Courtney Hogan’s athletic journey started with going on walks alongside her parents at 8 years old. On one of those strolls, she noticed a soccer team practicing at a complex two minutes from her home.
The Camarillo, California, native was immediately fascinated.
“I really wanted to be like them, so I convinced my parents to sign me up for club soccer,” Hogan said. "That's where it all started.”
Given her lack of experience playing the sport, the challenge was greater than the mystique. But she wasn’t out of luck just yet.
Klaren Jubilee, the founder of Elite Soccer Performance and head coach of the Eagles Soccer Club, had something in store for Hogan before her first season.
He had just created a third team for the Eagles, two levels below the main squad.
Hogan’s raw athletic ability and aggression stood out to Jubilee — so much so that in year two, she moved up to the second team and played with the top team by her third year.
“He transformed me [from] this player that had no clue what she was doing to someone that actually had a passion for wanting to play,” Hogan said.
In high school, Hogan was also proficient in track and field, winning a silver medal at the 2023 Ventura County track and field championships.
“I learned a lot about myself while competing individually in track that I transferred over to soccer,” Hogan said.
Soccer helped her through her first two years of high school as she dealt with depression, she said.
Her life changed for the better when Nick Zimmerman, then Mississippi State’s head coach, reached out to Hogan at the end of her sophomore year. He immediately got the recruiting process moving.
Hogan committed to Starkville, Mississippi, in September 2024 and decommitted 15 months later when the University of Florida hired Zimmerman as its next soccer head coach.
He recruited Hogan to the Gators later that month, and she signed with them at the beginning of the new calendar year.
With seven other freshman recruits, the midfielder enters Gainesville as part of a new era. During a March visit to UF, Hogan said she immediately clicked with fellow recruit Mia Gray.
“It was great that I had someone that I connected with … because she knew what I was going through,” Hogan said.
Similar to Hogan, Gray will also be joining the Gators from thousands of miles away from her hometown of Rochdale, New York.
Hogan’s goal for the upcoming season is to learn how to support her team and grow as a person.
Jubilee said he saw Hogan’s college potential while watching her play in high school.
“She was battling some of the best kids in Southern California and sometimes coming out on top,” Jubilee said. “I was pretty confident she would go on to playing at least a pretty high level.”
Jubilee still keeps in touch with Hogan even though he hasn’t coached her since she was 12.
“Can’t wait to see what the future holds for her as well, and that’s just another start of another journey,” he said.
Courtney’s father, Paddy Hogan, said he always thought college soccer was a possibility for his daughter.
He’s now eager to see how she develops with the Gators and how her talents fit in with the coaching plans.
“I felt there was always an opportunity to improve once she got into the college, into the Division I, and then just to see how that progresses through the season,” Paddy said.
Contact Colby Kistner at ckistner@alligator.org. Follow him on X @colbykistner22.
Colby is a sports journalism senior in his second semester with the Alligator covering golf. He has experience covering Buchholz and Santa Fe High School sports and also worked in UF's innovation center where he wrote and created radio content for WRUF. Furthermore, he is interning at Idaho Education News Center in Boise and is looking to minor in business. In his free time, he watches the Seattle Kraken and the NHL as a whole.
