With an infectious laugh and flashing a broad smile, Kayla Caffey admitted she was “embarrassed” that her collegiate career spanned seven years “because I played for soooo long.”
But its culmination as an NCAA champion with the Texas Longhorns allowed Caffey to, as she said, “retire in peace, everyone. Goodbye!”
Her retirement didn’t last long.
Bringing a sunny personality that lights up a room and fast-twitch athleticism that illuminates the court, Caffey’s latest career move is as a member of the 44-player roster for Athletes Unlimited’s third season that will start on Friday, Saturday and Monday in Mesa, Arizona. Matches can be seend on the ESPN+ streaming platform and the ESPNU cable TV channel.
The transitions made by Caffey during her seven-year college marathon at Missouri, Nebraska and Texas figure to pay dividends in the professional Athletes Unlimited — best described as an individual competition in a team-sports setting — in which captains pick new teams in each of the season’s five weeks.
The draft by first-week captains Bethania De La Cruz, Natalia Valentin-Anderson, Nootsara Tomkom, and Leah Edmond is scheduled for Tuesday.
“Every week, you’ll be on a new team and I’ve been on many different teams, as have many of the other girls,” Caffey said. “Since I had so much time in college, I didn’t get that professional experience that they have under their belts, even though I could have been playing pro for the last three years, since college is only supposed to be four years and I played seven. So, yes, my experience in transferring twice definitely will help me.”
Caffey gained plenty of big-match repetitions as a collegian, playing in NCAA tournaments with Missouri and Nebraska before being a contributor to Texas’ NCAA title last winter. A 6-foot middle blocker with high hops, Caffey was a second-team AVCA All-American in 2021 when the Huskers lost in five sets to Wisconsin in the NCAA final watched by a record 1.18 million TV viewers.
Each step the product of Mother McAuley in Chicago took through the transfer portal brought positives. Her seven seasons included a redshirt in 2016 as a freshman at Missouri, a medical-redshirt year lost to injury with the Tigers of the Southeastern Conference in 2018 and additional…
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