Helen Gloria Roden (born 26 March 1986) is a professional athlete who played for

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

club

TCU Horned Frogs The TCU Horned Frogs are the athletic teams that represent Texas Christian University. The 18 varsity teams participate in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA Division I and in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for football, competi ...

and for

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

club Collingwood in the

AFL Women's AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football competition for women's Australian rules football, female players. The 2017 AFL Women's season, first season of the l ...

(AFLW).

Early life and state football

Roden was born in

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

and moved to

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

at the age of one. As a teenager she played in local football clubs, including six years at Oak Park where she won the

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

award, but moved to basketball since there were no girls' teams after the age of 16. She played for the Victorian School girls' basketball team from 1999 to 2003 and competed for the Australian School girls' basketball team from 2000 to 2003, before graduating from Penola Catholic College in 2003. Roden returned to football in August 2016, playing the last two games of the season with VFLW club VU Western Spurs, kicking a goal in each game.

Basketball career

In her junior college year, Roden played for

Odessa College Odessa College is a public junior college in Odessa, Texas. The college serves the people of Ector County and the Permian Basin. It was established in 1946 and enrolled 8,024 students in fall 2021 and 7,679 students in spring 2022 in its univ ...

in the

Western Junior College Athletic Conference The Western Junior College Athletic Conference (WJCAC) is a junior college athletic conference for many technical and community colleges within the Southwest states of Texas and New Mexico, sponsored by the National Junior College Athletic Associ ...

(WJCAC). In 2005–06, her final year, she averaged 15.1 points, 7.7 assists and 2.5 steals per game, and led Odessa College to the

NJCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship The NJCAA Division I women's basketball championship is an American intercollegiate College basketball, basketball tournament conducted by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), and determines the Division I women's national cha ...

final, which they lost to

Monroe Community College Monroe Community College (MCC) is a public community college in Monroe County, New York. It is part of the State University of New York. The college has two campuses; the main campus in the town of Brighton, and the Downtown Campus in the City ...

. She was named the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches Junior College Player of the Year, selected for all-conference, all-region and all-state teams, and was selected to try out for the Junior Australian Team in 2006. In 2006, Roden joined

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private university, private research university in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison Clark, Addison and Randolph Clark as the AddRan Male & Female College. It i ...

's team, the

. In her junior year, she played in every game, starting 21 of them. She finished fifth on the team with a scoring average of 6.0. In her senior year, she played mostly off the bench, recording reserve-best averages of 23.2 minutes and 8.2 points per game. She was ranked fourth on the squad and 25th in the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

in average scoring that season.

AFL Women's career

Roden returned to football with the encouragement of her brother, David Rodan, and was signed by Collingwood as a rookie-listed player. She made her debut in round one, 2017, in the inaugural AFLW match at

IKON Park Princes Park (also known as Ikon Park under naming rights) is an Australian rules football ground located inside the Princes Park precinct in the inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton North. Officially the Carlton Recreation Ground, it is a hi ...

against Carlton, which she ended on the interchange bench due to an injury to her left leg. Roden was delisted by Collingwood ahead of the 2018 season.

Personal life

Roden's brother is David Rodan, retired professional footballer who played for

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...

, and

. Roden spells her last name differently to the rest of her family due to a passport error which was never fixed.

Statistics

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2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

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References

External links

Profile
at

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Roden, Helen Living people 1986 births Fijian emigrants to Australia TCU Horned Frogs women's basketball players Collingwood Football Club (AFLW) players VFL/AFL players born in Fiji Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state)