Though their father Dick was a student-athlete and coach at University of Rochester and remained on campus as the University Athletic Association’s Executive Director, neither Bill nor Jessica Rasmussen felt any pressure to follow in his footsteps.
“I never felt like there was an expectation I would go to Rochester. I spent a lot of time on campus at sporting events and his office, but it wasn’t something I gave much thought to,” explained Bill, who played baseball. “When it came time to decide, and I did consider other schools, I felt like I already had a relationship with the university, if not the people. I didn’t know what I wanted to study or do for a career, I knew if I chose Rochester, I could go in a variety of different paths and have access to high quality choices. It was appealing to play for the UofR and be part of the things I had watched in my childhood. All that played into my decision without me even realizing it.”
A volleyball student-athlete, Jessica had much the same experience though eight years later. “My decision was very similar to Bill’s. I was able to see Rochester from all different angles, including classes and the atmosphere. I never felt I had to attend the school, but I wanted to,” she recalled. “I applied early decision and knew in my heart I would end up there. It was a comfort knowing I was a student-athlete and that the two were not mutually exclusive.”
The siblings were not surprised they ended up attending the same university, but did not expect their career paths to take them to the same place, Rush-Henrietta High School in Rochester. “I ended up here by chance, as the year I was finishing my master’s degree and getting my teaching certificate I bumped into a woman who was the director of a department here who asked me if I wanted an interview,” he recollected. “I interviewed the next week and fell into a part-time position teaching two classes in an alternative high school. That parlayed into a full-time position at the high school teaching economics.”
When he was teaching the two classes, he was done by 11 a.m. and would spend the afternoon back at his alma mater as an assistant baseball coach. His first year of teaching at the high school led to another baseball opportunity. “The baseball coach, who was a great guy, sought me out the first day of school and offered me an assistant coach position. He left coaching and moved into administration the following year, which opened the path for me to become the head coach.” He is now in his 20th season at the helm.
A psychology major, Jessica was not sure what she wanted to do after college. “I was nearing graduation going back and forth about what to do next and I mentioned to Bill that maybe I was interested in counseling. He invited me to come to his school and meet with his co-workers to see what they did. At the end of the conversation, they told me to reach out later on if I needed anything,” she commented. “I was pursuing my master’s at Rochester and needed a field placement internship so I took them up on their offer to reach out. They welcomed me into the office and my practicum and internship turned into a long-term substitution position.”
“I remember within Jessica’s first week here, people were saying, ‘We need to find a way to keep her,’” Bill stated. She is now a full-time counselor at the high school for one-sixth of the school’s student body.
The other advantages to going to school and competing at Rochester was the chance to play in front of their parents. “Even before the UAA was around, my mom (Sharon, who worked for more than 35 years as an associate professor in the Rochester Institute of Technology National Technical Institute for the Deaf and was married to Dick for 35 years before losing her battle with breast cancer in 2008) was always tied to the university through my dad. Sports were always a total family event. When UR’s men’s basketball team went on its great run, we all went to the games as a family,” Bill communicated. “From dad coaching and the UAA forming to us competing as athletes, they were always together supporting us. It just felt normal and now we look back and know how special a thing it was.”
Jessica agreed. “Whenever we looked up into the stands, it was both of our parents together supporting us. My mom was notoriously quiet most of the time and then would have bursts of being really excited,” she laughed. “That was one of the great things about competing in the UAA with the parents coming together and experiencing their children playing together and building relationships.”