
Photo by: Tanner Ecker/UM Photo
Ally Henrikson is back. She’s so, so back
7/23/2024 3:09:00 PM | Soccer
It was just last month that Ally Henrikson was in Zimbabwe, competing in that country's 50th Air Rally, an annual event that isn't a race but a test of old-school navigation skills, one pilot's prowess against another's as they attempt to best follow the day's map and route sheet.
Allowed within a plane's cockpit: a stopwatch, an airspeed indicator, a magnetic compass. That's about it. GPS devices and smartphones? Forbidden. Keep them turned off. Better yet, don't even have them aboard. This is flying as it was first devised, visual, by feel and instinct, with minimal instrumentation.
Each pilot chooses a set speed for the daily route, then uses the aircraft's flaps in an attempt to fly over each of the ground-based checkpoints at just the right moment, the best of them doing so within a second of their projected time. Need to orbit to get back on track? Don't. Automatic disqualification.
The speed for Henrikson's single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza? One hundred thirty-nine knots, which is about 160 miles per hour to you and me, those of us who don't know the wonders of flying, not just a passenger in a wide-body aircraft but at the controls of a plane that sits four comfortably, six if needed.
And most of the pilots had the skills necessary to hit their points from their chosen speeds within mere seconds. High-level stuff.
Okay, okay, she wasn't actually competing or even in the two-pilot cockpit. She was seated farther back, not part of the action but, oh, what a window seat she had as the plane flew between 500 and 1,500 feet above ground, one day near the spectacular Victoria Falls, another over Lake Kariba.
When it was time for the first aircraft to land, Rally organizers used helicopters to coax zebras and other wildlife off the runways. "Insane from the air. It was pretty out of this world," Henrikson says of the experience.
She's been along for the ride, near the action but not quite part of it, too often the last two years, particularly on the soccer field.
She was a revelation as a true sophomore, starting on the back line from the opener in 2022, someone commenting to Griz coach Chris Citowicki after an early-season match that Henrikson might just have been the best player on the field that day. He agreed.
She scored her first collegiate goal in Montana's 6-0 home win over MSU Billings on Sept. 2 of that year, a soccer player truly in full. Two days later, all of it came tumbling down when she suffered a knee injury against CSU Bakersfield.
It's never been quite the same since, too much time spent watching from the sideline, not enough on the field during those 90 special minutes that only come maybe 20 times each fall, when the games matter, when championships are being pursued, what the rest of the year is built around.
She didn't play again during the 2022 season, then saw only 32 minutes across three matches last fall, setbacks extending her recovery beyond a calendar year, or what felt like a lifetime, even more agonizing as Montana had a season for the ages, going 13-3-3 in 2023.
"I tested okay but I was still compensating in so many ways," she says of attempts to return to play last fall. "I wasn't strong enough physically, and a lot of it was still mental for me."
She was there for all of it, the memorable home game against Ohio State that drew nearly 2,000 fans to South Campus Stadium, the win over Oklahoma in Spokane, the postgame celebration after clinching the Big Sky Conference regular-season championship at home.
Part of it but not an essential piece of it, a small but important distinction, her uniform always clean after matches, no blood, sweat or tears shed from truly being in the arena, in the battle.
"When you're on the sideline, you're part of it, but when you're on the field, you're in the action when someone scores. When someone makes a big play, you can go right over to them and give them a high-five," she says. "It's another level of fire when you're right next to someone. You can't beat it."
Did those 16 months affect her mental health? Of course, as the ordeal would anyone who has something they love taken away from them. Did it affect her spirit? You wouldn't have known it. How else does a girl turn a bunch of DNP's into a pair of Heart of a Grizzly postseason team awards?
She might not have played in a match, but it was Henrikson around whom all her teammates circled before kickoff as she took them from ready to frothy, more than two dozen players sucked in, hanging on her every word. Who could argue with the results?
