Robertson has started six of seven games for Army this season.

Soccer took Tanner Robertson to West Point. And in the end, it kept him there.

This past spring, after finishing his second year at the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., Robertson, a 2007 Redmond High graduate, had to make a decision that would dramatically alter the next decade of his life.

If he stayed at West Point, he was committing his next 10 years to the Army. Once students enter their third year at the academy, there is no reversing course: Cadets owe the Army two more years at West Point, plus five years of active service and three years on reserve status.

“It’s such an immense commitment,” says the 21-year-old Robertson, who was born and raised in Central Oregon. “Every day (at the academy), it’s a grind. You definitely have to consider those (last two years at West Point), too.”

With a couple weeks of leave time built up, Robertson came home this summer to Central Oregon to think things through. He gave his parents thousands of reasons why he should not go back. The distance from family. The fast pace of the East Cost. The military commitment.

“It’s rigourous academically, physically and militarily,” Robertson says about being a cadet at the United States’ oldest military academy. “And there’s really no turning back (after committing to a third year). That’s why it’s such a big decision. Once you say yes, you’re in.”

Serious enough about transferring from the academy that he completed the application process for several different schools, Robertson returned to New York for summer soccer workouts still undecided about his future.

At least, until he was around his teammates again.

“Once I came back for summer training with the guys, I couldn’t say no to the boys on the team,” Robertson says. “I went through everything with them.”

Now in his third year with the Black Knights (West Point does not use the typical freshman through senior classifications) Robertson says he had never really thought about attending a service academy before then-Army coach Kurt Swanbeck, who first saw the Redmond standout at a club tournament in California, began recruiting him in high school. With no immediate family in the military — he does have a uncle who is a brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force — the idea of playing for Army was completely foreign to Robertson.

“Soccer’s really what attracted me to West Point,” says Robertson, who was an all-Central Valley Conference first-team selection for Redmond his senior year as well as an all-Intermountain Conference first-team pick his junior season. “(West Point) doesn’t get a lot of exposure in Oregon with New York being so far away. It wasn’t something a kid from Redmond generally thinks about.”

But Robertson wanted to play NCAA Division I soccer, and the more he looked into the academy, the more interested he became. After giving military life a chance with a year at the United States Military Academy Preparatory School in Fort Monmouth, N.J., Robertson enrolled at West Point in fall 2008.

“I made so many friends at prep school,” Robertson says, explaining his decision to play soccer at West Point. “You get a great education, you get to play Division I soccer, and I made some great friends. Once I got the green light for West Point, at that point it was, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ ”

Robertson, who was also a standout wrestler at Redmond, made an immediate impact with the Black Knights, appearing in all 17 games during his “plebe,” or freshman season, scoring the game-winning goal against Army’s archrival, Navy.

While he played in just two games last season, Robertson has started six of the Black Knights’ seven games so far this year, and he is tied for the team lead in assists with two.

Army, which won just four games in the last two seasons combined, is off to another slow start this year, having dropped its first seven games.

“It’s difficult sometimes playing at the level as other guys at the Division I level,” Robertson says about competing at the NCAA’s highest competition level while balancing military commitments. Last summer, for instance, instead of playing on a developmental squad somewhere like most Division I soccer players, Robertson was at Fort Knox, Ky., learning tank warfare.

“But we’re competing with them,” Robertson adds. “We do a pretty good job from the heart standpoint and how much we care about each other and the sport.”

With less than two years remaining at the academy, Robertson is still undecided on what field of the Army he wants pursue after West Point. (All cadets who graduate receive a Bachelor of Science degree and enter the Army as commissioned officers.) He mentions finance or even aviation — Robertson says a number of his soccer teammates want to fly helicopters.

Whatever it is — and wherever he ends up — he says he is glad to be part of the fabled Long Gray Line.

“West Point is bigger than me,” Robertson says about his decision to commit to the Army past his 30th birthday. “There’s too many people to let down. The people in Iraq and Afghanistan. My parents and grandparents. … You’re doing something meaningful that outweighs what you could do for yourself in the civilian world.

“Giving up the next 10 years,” Robertson adds, “it’s not just about me.”