Maryn Beutler is returning to her alma mater, this time with a new role to play.

The former Bend High soccer standout — a 2016 graduate of the University of Oregon, where she played soccer for four years — recently accepted the position of director of operations with UO women’s soccer. The role is one she hopes to parlay into a coaching career.

“It was really an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up,” Beutler said in a phone interview this week.

“It’s been my dream throughout college to enter coaching and I think this really opens the gates for me.”

In 2012, Beutler signed with the Ducks after a four-year varsity career at Bend High, during which she helped the Lava Bears win state titles in both her freshman and sophomore seasons (2008-09). She was named first-team all-league and all-state as both a junior and a senior. At Oregon, she played midfield and scored eight goals — including five game-winners — in 78 appearances. She graduated with a degree in journalism, and her first job out of college was working in technology staffing for Insight Global in Portland.

Quickly, though, she got the itch to return to soccer, and Ducks’ head coach Kat Mertz reached out to her former player about the director of operations job.

Beutler saw it as an opportunity to get a foot in the coaching door, one that might have taken longer to open had she taken an assistant coaching job at a smaller college. She said other schools were interested in bringing her on as an assistant before she returned to Eugene.

“It would have been more difficult to hop into a completely new university and team,” Beutler explained. “The Oregon Duck family — in soccer and in all athletics — is really close. I feel like I’m back at home, in a way.”

Beutler said that, as director of operations, her responsibilities include coordinating team travel and food plans on the road, writing a regular newsletter for fans about the team, and other behind-the-scenes work that keeps the Ducks (and, sometimes, their opponents) organized and comfortable. She gets a closer look at how the coaching staff functions, too.

“With this job, you learn a lot about NCAA rules and compliance,” Beutler said. “That’s obviously very important if you’re a head coach or assistant coach.”

While her new position gives Beutler a chance to work with a collegiate staff, it is not her first time in the coaching realm. During her time in Portland, she also worked with the Eastside Portland Timbers FC — a program that develops young players who are interested in playing college soccer.

Beutler said she used her time with Eastside Timbers to build connections with other coaches — something she is accustomed to, having played with various clubs around Oregon during her time as a youth and high school player in Bend. At one point in her playing career, she unknowingly made a connection with her future coach at Oregon.

“That’s one of the biggest things about coaching — it’s all about who you know,” Beutler noted. “As a kid, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to play for coaches all across the United States. I even played for Kat (Mertz) when I was in eighth grade.”

Right now, Beutler’s professional goal is landing an assistant coaching gig by this time next year, and she has put herself on a path to success in that arena. If that plan does not work out, however, she said she would be open to utilizing her journalism degree in sports broadcasting or working in administration for a university.

Regardless of where she ends up, Beutler recognizes the impact coaches can have on college athletes, and said she wants to give back to the game she loves.

“I think a college coach plays a really important role in someone’s life,” she said. “You’re the last person they’re in contact with until they go into the real world.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0307, rclarke@bendbulletin.com