By her own admission, she needed some separation, and she got it last December and January between fall and spring semesters, back home in southern Colorado. While strengthening her left leg, she worked on herself, accepting that she could only control what she could control.
She had to let go of the past, everything that had happened, and embrace the future. She left the weight of past disappointments behind and returned in January with a new perspective, freer, unburdened.
"I came into the spring fresh and ready to go. It was a new slate for me," she says. "I didn't put any pressure on myself. I allowed myself to take a step back and trust the process a little bit more instead of forcing it. It was trusting that I would be okay again."
At one point during her recovery, there were questions if she would ever be able to play competitive college soccer again. She answered those questions in the spring, so much so that Citowicki, who has a rock-solid back line returning, needed to find time for Henrikson. Somewhere. Anywhere.
She was back. She was so, so back. And that's a major win for the Grizzlies, the player and the person combining to lift a program even higher.
The soccer equivalent of the five-tool baseball player, Henrikson can play just about anywhere on the field. For the upcoming season you'll see her playing in the midfield, her skillset fitting perfectly in the sizeable hole that was left by the graduation of Sydney Haustein and Kathleen Aitchison.
"I'm so excited for the season. I finally feel like I'm ready to go. My sophomore year was the last time I felt like this," Henrikson says. "I have another level of motivation and excitement from being out. I also have a feeling of thankfulness that I get to do this again and do it with this team."
Which takes us to Africa, South Africa to be exact, where Henrikson spent a month on an internship, an opportunity lined up by her dad through an old friend and fellow pilot, the next in line at a third-generation, family-run business that manufactures machinery to can foods and employs 300 in Paarl.
"Lot of robotics, lots of engineering, which I know nothing about," says Henrikson, a finance major.
A deep-down hodophile, Henrikson jumped at the chance to visit South Africa and bounced from department to department as she learned the in's and out's of the business, going on a delivery run to Cape Town one day, doing inventory in the supply shop another, then moving over to accounting.
And there was the Zimbabwe Air Rally. And the safari. Because it's impossible to know Ally Henrikson and not want her within your orbit, he offered her a job, give him one year, see how it goes, for when she graduates, when soccer is wrapped up.
But now we're getting ahead of ourselves. She's got two years of eligibility remaining as a Grizzly and they've been earned, the hard way. She isn't going to waste or overlook them, not when every chance to be on the field at something near full health is a gift.
On Monday it was announced that Henrikson and Charley Boone will be this season's captains, and what a ride it promises to be.
A record of 13-3-3 last year. A final RPI of 96. An unbeaten run through the Big Sky. A who-will-ever-forget-it party in the locker room following Montana's home win over Sacramento State that wrapped up the regular-season title.
We, their fans, want more of it. More, more, more. Bring on the Rumble in the Rockies. Bring on Washington State, Boise State, Northern Arizona, Idaho, the Big Sky tournament in Missoula in early November. Let's get this thing going, like right now.
Oops, there we go again, getting ahead of ourselves. "Nothing rolls forward," says Henrikson. "You have to earn it all over again, prove yourself all over again. No matter what our record was last year, you have to start over."
They know it. It's why they are out there each morning while you're just getting out of bed, putting in the work shortly after the sun rises. They want to be as good as they were last season, plus a little bit better. Nine goals allowed? They want to lower it. Thirty-three goals scored? Not good enough.
Last season raised the expectations for this fall, which was always Citowicki's vision, new teams with new faces for each new season but always with the goal of a trophy raised overhead at the end. But we remind ourselves that it is July 23, one week before the official start of practice.
To overlook the small steps that make up the journey is to lose appreciation for everything that goes into it. Henrikson knows that better than anyone.
"You can't be thinking about (championships). You have to be thinking about the conditioning you're putting in. Just this morning we were all huffing and puffing on the field. You're not thinking, this is going to win us the Big Sky title, but it's a chip in the pot," Henrikson says.
