Last fall, the Kansas women’s soccer program made the most of their time at CPKC Stadium, home of the NWSL’s Kansas City Current, by winning four games in 10 days to bring home a Big 12 tournament title.
At the time, just playing at a venue like that was a huge deal for the Jayhawks, many of whom never dreamed that such a thing would even exist when they were growing up.
So, you can only imagine what it meant to five players on Nate Lie’s roster when they were asked to go train with the Current as the Kansas City club opened the 2025 season.
“The opportunity was so cool, playing in that stadium again, seeing those girls up close and seeing them scrimmage,” KU forward Lexi Watts recently told R1S1 Sports of the experience in late-March. “That’s just a whole new level than we’re used to. It was just cool to be a part of that.”
Watts, who hails from Kansas City and has actually trained with the Current during the past two summers, was one of five Jayhawks invited to participate in the recent practice.
She was joined by junior midfielder Saige Wimes, sophomore defenders Caroline Castans and Jordan Fjelstad and newcomer Livvy Moore, a junior transfer forward from Oregon.
At first, it was just Moore and Watts who received the invitation to train. But one day before the practice, Castans and the others got word that more bodies were needed.
Without hesitation, Castans said the answer from all three of them was an immediate, “Of course!”
“It was a great opportunity to really see if this is something you want to do past college,” Castans told R1S1 Sports.
So, without much knowledge of what they’d be doing, the fivesome piled into Castans’ Infiniti car and made the drive over to train with the pros.
"I love that they gave us opportunity to come up and practice with them, and that they trusted us to go against their starters and give them a little bit of a hard time, or try to." — KU sophomore Caroline Castans
The plan all along was for them to join the scrimmage of Current reserves against the team's starters.
For the first 45-minute half, they watched from the sideline. In awe.
“I was honestly just watching (Current forward) Temwa Chawinga the whole time,” Watts said. “Because I was like, ‘You’re just insane; you’re a different breed.’ In the first half, she scored three goals and she would run a full-field sprint and all of them are fast and she made most of them look like they were jogging. I thought that was the coolest part.”
At different times during the second half, the Jayhawks on hand got to sub into the scrimmage.
After being told to go warm up, Watts returned to a notebook full of set pieces and a crazy-fast crash course on where to go and when in the event that the free kicks and corner kicks came to be.
“They had this book out and they were flipping pages,” Watts said, laughing. “They were like, ‘So, for this set piece, you're gonna be right here. For this one, you're gonna be here. If the ball's here, you're gonna be here. If the ball's on the opposite side, you're gonna be here. They showed us like 10 different pages.”
She said she didn’t stress too much about it because, at the end of the day it was just a scrimmage and she was just going to play the way she knows how.
As luck would have it, there was only one free kick the entire time the Jayhawks were in the game.
For Castans and Fjelstad, the instructions were even simpler. You’re in. Go play center back or left back.
“I love that they gave us opportunity to come up and practice with them, and that they trusted us to go against their starters and give them a little bit of a hard time, or try to,” Castans said. “But when I stepped on the field for that, I honestly was like, ‘This feels like a totally different field than when I was there for the Big 12.’ I don't know if it was because it was in the day and we were there at night, but it felt like a professional team’s field. Even though we've been there three, four different times, it felt different in a way.”
Part of that was the competition they faced.
“They’re definitely stronger and I’d say the pace was different,” Castans added. “They’re just so quick on the ball and some of the forwards are so fast that it’s insanely hard to keep up with them. But it was really fun. And definitely challenging. I mean, you're going against the best players in the NWSL, and that’s awesome and it's such a cool experience and an opportunity that not very many people get. So, I was just grateful that I even got that opportunity.”
As for why they got the chance, both Castans and Watts said they believed that KU’s recent run of success had something to do with it.
“I do think they called us because they needed people who could keep up,” Watts said.
Added Castans: “I think they’re trying to get a connection with the teams since we’re both local, so that also could be a reason they called us up.”
Beyond seeing firsthand just how big, strong and fast the talent is at the professional level, Castans and Watts said the chance to see how the Current players structure their day and were treated was a real eye-opener, as well.
Before practice, after the team’s mobility and activation period ran long, they just calmly pushed the start of their on-field work back 30 minutes.
“That’s one thing I also thought was really cool,” Watts said. “They’re also just treated like professionals. They’re like, ‘Oh, if you’re not ready to start by this time, we can push it back, no worries.’”
And then there was the after-practice portion of the day, which featured “a really awesome postgame meal” to aid their recovery.
Steak, veggies, rice, protein shakes.
“I was like, ‘You guys get treated like this,’” Lexi remembered marveling. “And it wasn’t even after a game.”
Added Castans: “It was one of those meals that was like, ‘Oh, nice.’ But then we when ate it, it was soooo good.”
This won't be the Jayhawks' last interaction with the KC Current. This summer, Castans, Moore and Watts will join KU teammates Olivia Page, of Shawnee, and Sophie Dawe in working out with the pro team down the road the way Watts has in the past.
They'll be joined by other Big 12 and SEC soccer players in practicing with the Current reserves from May 10 through June 20.
— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com
