Jenna Bartlett Is Taking a Different Path From Bakersfield Christian to Purdue

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Jenna Bartlett has already built the kind of high school soccer career most players would be proud to finish.

In just two seasons at Bakersfield Christian, Bartlett scored 56 goals for the Eagles, earned Kern County Offensive Player of the Year honors, and was named first team all-area as a sophomore. She is only an incoming junior, but her name is already attached to one of the more productive starts in local girls soccer.

Now, she is stepping away from it.

Bartlett, who announced her commitment to Purdue on June 16, will not play her final two seasons of high school soccer at Bakersfield Christian. Instead, she will focus on her long-term development through competitive club soccer with LA Breakers, where the training, travel, competition, and exposure are built around the next level.

It is a nontraditional path, especially for a Bakersfield athlete. But for Bartlett, the decision is tied to where she wants to go.

“If you want to play at the next level you have to be willing to make sacrifices and stay consistent,” Bartlett told BSN. “It’s not always fun but hard work pays off.”

For elite soccer players, exposure and competition matter. College coaches are often watching national club events, elite showcases, and ECNL-level competition. For players in major soccer markets, that level of access can be much closer to home.

For Bartlett, it means long drives to Los Angeles during the week, late nights in the car, homework on the road, and weekends spent traveling for games.

“It’s been a lot of traveling and long days but it’s helped me grow as a player and a person,” Bartlett said. “I’m grateful for all the opportunities and support I’ve had.”

For a successful local athlete, you may see the commitment posts, the likes, the comments. But the path to get to the next level require major sacrifices.

Bartlett’s path requires more than talent. It requires a family willing to make the same commitment. Her mom, Michele Robison, said the sacrifices have been real, but so has the support around them.

“Saying ‘it takes a village’ sounds so cliche but in my case, it rings true,” Robison told BSN. “First and foremost, Jenna and I give all the thanks to my parents as well as one of my older daughters. As a full-time working mom, I would not be able to take off to get Jenna to her practices at 5 PM or even 7 PM.”

Robison said the family has had to find ways to make the schedule and the costs work. That has meant weekend side hustles, selling pallets, driving Uber, donating plasma, and reselling unused clothes instead of donating them.

“You just do what it takes,” Robison said.

For many athletes in Bakersfield, the dream is not the problem. The distance, level of competition and exposure are.  The challenge is figuring out how to get seen from a place that is often overlooked.

“When we first left the Bakersfield soccer scene, we heard people say, ‘Oh when you guys get tired of the drive come back, we’ll have a spot for you,’ or ‘You guys won’t last that long. It’s gonna get tiring,’” Robison said.

She learned how to eat meals in the car. She learned how to finish schoolwork on the road. She learned how to get home from practice at 10 p.m., 11 p.m., sometimes close to midnight, and still keep showing up.

Robison said the agreement was always clear.

“When soccer is no longer fun for you, or you start making excuses to miss practice, or your homework and schoolwork is neglected, we will stop making the sacrifices as a family,” Robison said.

That moment has not come. Instead, the work led to Purdue.

When Bartlett got off the phone after verbally committing, Robison said the emotions hit.

“We hugged as tight as I feel we possibly could, and just cried as the sacrifices and her hard work have paid off,” Robison said. The Purdue commitment is a major milestone, but Bartlett’s goals have never stopped there.

There is a photo from when she was in elementary school, writing down that she wanted to play in the Women’s World Cup. Years later, that dream is still part of the story.

As the men’s World Cup brings soccer back into the national spotlight, and with the next Women’s World Cup approaching next summer, Bartlett’s old dream carries more meaning. It shows that this was never just about being one of the best players in Bakersfield. The goal has always been bigger.

“It would mean everything to me,” Bartlett said of playing in a Women’s World Cup for the USWNT. “It’s been a dream of mine for a long time and representing my country on that field would be an incredible honor.”

Bartlett has already been one of the top high school players in the area. She could have stayed on the traditional path, kept scoring goals, kept stacking awards, and continued building one of the best local resumes in the county.

Instead, she is choosing the path she believes gives her the best chance to grow.

For younger athletes in Bakersfield, Bartlett’s story is a reminder that talent is only part of it. The next level may require taking a route that looks different from everyone else’s. It may require long drives, late nights, missed moments, and sacrifices most people never see.

Her commitment to Purdue is a major step, but it is not the end goal.

Bartlett wants to play professionally. She wants to play in a Women’s World Cup. And for an athlete who once wrote that dream down as a young girl, Bakersfield may now be watching the early steps of one of its next great professional athletes.