Photo by: John Sieber
Where in the world is Caitlin Rogers?
7/26/2024 4:39:00 PM | Soccer
There was a time and a former iteration of Caitlin Rogers – call it CR Version 1.1 – when making the move from her home in Southern California to Missoula to play soccer for the Grizzlies would have checked the box labeled "Use soccer as a means to try something a little different."
It wasn't until she arrived at Montana and saw some of her older teammates making the jump to play professionally overseas that CR Version 2.1 was released to the world. And what a journey it's been.
She asked herself, if they could do it, why couldn't she? And if not now, when?
She spent nine months in Iceland, playing for a team in Grindavik and living in a town that has since been abandoned because of erupting volcanoes. She played half a season in Sweden. Two days after her contract was up, she was on the island of Malta, ready to play in the middle of the Mediterranean.
Have ball, Big Sky Conference Defensive MVP on your resume and a willingness to try anything, will travel.
"It's really amazing because you're not just traveling there, you're living there, immersed in the culture while also playing a sport you love and traveling around from free," she said this week from her current home base of Santa Barbara, Calif.
Rogers was voted the Big Sky co-Defensive MVP and second-team all-league as a redshirt sophomore in 2019 when Montana won the regular-season conference title.
She played only two matches in the 2021 spring season because of injury, when Montana advanced to the NCAA tournament but closed out her career in a big way in the fall of 2021 as the Grizzlies won the Big Sky tournament and advanced to their second NCAAs in less than seven months.
Rogers concluded her Montana career playing all 90 minutes as the Grizzlies took Washington State deep into the second half of a tight match before the Cougars pulled away for a 3-0 victory.
Her time as a Grizzly was over but she was far from done with soccer.
"(Playing overseas) was something I never thought about until I got to Montana and saw some of my teammates do it. It dawned on me that if you put in the work and talk to the right people, you can do this," Rogers said. "It's who you know."
Who Rogers knew was Griz assistant coach Ashley Herndon, who played in the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Iceland after concluding her collegiate career at James Madison. Herndon got Rogers in touch with the agent she had used to send her out into the larger world.
"I made a soccer resume and highlight video, and he did the rest and came to me with certain offers," Rogers said. The first offer she accepted sent her off to Iceland for nine months, teammates once again with Mimi Eiden. Soccer was only part of the experience.
"There was a volcano that started erupting when I was there, maybe a 10-minute drive from the town I lived in," she said. "This last year, another volcano erupted. The town I used to live in and play in is now evacuated. No one lives there anymore."
After six months back in the U.S., it was off to Umea, Sweden, flying to the more populated southern part of the country for a match, returning home by train overnight, the league the highest level of the three she would try.
On the final day of her contract, her agent reached out. Wanna try Malta? She was there less than 48 hours later, on an island that would be a dream vacation for most, the blue of the Mediterranean never more than a few miles away in any direction.
Malta is a mere 120 square miles in size but has 500,000+ residents and enough interest in the sport to support an eight-team women's soccer league and multiple men's leagues. The Sweden-Malta doubleheader had her away from the U.S. for a little more than a year.
"The most memorable part of my time in Malta was playing in the first round of the Champions League," she said. "We played the best team from Montenegro and won, then played the best team from Switzerland and lost. It was a really cool experience."
She's now back in the U.S., keeping her options open while living in Santa Barbara, working part-time for a catering business and as a personal trainer at F45 doing group training. She's living with her sister, who played at UC Santa Barbara. They train together and play in a futsol league.
She's working back from an injury from her time in Malta but isn't quite ready to put soccer behind her. Not yet. "I did notice that Santa Barbara it supposed to get a USL team in 2025 that I was thinking about trying out for."
It wasn't until she arrived at Montana and saw some of her older teammates making the jump to play professionally overseas that CR Version 2.1 was released to the world. And what a journey it's been.
She asked herself, if they could do it, why couldn't she? And if not now, when?
She spent nine months in Iceland, playing for a team in Grindavik and living in a town that has since been abandoned because of erupting volcanoes. She played half a season in Sweden. Two days after her contract was up, she was on the island of Malta, ready to play in the middle of the Mediterranean.
Have ball, Big Sky Conference Defensive MVP on your resume and a willingness to try anything, will travel.
"It's really amazing because you're not just traveling there, you're living there, immersed in the culture while also playing a sport you love and traveling around from free," she said this week from her current home base of Santa Barbara, Calif.
Rogers was voted the Big Sky co-Defensive MVP and second-team all-league as a redshirt sophomore in 2019 when Montana won the regular-season conference title.
She played only two matches in the 2021 spring season because of injury, when Montana advanced to the NCAA tournament but closed out her career in a big way in the fall of 2021 as the Grizzlies won the Big Sky tournament and advanced to their second NCAAs in less than seven months.
Rogers concluded her Montana career playing all 90 minutes as the Grizzlies took Washington State deep into the second half of a tight match before the Cougars pulled away for a 3-0 victory.
Her time as a Grizzly was over but she was far from done with soccer.
"(Playing overseas) was something I never thought about until I got to Montana and saw some of my teammates do it. It dawned on me that if you put in the work and talk to the right people, you can do this," Rogers said. "It's who you know."
Who Rogers knew was Griz assistant coach Ashley Herndon, who played in the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Iceland after concluding her collegiate career at James Madison. Herndon got Rogers in touch with the agent she had used to send her out into the larger world.
"I made a soccer resume and highlight video, and he did the rest and came to me with certain offers," Rogers said. The first offer she accepted sent her off to Iceland for nine months, teammates once again with Mimi Eiden. Soccer was only part of the experience.
"There was a volcano that started erupting when I was there, maybe a 10-minute drive from the town I lived in," she said. "This last year, another volcano erupted. The town I used to live in and play in is now evacuated. No one lives there anymore."
After six months back in the U.S., it was off to Umea, Sweden, flying to the more populated southern part of the country for a match, returning home by train overnight, the league the highest level of the three she would try.
On the final day of her contract, her agent reached out. Wanna try Malta? She was there less than 48 hours later, on an island that would be a dream vacation for most, the blue of the Mediterranean never more than a few miles away in any direction.
Malta is a mere 120 square miles in size but has 500,000+ residents and enough interest in the sport to support an eight-team women's soccer league and multiple men's leagues. The Sweden-Malta doubleheader had her away from the U.S. for a little more than a year.
"The most memorable part of my time in Malta was playing in the first round of the Champions League," she said. "We played the best team from Montenegro and won, then played the best team from Switzerland and lost. It was a really cool experience."
She's now back in the U.S., keeping her options open while living in Santa Barbara, working part-time for a catering business and as a personal trainer at F45 doing group training. She's living with her sister, who played at UC Santa Barbara. They train together and play in a futsol league.
She's working back from an injury from her time in Malta but isn't quite ready to put soccer behind her. Not yet. "I did notice that Santa Barbara it supposed to get a USL team in 2025 that I was thinking about trying out for."
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