so they just put me in goal."
Upon realizing that she despised playing goalkeeper and wanted to be playing on the field, Jordan switched club teams to the Concorde Fire, where she met Williams in her first season.
Williams said in a phone interview that, when Jordan began, she was the least skilled player on the team.
But Jordan worked hard and quickly got better.
Williams said she began to elevate past her teammates.
Williams said Jordan’s rapid development and growth as a player were due to her intense drive to be the best player she could be. She was intent on improving herself every day.
"She came, she made the team and, during the summer, she said she wanted to train," Williams said. "I said ‘what days do you want to train?’ and she said Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday."
In the time they trained together, Jordan said Williams taught her everything that she needed to know to be a great player.
She would never play goalkeeper again.
"He basically trained me in everything that I knew, started from scratch with nothing," Jordan said. "He basically taught me how to put my cleats on, and from there he just built on everything every day and kind of got me to where I am."
The relationship between the two is more than a player and a coach.
Williams said he considers Jordan one of his children, and the feeling is mutual.
"He was my trainer and my club coach, and now he’s just kind of like my second dad," Jordan said.
Jordan then played for Concorde throughout high school, where she quickly developed and only got stronger at the forward position.
It was early in her playing days, however, that she was already receiving letters and interest from colleges across the country.
In fact, it was the summer before her freshman year of high school when Jordan first started hearing from colleges.
Her hometown being Fayetteville, Jordan heard from many Southeastern Conference schools early in the recruitment process. She didn’t limit herself to the South, though. Jordan said she took trips all over the country in search of the university that fit her best.
"Growing up, I didn’t have a school that was a dream school for me to go to or a university that I knew I really wanted to attend," Jordan said. "I kind of looked at any school that was really interested in me."
In her sophomore year of high school, Jordan committed to Auburn University. She soon realized, though, that it wasn’t the right fit for her and, in the summer before her junior year, she decided to de-commit.
That’s when Florida entered the picture.
Victor Campbell, the Gators’ associate head coach, reached out to Jordan and expressed Florida’s interest during her early years of high school.
Unfortunately for the Gators, Jordan had just committed to Auburn, but Campbell didn’t give up the pursuit.
"I could see the potential in this kid," Campbell said. "Her best days were still ahead of her."
Soon after Jordan de-committed from Auburn, Campbell got a phone call from Jordan’s club coach saying that she would like to take a visit to Florida.
That visit would be the first real interaction between Jordan and the University of Florida.
It would prove to be a good one.
"You could just tell on her visit that she was more focused, more serious, really goal-oriented in terms of knowing what she wanted," said Florida head coach Becky Burleigh. "And that’s different from a lot of kids."
That visit ended up being all Jordan needed to make her decision on where she would play her college soccer.
She said she loved the fact that the Florida coaches and players created a family atmosphere.
"Once I came down, I ended up meeting all the coaches and just kind of fell in love with the school," Jordan said.
Mac Williams said he received a phone call from Jordan shortly after she committed to Florida.
"She told me when she walked in there …she saw it was a place of champions," Williams said, "and she said ‘this is where I want to be’."
After a breakout first year in college, Jordan was named an All-American, the National Rookie of the Year and SEC Offensive Player of the Year after starting every game for Florida. She scored an astounding 22 goals, second all-time for a Florida freshman.
Jordan was named to the U.S. U-20 World Cup roster this past July after scoring five goals in as many matches for the national team in January.
Now in her sophomore season with the Gators, Savannah Jordan is exactly where she wants to be. She is "beyond glad that it all happened the way it did."
Jordan said that she owes her success to her parents, club coaches and everyone who has helped her along her journey of pursuing a successful soccer career, but that she didn’t envision such prosperity in such a short amount of time.
"I came in with not that big of expectations," Jordan said. "And even now…I still have next goals in mind."
Follow Alex Maminakis on Twitter @Alex_Maminakis
Savannah Jordan kicks the ball during Florida's 5-1 win against Mississippi State on Oct. 10.
