At 5-foot-11 with a single blond braid that falls nearly down to her waist, Aurora Bodenhamer is hard to miss on the soccer field.
While the Hockinson High School graduate is not privy to opponents’ discussions, the Portland State University junior wing midfielder/forward sometimes senses that she is someone who draws the focus of Viking foes.
“I bet I am,” she said. “I can sometimes feel it. Some games can be kind of rough and girls are talking and saying mean things and hitting me, and I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s just another game.’ It probably also helps that I’m 5-11, so I’m automatically someone they need to watch. … I’m one of the targets. When the ball comes there, I can find a way to it.”
Bodenhamer also draws the focus of the camera, recently resuming a modeling career she began before college.
Modeling by the rule
NCAA Bylaw 12.5.1.3 from the 2015-16 NCAA Division I Manual, "Continuation of Modeling and Other Nonathletically Related Promotional Activities After Enrollment":
If an individual accepts remuneration for or permits the use of his or her name or picture to advertise or promote the sale or use of a commercial product or service prior to enrollment in a member institution, continued remuneration for the use of the individual's name or picture (under the same or similar circumstances) after enrollment is permitted without jeopardizing his or her eligibility to participate in intercollegiate athletics only if all of the following conditions apply: (Revised: 1/14/97, 3/10/04, 8/7/14)
(a) The individual's involvement in this type of activity was initiated prior to his or her enrollment in a member institution;
(b) The individual became involved in such activities for reasons independent of athletics ability;
(c) No reference is made in these activities to the individual's name or involvement in intercollegiate athletics;
(d) The individual does not endorse the commercial product; and
(e) The individual's remuneration under such circumstances is at a rate commensurate with the individual's skills and experience as a model or performer and is not based in any way upon the individual's athletics ability or reputation.
And it is not as if the attention she draws as a player stops her on the field. Portland State’s tallest player is having a breakout junior season. Bodenhamer leads the Vikings with five goals— of the team’s 12 this season — and 11 points, including a pair of game-winning goals. She is tied for eighth in the Big Sky Conference in scoring.
Her five goals this season include two penalty kicks, one header and two strikes from distance. She is one goal away from reaching the Top 10 on the Portland State career list.
Bodenhamer has started eight of the team’s 17 games this season, all but one since conference play began, providing energy whenever she gets on the field.
Portland State coach Laura Schott “always puts me in and I’m a bit fired up, and I go in there and just try my best,” Bodenhamer said.
As a freshman, Bodenhamer was named to the all-tournament team of the Outrigger Hotels and Resorts Soccer Classic after scoring a game-winner against host Hawaii, one of her two goals that season. She did not score a goal as a sophomore.
“It’s been good,” she said of her Portland State career. “It started off and I scored a couple of goals, and I was really happy. Last year was just kind of a big learning curve finding my role on the team. This year, I can feel the demise of my career with the seniors graduating, and I’m just a junior.
“Next year, I’ll be graduating and I’ll be done with soccer forever, most likely. Going into my junior year, I really just wanted to work hard. I didn’t really care if I scored goals. I just wanted to work hard and get a spot on the field. I’m happy with where I’m at right now. I just want to keep pushing myself more so that my senior year, I’m just killing it out there.”
While her growth over three seasons might be described as a model career, Bodenhamer actually has a modeling career.
Fashionable employment
Part-time jobs are not unusual for college students, and Bodenhamer works as a restaurant host outside of soccer season.
Her other pursuit is not quite so common.
After working as a model in high school but taking her first couple of college years away from it, she resumed that side career in recent months. Living in proximity to advertising and modeling agencies in downtown Portland makes it a natural fit, she said.
Being in front of the camera is hardly the only aspect of the business that interests her, though.
“I’m majoring in advertising, so I’m kind of using (modeling) as a tool to understand that spectrum of advertising — finding models and finding the person you want to represent a brand,” she said. “I’m majoring in advertising and minoring in graphic design, so the art perspective of modeling, as well. It’s fun.”
While she has not had any paid jobs, Bodenhamer said she gets work once or twice a month through her own efforts and those of her agency, Savage Models and Management.
NCAA Bylaw 12.5.1.3 establishes that student-athletes who began modeling careers before enrollment in an NCAA member school may continue in that career without jeopardizing their eligibility, subject to stated conditions.
Playing club soccer at a high level — Olympic Development Program play in U.S. Youth Soccer Region IV and earning an invitation to U.S. National Team camp — and modeling actually complement each other, Bodenhamer said, stressing the value of time management and professionalism in terms of taking seriously the task at hand.
“I’m kind of forced into it,” she said of good time management skills as a college student-athlete who also faces professional demands. “I’ve learned such good time management skills, and being at places five minutes early or 10 minutes early. And it’s just being professional. When I was traveling for soccer growing up, just having to represent yourself in such a professional manner when I was 12 or 13 years old traveling with Region IV Soccer and U.S. Soccer, I learned to try to be more professional. I’ve learned a lot, and they definitely complement each other.”
One last shot
Bodenhamer has one game remaining to reach the Top 10 on the school’s career scoring list while still a junior on Friday when the Vikings visit Sacramento State.
PSU (5-12, 3-6 Big Sky) was eliminated from contention for a place in the conference tournament over the weekend. Friday’s 1-0 loss at Montana was the team’s seventh setback this season by that score. Results of Sunday matches mean that the Vikings cannot finish in the top six of the 11-team conference and claim a tournament berth.
“As a competitor, it’s pretty difficult to not make it as far as you hoped,” Bodenhamer said. “You put in a lot of work as not only an individual, but as a team.”
The Vikings go into the season finale grateful for another chance to play “with each other and for each other, for one last time,” she said. “This is the last time I will get to play with this group of seniors and I adore them as not only athletes but as young women. Next year is only nine months away, and training begins as soon as this season ends on Friday.
“While it’s nice to have achieved a bit of individual success this year, I would trade it to be in the Big Sky tournament two weeks from now.”
