On a cool, crisp November Thursday night at Rock Chalk Park, Brooke Otto was one of nine seniors honored before the Jayhawks’ thrilling 3-2 Senior Night victory over No. 7 Texas Tech.
And she was the only one wearing jeans and Adidas Samba shoes.
Rather than suiting up in shorts, cleats and her No. 3 KU jersey for the final home game of her career, Otto was wearing street clothes. And a smile.
Three years after coming to Kansas to follow head coach Nate Lie, whom she had committed to at Xavier, Otto was officially saying goodbye by watching her teammates play.
Almost nothing went as she had hoped or expected it would when she decided to come to Lawrence after two seasons at Ohio State to start her college career. But you would never have known that based on the smile she had on her face and genuine joy radiating in her heart on Thursday night after the Jayhawks’ win.
“It was really sweet,” said Otto, who was joined on the field by her parents, Mark and Beth, during the pregame senior ceremony. “Actually getting to be recognized was weird, but also cool because it was like being able to close a chapter that I never really got to close. It made it feel real.”
“I still feel very connected to the program, the girls, the coaches,” she added. “And I was just really grateful that my family got to be a part of this.”
When Otto arrived at Kansas the same year that Lie did, the plan was for to have a major impact on the building of his program. She had experience. She knew Lie and his coaching staff. And they believed she was the perfect piece to add to help jumpstart this new adventure.
And for a while, it worked out. She was voted team captain a month into being here and was a starter, playing 1,282 minutes across 16 matches and holding it down on the field as one of the Jayhawks’ steady defenders.
But, late in the 2024 season, she tore her patellar tendon in her left knee, thus beginning a stretch of bad luck that essentially ended her college career. The recovery period for the knee injury was supposed to take 6-8 months. But halfway through, Otto discovered that she had fractured a bone in her right foot.
“That kind of pushed everything on a weird, new timeline,” she said of the foot issue.
Otto had surgery to repair the broken bone in her foot, rehabbed both injuries simultaneously and made it her new goal to be back in time for the start of the 2025 season.
And she was. But in last year’s season opener, she pulled/tore her quad muscle which, despite her best efforts to both rest it and push through yet another injury, limited her to just three appearances.
Part of the reason behind her playing in just a few games was that she wanted to preserve her medical redshirt and give it one more go this season. She did that, shutting it down for good toward the end of last season, but knee pain resurfaced and she had some other injury issues that made it impossible for her to get back out there with the Jayhawks.
“I was kind of faced with the crossroads of, ‘OK, do I want to push through this and continue to endure? What makes the most sense,’” she said.
Her answer? Stick around the program as much as possible in a non-participant role.
So, that’s what she did. She attended most practices, found ways to help out wherever she could, even throwing on cleats for some light training from time to time, and was generally an uplifting presence for a team that loved her and had started chasing down some really big goals.
“It sometimes happens this way,” Lie said when asked about Otto after Thursday’s victory. “She could never quite get it back. But she came back her fifth year and is still out there mentoring, finding her niche. She’s going to be really successful. She’s going to change a lot of lives. She’s gonna be in a leadership position and just continues to pour into others.”
And those “others” absolutely adore her for it.
“She’s been awesome,” said senior captain Caroline Castans, who scored one goal and assisted on another during Thursday’s win. “She loves to still be a part of the team. I know this isn’t maybe exactly how she wanted to end her career, but she’s the most positive person and I’m so grateful to have a friend like her.”
So, now, with her college graduation fast approaching in December — she'll receive a degree in business administration and plans to do something in the field of ministry — and her teammates gearing up for a run in the postseason in the weeks ahead, Otto finds herself in reflection mode.
And when she looks back on that decision to follow Lie to Lawrence, almost blindly deciding to move to a place she had only seen one time in her life, when Ohio State played at KU her freshman year, she can’t help but feel like it was all part of the plan for her.
The good. The bad. The highs. The lows. All of it.
Even the jeans and jacket on Senior Night.
“I came here knowing not a soul,” she said. “And I’m leaving with all these relationships and memories and moments that God has just given me in His kindness that I just cannot fathom that I deserve. All the circumstances and things that happened, yes they were hard, but this program has given me more than I could ever put into words as just the person I’m walking out becoming.”
Added Lie: “I’m glad we could honor her. She’s given way more to Kansas soccer than we’ve given to her.”
Joining Otto in being honored on Senior Night before the match were: Sophie Dawe, Emma Frey, Caroline Castans, Emily Tobin, Jocelyn Herrema, Norah Jacomen, Maya Mathis and Livvy Moore
The win, which also featured goals from juniors Kate Langfelder and Sydni Fink, moved the 18th-ranked Jayhawks to 13-4-2 on the season, including a 7-0-1 mark at home, marking the first ever unbeaten home season in program history.
Next up, the Jayhawks will travel to Mansfield, Texas, to compete in this year’s Big 12 tournament, which is slated to begin next Monday.
KU, which is seeded 5th in the loaded 8-team field, will take on No. 4 seed Colorado at 11:30 a.m. central Monday on ESPN+. The winner advances to the semifinals on Wednesday.
— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com