"It's just day by day, trusting the process." Oh captain, my captain! Who would you rather have in a position of leadership?
Allowed within a plane's cockpit: a stopwatch, an airspeed indicator, a magnetic compass. That's about it. GPS devices and smartphones? Forbidden. Keep them turned off. Better yet, don't even have them aboard. This is flying as it was first devised, visual, by feel and instinct, with minimal instrumentation.
Each pilot chooses a set speed for the daily route, then uses the aircraft's flaps in an attempt to fly over each of the ground-based checkpoints at just the right moment, the best of them doing so within a second of their projected time. Need to orbit to get back on track? Don't. Automatic disqualification.
The speed for Henrikson's single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza? One hundred thirty-nine knots, which is about 160 miles per hour to you and me, those of us who don't know the wonders of flying, not just a passenger in a wide-body aircraft but at the controls of a plane that sits four comfortably, six if needed.
And most of the pilots had the skills necessary to hit their points from their chosen speeds within mere seconds. High-level stuff.
Okay, okay, she wasn't actually competing or even in the two-pilot cockpit. She was seated farther back, not part of the action but, oh, what a window seat she had as the plane flew between 500 and 1,500 feet above ground, one day near the spectacular Victoria Falls, another over Lake Kariba.
When it was time for the first aircraft to land, Rally organizers used helicopters to coax zebras and other wildlife off the runways. "Insane from the air. It was pretty out of this world," Henrikson says of the experience.
She's been along for the ride, near the action but not quite part of it, too often the last two years, particularly on the soccer field.
She was a revelation as a true sophomore, starting on the back line from the opener in 2022, someone commenting to Griz coach Chris Citowicki after an early-season match that Henrikson might just have been the best player on the field that day. He agreed.
She scored her first collegiate goal in Montana's 6-0 home win over MSU Billings on Sept. 2 of that year, a soccer player truly in full. Two days later, all of it came tumbling down when she suffered a knee injury against CSU Bakersfield.
It's never been quite the same since, too much time spent watching from the sideline, not enough on the field during those 90 special minutes that only come maybe 20 times each fall, when the games matter, when championships are being pursued, what the rest of the year is built around.
She didn't play again during the 2022 season, then saw only 32 minutes across three matches last fall, setbacks extending her recovery beyond a calendar year, or what felt like a lifetime, even more agonizing as Montana had a season for the ages, going 13-3-3 in 2023.
"I tested okay but I was still compensating in so many ways," she says of attempts to return to play last fall. "I wasn't strong enough physically, and a lot of it was still mental for me."
She was there for all of it, the memorable home game against Ohio State that drew nearly 2,000 fans to South Campus Stadium, the win over Oklahoma in Spokane, the postgame celebration after clinching the Big Sky Conference regular-season championship at home.
Part of it but not an essential piece of it, a small but important distinction, her uniform always clean after matches, no blood, sweat or tears shed from truly being in the arena, in the battle.
"When you're on the sideline, you're part of it, but when you're on the field, you're in the action when someone scores. When someone makes a big play, you can go right over to them and give them a high-five," she says. "It's another level of fire when you're right next to someone. You can't beat it."
Did those 16 months affect her mental health? Of course, as the ordeal would anyone who has something they love taken away from them. Did it affect her spirit? You wouldn't have known it. How else does a girl turn a bunch of DNP's into a pair of Heart of a Grizzly postseason team awards?
She might not have played in a match, but it was Henrikson around whom all her teammates circled before kickoff as she took them from ready to frothy, more than two dozen players sucked in, hanging on her every word. Who could argue with the results?
By her own admission, she needed some separation, and she got it last December and January between fall and spring semesters, back home in southern Colorado. While strengthening her left leg, she worked on herself, accepting that she could only control what she could control.
She had to let go of the past, everything that had happened, and embrace the future. She left the weight of past disappointments behind and returned in January with a new perspective, freer, unburdened.
