By AnnaGrace Hale | Sports Writer
Last spring, former Baylor soccer goalkeeper Jennifer Wandt was sitting in the Bears’ soccer office. Her phone rang. It was a number she didn’t recognize, but she picked up anyway. On the other side was the voice of an East Coast coach calling to tell Wandt a Swedish professional team was looking for a keeper. They exchanged contacts, and two weeks later, Wandt was on a plane to Trelleborgs, Sweden, to talk with Trelleborgs FF staff about joining their club.
Now, the Brookfield, Wis., native has been overseas for five months and can be seen on the pitch guarding the Trelleborg goalposts. Wandt said she’s living her childhood dream by playing professional soccer.
Photo courtesy of Trelleborgs FF
“Growing up, playing professionally was something I kind of dreamed about and was a goal of mine,” Wandt said. “The last few years of my career it was really something that I wanted to do. I knew that definitely overseas, there was going to be some options. So, I’m just really grateful that this option kind of came about in Sweden.”
Wandt arrived in Scandinavia in late May and trained with the team until August. She was then finally cleared to play and live in Sweden. Wandt said within these few months she was able to get to know her teammates and settle into a new country. The language has taken some time to get used to, but the squad has helped her out.
“They all speak English to me, but there’s a language barrier because their main language is Swedish,” Wandt said. “When it came to knowing what was going on around me, I didn’t really know what anyone was saying, so that on the field caused me some issues in the earlier stages, but now we have a system — the backline and I — that’s really natural.”
As far as the soccer style, the keeper said the play of Trelleborgs FF is very similar to the Baylor program.
“The European style and the Swedish style is a bit less physical,” Wandt said. “But I do happen to be on a team in Sweden that is kind of more physical and gets up and wins headers, kind of like what Baylor’s style is known for.”
Trelleborgs has found much success this season and recently moved up divisions after securing a win in a penalty shootout. Next season the team will be in the second highest Swedish professional soccer league, Eliettan.
“The big game went into PKs [penalty kicks], which was kind of exciting,” Wandt said. “I’ve been in a couple of situations like that in college, so that wasn’t unfamiliar to me.”
The goalie played under former Baylor soccer head coach Paul Jobson for five seasons. Her freshman year, the Bears reached the Elite 8 in the NCAA tournament after Wandt saved two PKs in a shootout against the University of Southern California. That being said, high pressure situations are not foreign to this keeper.
However, Sweden is a foreign country. Although having traveled to Europe before, Wandt said doing everyday life in Europe has been a challenging transition.
Photo courtesy of Trelleborgs FF
“Finding community was a big challenge and I still feel as though it’s a challenge,” Wandt said. “It’s not something I feel that is set yet. Obviously I’ve only been here a few months, but with my job, and sincere and nice people, I have kind of started to find a community.”
In addition to playing soccer, Wandt is pursuing her master’s degree at Baylor while overseas. She is teaching at the international English school in her town to fulfill her last credit hours, and the people she works with have helped with the adjustment.
“That has been a huge part of my transition because that’s given me a couple of really good friends here as well, beside my team,” Wandt said.
Baylor soccer sophomore defender Ava Colberg could not say enough good things about Wandt and about how much the Baylor team misses her.
“She was amazing. I miss her so much,” Colberg said. “She’s doing amazing things and I’m so happy for her.”
Moving forward, Wandt looks to continue to do amazing things and takes each decision one step at a time. The keeper said she will continue to play for her newly promoted team another season, but that she’ll go wherever life takes her after that.
