Olson takes leap of faith, sticks the landing

What was he supposed to do? Really, what was Cary Olson supposed to do when his fourth of four daughters called him up in December, after three honors-filled seasons at NCAA Division II St. Cloud State, and said she wanted to see what else might be out there?

Because he had essentially done the same thing, putting his hometown in southwestern Wisconsin in the rear-view mirror after graduating high school and setting his compass for Longview, Texas, and LeTourneau University. Have opportunity, will travel.

"It just felt like it would be an adventurous thing to do," said Olson, who is still the school's career leader in baseball games played (189), still ranked third in hits (181). "I got the opportunity to play baseball. That was a big part of it, then I wanted to study engineering."

He got to play college baseball, he earned his engineering degree and also got the girl, an icebreaking talk across a table at the school library setting the family story in motion, this girl from Texas, who played volleyball for the YellowJackets, mesmerized by the idea of … changing seasons.

"She grew up with a dream of living somewhere where the leaves change color in the fall," Cary said about Shelley. "When we got together, I was hoping she'd like me for me and not just because I came from a place where the leaves changed colors."

They returned to southwestern Wisconsin, both taking weekday jobs before spending every weekend on his parents' dairy farm, giving them a break from a profession that otherwise has no off days.

After three years, a new job took him to West Des Moines, Iowa, where they raised those four daughters: Daisee, Hannah, Emelyn and Grace, the soccer gene going every-other, landing first with Hannah, who played at North Dakota and Drake, then with Grace, Husky, now Grizzly.

"Even from the time she was young, she was able to make quick decisions (on the soccer field)," Cary said. "She could really anticipate what her teammates were going to do. I always had this feeling, the better the players she plays with, her game elevates and she helps elevate her teammates."

What was he supposed to say? Really, what was he supposed to say when his fourth of four daughters in December said, I'm looking west. Maybe Montana. Because hadn't summer vacations to Colorado planted that seed in Grace Olson, that West is best?

They'd pack up in West Des Moines and hit the road, two hours later crossing the Missouri River into Nebraska, then travel across the plains with visions of mountains in their heads, the real things finally coming into view in the distance as they crossed into Colorado and approached the Rockies.

They'd stay at an affordable hotel because this wouldn't be a glamorous getaway. They were there to attack the day, hotel as base camp, as final landing spot after crossing off another long list of outdoor to-dos. Hike this. See this. Try this. And how far away is that one coffee place I've heard about?

Every trip west just ingrained it more and more, that Iowa and the Midwest get it done in their own unique way, but mountain living was just … different. Something a young girl might one day strive to make a reality.

That young girl, when she aged into high school, played for an Iowa powerhouse, the soccer program at Valley High, the Tigers going 56-6 over Olson's final three years, once winning a state title, once falling in the state championship match, once making the semifinals.

By that time, older sister Hannah was at North Dakota, where she would be a second-team All-Summit League selection for the Fighting Hawks in 2022 before squeezing one final season out of the COVID commotion at Drake.

The pathway was there, of how to balance college and soccer, but Grace Olson wanted nothing to do with it. "The idea of it was overwhelming," she said. "I decided I didn't want to play college soccer, that it wasn't for me."

Then those feelings began to change, as the end of her high school career began to come into view. As a junior, Valley High lost the state championship match. She thought, maybe I do like soccer a little bit more than I thought. The fall of her senior year, playing club, solidified it. I think I do want to play.

The spring of her senior year – late, she knows – she was in Grand Fords visiting Hannah when she decided to reach out to the assistant at St. Cloud State. Great! We should set up a visit. How about tomorrow? I'll be passing by on my way home. "Not the typical recruiting process," she admits.

The Huskies had never been to the NCAA Division II national tournament, that is until Olson's freshman season of 2023, when coach Gretta Macdonald and her 10th St. Cloud State team finally broke through, with Olson earning second-team All-Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference honors.

It was back to the NCAA tournament in 2024, with Olson repeating her second-team All-Northern Sun honors and adding second-team All-Central Region accolades by the United Soccer Coaches. They were mirroring one another, player and program on the rise.

She repeated those honors in 2025 – all-conference, all-region – as St. Cloud State made another breakthrough. The Huskies won their first-ever NCAA tournament match, 3-0 over Pittsburg State, then knocked off Central Missouri in the region semifinal, 2-1 in overtime, to make the national round of 16.