"I came into the spring fresh and ready to go. It was a new slate for me," she says. "I didn't put any pressure on myself. I allowed myself to take a step back and trust the process a little bit more instead of forcing it. It was trusting that I would be okay again."
At one point during her recovery, there were questions if she would ever be able to play competitive college soccer again. She answered those questions in the spring, so much so that Citowicki, who has a rock-solid back line returning, needed to find time for Henrikson. Somewhere. Anywhere.
She was back. She was so, so back. And that's a major win for the Grizzlies, the player and the person combining to lift a program even higher.
The soccer equivalent of the five-tool baseball player, Henrikson can play just about anywhere on the field. For the upcoming season you'll see her playing in the midfield, her skillset fitting perfectly in the sizeable hole that was left by the graduation of Sydney Haustein and Kathleen Aitchison.
"I'm so excited for the season. I finally feel like I'm ready to go. My sophomore year was the last time I felt like this," Henrikson says. "I have another level of motivation and excitement from being out. I also have a feeling of thankfulness that I get to do this again and do it with this team."
Which takes us to Africa, South Africa to be exact, where Henrikson spent a month on an internship, an opportunity lined up by her dad through an old friend and fellow pilot, the next in line at a third-generation, family-run business that manufactures machinery to can foods and employs 300 in Paarl.
"Lot of robotics, lots of engineering, which I know nothing about," says Henrikson, a finance major.
A deep-down hodophile, Henrikson jumped at the chance to visit South Africa and bounced from department to department as she learned the in's and out's of the business, going on a delivery run to Cape Town one day, doing inventory in the supply shop another, then moving over to accounting.
And there was the Zimbabwe Air Rally. And the safari. Because it's impossible to know Ally Henrikson and not want her within your orbit, he offered her a job, give him one year, see how it goes, for when she graduates, when soccer is wrapped up.
But now we're getting ahead of ourselves. She's got two years of eligibility remaining as a Grizzly and they've been earned, the hard way. She isn't going to waste or overlook them, not when every chance to be on the field at something near full health is a gift.
On Monday it was announced that Henrikson and Charley Boone will be this season's captains, and what a ride it promises to be.
A record of 13-3-3 last year. A final RPI of 96. An unbeaten run through the Big Sky. A who-will-ever-forget-it party in the locker room following Montana's home win over Sacramento State that wrapped up the regular-season title.
We, their fans, want more of it. More, more, more. Bring on the Rumble in the Rockies. Bring on Washington State, Boise State, Northern Arizona, Idaho, the Big Sky tournament in Missoula in early November. Let's get this thing going, like right now.
Oops, there we go again, getting ahead of ourselves. "Nothing rolls forward," says Henrikson. "You have to earn it all over again, prove yourself all over again. No matter what our record was last year, you have to start over."
They know it. It's why they are out there each morning while you're just getting out of bed, putting in the work shortly after the sun rises. They want to be as good as they were last season, plus a little bit better. Nine goals allowed? They want to lower it. Thirty-three goals scored? Not good enough.
Last season raised the expectations for this fall, which was always Citowicki's vision, new teams with new faces for each new season but always with the goal of a trophy raised overhead at the end. But we remind ourselves that it is July 23, one week before the official start of practice.
To overlook the small steps that make up the journey is to lose appreciation for everything that goes into it. Henrikson knows that better than anyone.
"You can't be thinking about (championships). You have to be thinking about the conditioning you're putting in. Just this morning we were all huffing and puffing on the field. You're not thinking, this is going to win us the Big Sky title, but it's a chip in the pot," Henrikson says.
"It's just day by day, trusting the process." Oh captain, my captain! Who would you rather have in a position of leadership?
Players Mentioned
Griz Volleyball Press Conference - 10/6/25
Tuesday, October 07
Griz TV Live Stream
Monday, October 06
Montana vs Idaho St. Highlights
Sunday, October 05
Montana Volleyball Hype Video
Thursday, October 02