GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado – Holly Brown had other colleges to research and visit after she left the campus of the University of Nebraska-Kearney last February. Deep down, though, she had a feeling she’d be back.

“It was the first college I visited,” the Glenwood Springs High School senior said. “I just had a really good feeling.”

That feeling eventually led Brown back to Kearney, where she’ll study and play soccer next school year.

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“The whole time I was telling my parents, ‘I have a really good feeling I’m going to Kearney,'” she relayed. “That was even before they made the final offer. I think it all worked out for the best.”

And it worked out on more than one front. Not only did the soccer program at Kearney intrigue Brown, the university is a perfect fit scholastically. It offers a communication disorders program.

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“I want to be a speech pathologist,” Brown said. “I volunteered at the hospital my junior year, and my sophomore year as well, in the physical therapy department. They have a speech therapy department, too.

“The next year, I wanted to go investigate speech therapy, and I really enjoyed it.”

And she really enjoys soccer, a sport she’s played since she was 5 years old.

Since then, she’s logged countless miles traveling to play soccer. Through various club soccer programs, she’s played in numerous states – and even internationally.

“I feel like I wouldn’t have been able to have those experiences without soccer,” Brown said.

And now she gets to play in college, a prospect she didn’t think much about until high school.

“It started to hit me when teachers started asking what you want to be when you grow up,” Brown said. “I was always, ‘I want to be a USA national soccer player.’ I always knew I wanted to keep playing soccer. Once you get into high school, college becomes a reality. You have to start planning for it. That’s when I knew I wanted to keep playing soccer for as long as I could.”

But, before she takes her game to the collegiate level, Brown has some unfinished business to tend to on local pitches.

Brown and her Glenwood Springs teammates begin their quest for a third straight 4A Western Slope League title in March.

“I’m really excited,” she said. “I want to win league again and we want to go even further in the playoffs. As a team, we have so much potential to do it. We just need to execute. I’m so excited. It’s my senior year, what everything builds up to.”

jcaspersen@postindependent.com