Central Michigan University Athletics
Photo by: Julia Bice '22,M'24 - @jb.jpg10
Road Leads Back to Mount Pleasant for CMU's Olivia Bretz
9/9/2025 8:37:00 AM | Soccer, Our Stories
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – It's not the destination, but the journey.
Olivia Bretz, a junior defender on the Central Michigan soccer team, turned in a solid freshman season with the Chippewas in 2023, starting seven of CMU's final eight games and logging 642 minutes on the season.
This season, she has made three starts and is averaging 48 minutes over the Chippewas' first five games.
In between, Bretz opted out, transferring after her freshman year to Centre College in Danville, Ky., near her hometown of Lexington. She scored three goals with one assist as a sophomore in 2024 in helping the NCAA Division III Colonels to an 11-5-2 mark and to the semifinals of the Southern Athletic Association Tournament.
Now, she's back in Mount Pleasant and back in maroon and gold, taking a mulligan, so to speak.
An unusual route, to say the least.
"I feel like I've matured a lot," Bretz said. "It's a different outlook I have on life and it's like, everything happens for a reason. I think I take every day as a blessing; I take every day as a new opportunity because I never know what's going to happen."
Bretz suffered an injury late in her freshman season and then underwent surgery in January, 2024, missing all of CMU's spring workouts. That compounded a feeling of homesickness, she said, and that triggered her desire to leave CMU and attend a college closer to home.
"It was a hard decision," Bretz said. "My parents said, 'Maybe try (CMU) another year; stick around.' But I felt like, for my well being, that I needed to see what something else was like, to see where I really fit in, where I really belonged."
She had not burned any bridges with CMU coach Jeremy Groves and she left Mount Pleasant on good terms with Groves, his staff and her Chippewa teammates. Nothing, she said, that happened at CMU was a negative; instead, returning home was a journey she had to undergo for her own well being, her own self discovery.
"Through this entire process I've had to mature, and I've had to grow up a lot," she said. "I obviously miss my parents every day, but I feel like that at some point, you have to be on your own and you have to get away from home. Being that close (at Centre), I realized was too close."
Her return to CMU rapidly went from idea to reality.
She was chatting on the phone in July with junior-to-be Caitlin Gill, a member of the Chippewa soccer team and Bretz's freshman-year roommate.
"We got on the topic of CMU and how much I missed it," Bretz said. "That night I was up late just thinking about how much I missed CMU and going through old pictures and stuff like that and so then I talked to my parents about it.
"They obviously thought I was crazy because no one really does that, transfers out and then transfers back in. I did feel bad leaving Centre because I made such great friendships there and they did a lot for me, but I just knew that at the end of the day I had to do what I felt was best for me. And they were very supportive of that."
An understanding Groves welcomed Bretz back into the fold.
"I think it's tough for a young person to come into a coach's office and, one, tell them that they want to leave, but then also at times it can be hard to say, 'You know what? I made a mistake and I see myself there,'" Groves said. "In this day and age I think that's hard for young people to be like, 'You know what? I made a mistake and I really want to be there."
"I think that kind of shows her makeup a little bit. She comes from a great family. Having that level of maturity helps her."
Said Bretz: "I am so blessed that Jeremy wanted to take me back. Most coaches would be like, 'Oh heck no, you're not coming back.' So having him accepting and letting me come back is awesome."
"It feels, honestly, like I never left, which is super cool."
Olivia Bretz, a junior defender on the Central Michigan soccer team, turned in a solid freshman season with the Chippewas in 2023, starting seven of CMU's final eight games and logging 642 minutes on the season.
This season, she has made three starts and is averaging 48 minutes over the Chippewas' first five games.
In between, Bretz opted out, transferring after her freshman year to Centre College in Danville, Ky., near her hometown of Lexington. She scored three goals with one assist as a sophomore in 2024 in helping the NCAA Division III Colonels to an 11-5-2 mark and to the semifinals of the Southern Athletic Association Tournament.
Now, she's back in Mount Pleasant and back in maroon and gold, taking a mulligan, so to speak.
An unusual route, to say the least.
"I feel like I've matured a lot," Bretz said. "It's a different outlook I have on life and it's like, everything happens for a reason. I think I take every day as a blessing; I take every day as a new opportunity because I never know what's going to happen."
Bretz suffered an injury late in her freshman season and then underwent surgery in January, 2024, missing all of CMU's spring workouts. That compounded a feeling of homesickness, she said, and that triggered her desire to leave CMU and attend a college closer to home.
"It was a hard decision," Bretz said. "My parents said, 'Maybe try (CMU) another year; stick around.' But I felt like, for my well being, that I needed to see what something else was like, to see where I really fit in, where I really belonged."
She had not burned any bridges with CMU coach Jeremy Groves and she left Mount Pleasant on good terms with Groves, his staff and her Chippewa teammates. Nothing, she said, that happened at CMU was a negative; instead, returning home was a journey she had to undergo for her own well being, her own self discovery.
"Through this entire process I've had to mature, and I've had to grow up a lot," she said. "I obviously miss my parents every day, but I feel like that at some point, you have to be on your own and you have to get away from home. Being that close (at Centre), I realized was too close."
Her return to CMU rapidly went from idea to reality.
She was chatting on the phone in July with junior-to-be Caitlin Gill, a member of the Chippewa soccer team and Bretz's freshman-year roommate.
"We got on the topic of CMU and how much I missed it," Bretz said. "That night I was up late just thinking about how much I missed CMU and going through old pictures and stuff like that and so then I talked to my parents about it.
"They obviously thought I was crazy because no one really does that, transfers out and then transfers back in. I did feel bad leaving Centre because I made such great friendships there and they did a lot for me, but I just knew that at the end of the day I had to do what I felt was best for me. And they were very supportive of that."
An understanding Groves welcomed Bretz back into the fold.
"I think it's tough for a young person to come into a coach's office and, one, tell them that they want to leave, but then also at times it can be hard to say, 'You know what? I made a mistake and I see myself there,'" Groves said. "In this day and age I think that's hard for young people to be like, 'You know what? I made a mistake and I really want to be there."
"I think that kind of shows her makeup a little bit. She comes from a great family. Having that level of maturity helps her."
Said Bretz: "I am so blessed that Jeremy wanted to take me back. Most coaches would be like, 'Oh heck no, you're not coming back.' So having him accepting and letting me come back is awesome."
"It feels, honestly, like I never left, which is super cool."
Players Mentioned
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