St. Cloud State opened the scoring in the sixth minute, Central Missouri tied it in the 75th. In the eighth minute of the first overtime, Olson scored the game-winner that sent the Huskies to the regional final.

"Throw-in on the opposite side of the field, teammate one-timed it across," she said. "I trapped it, cut it to beat a defender and took a shot to the far post. It all happened really fast. The ball went in the goal and it was, wait, the game is over. We just won."

What happened almost as quickly is that St. Thomas swooped in and whisked Macdonald down to St. Paul to breathe life into a dormant Tommie program, the former Division III power now Division I and holding big dreams.

Would Olson still be at St. Cloud had Macdonald not left? "I would," she says without any hesitation. But after the coach told her Huskies that she was out, Olson's mind got to wandering. If she stayed, she would be playing for a new coach and what would feel like a new program.

So, why not at least look around, see what else might be out there for her final season of college soccer? "That evening I was thinking, it would be really fun to go somewhere else for my senior year, switch it up from St. Cloud," she said.

What else would you have expected her dad to say when she called him that night and presented her thoughts, even with St. Cloud just four and a half hours from West Des Moines, so convenient. "It was kind of a shock to me," he said, "but when I thought it over, it was, go for it, see what happens."

This whole story revolves around the falling dominoes of the coaching world. Olson would still be at St. Cloud State if Macdonald was still there and Montana would not have looked Olson's way had Chris Citowicki not departed for Washington State.

With a remaining roster of fewer than 10 players, associate head coach J. Landham, who turned down the Cougars to remain a Grizzly even though he had no assurances he'd remain on staff once the new coach was hired, dug into the portal and was intrigued by Olson, Grace (St. Cloud State).

"I showed up in the portal one evening. The next day, J. reached out," said Olson. "I had other schools reach out but I was super interested in Montana. I really liked my phone call with J. He told me about the team, how it was just him. It sounded like a fun challenge to me."

"When she talked to J., she had a really good feeling," said Cary. "There was something about going to the University of Montana that she was really excited about. She pretty much told everybody else, I'm not telling you anything until I check out Montana first."

She visited. She committed. She went all in on a championship program that had been essentially razed by the current realities of college athletics, with its free-flow of players from program to program, one that did not have a head coach.

"I took a leap of faith but they still had people on the team who had won those conference tournaments, so they knew the expectations even though half the team had left," she said. "It's a strong group of girls who don't doubt themselves.

"Plus, I've always loved the West. I knew I wanted to live in the mountains, even if it's for a little bit."

The 12 of them began training with Landham once the spring semester commenced in January – "It's definitely a faster pace. All the little things matter more, your first touch, your passes," she said – the time before and after practice spent covering the topic of the day: Who would the new coach be?

It took until the second week of February until that was finally resolved. Gore. Stuart Gore. She texted Hannah: Ever heard of him? OMG! OMG! OMG! He had been on staff at North Dakota for one season, between James Madison and Northwestern State, one of Hannah's seasons with the Fighting Hawks.

"She said they all liked him a lot and that he had given them a lot of confidence," Olson said. "He was only at UND with Hannah for a year but some of her teammates said that was some of their favorite soccer. I thought, okay, I've got nothing to worry about."

It didn't register with Gore when Hannah Olson DM'd him after it had been announced he was the new coach at Montana. Nice, a former player reaching out. She wrote that her sister went to Montana and that she might be out for some matches in the fall. That struck him as odd and not making a lot of sense.

"Then Grace comes up to me the first day and says, you coached my sister," said Gore, who had not connected the two until that moment, a former player and current player as sisters. "Now the DM makes sense.

"Her sister was a big personality, a great athlete. Grace has the same athleticism, is a little bit quieter. Quiet but deadly. She's very cool, calm and collected. Nothing really rattles her. She's the type of person who strolls out of a burning building without a worry." Perfect for a holding midfielder.

Olson began as a nursing major but changed. She went 41-12-12 in three seasons at St. Cloud State, then changed schools as well. Try, adjust, maybe find something even better, more fitting. Now she's all in on business, set to graduate in May 2027 with a dual degree in business management and marketing.

"This has been my favorite semester of school," she said of enrolling in the top-ranked business school among the universities of the Big Sky Conference. The UM College of Business wins. Google it. "All my professors are fun and so engaging. It makes it fun to go to class."

Makes sense. After all, Grace Olson learned that lesson long ago, that the West is best.

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