BELLINGHAM — After an All-League career for the Sequim Wolves followed by an NCAA national championship with Western Washington, Claire Henninger has taken the next — and huge — step in her soccer career.
Henninger, a goalkeeper, signed a professional contract to play for Torreense in the top division of Portugal’s professional women’s soccer league.
Henninger arrived in Portugal last month to begin preseason workouts with Torreense.
“This is a huge transition. I’m so grateful to be here,” Henninger said. “Everyone here is smarter, faster, stronger. It’s definitely a jump. I’m trying to adjust.”
Though soccer is the dominant sport in Portugal, Henninger is used to big-time soccer as she has had a stellar career in both Sequim and Bellingham. Her resume is so impressive she is nearly assured of one day joining the new Sequim Wolves Hall of Fame.
She played four years of varsity for Sequim High School and for the Storm King Peninsula Soccer Academy. She was a three-time first team All-Olympic League selection and twice was an honorable mention All-State. She graduated in 2017.
At Western Washington, her career was delayed somewhat by the COVID-19 pandemic as she only played a handful of games in 2019-2021. She really took off during her junior year in 2022, starting 23 games and leading Western Washington to an NCAA Div. II national championship. She had 11 shutouts in that season and made the Div. II all-tournament team.
In her senior year in 2023, she was named the GNAC Defensive Player of the Year and was first team all-GNAC, making 19 starts with nine shutouts. She ended up winning 31 games (31-7-7 overall record) with 21 shutouts for WWU in her career.
She completed her graduate degree in kinesiology with an emphasis in exercise psychology.
She agreed to sign with Torreense, located in Torres Vedras, Portugal, earlier this year, but could not announce it until the contract was officially signed.
During that time, she was working on her Portuguese and preparing for the big move from Bellingham. She said she’s met plenty of people in Portugal who speak English and she has three other Americans on the team plus a French player — Salome Prat — who played college soccer at Iowa State, so she has plenty of people to converse with.
The three other Americans are Ava Seelenfreund, who played college soccer at Brown, Caryln Baldwin, who played at Tennessee and Jenna Tivnan, who played for Syracuse.
Most of the players on the team are either from Portugal or Brazil, though there another goalkeeper from Slovenia and another player from Venezuela.
She said Torreense is an elite European team on the same level as the NWSL, which has teams such as the Seattle Reign.
Torreense is based about 45 miles north of Lisbon near the beach that the players go to on their off days. The players are able to walk everywhere they go in the small municipality.
So far, it has not been a hard adjustment for Henninger.
“The people here are really nice and welcoming,” she said.
She said Torreense has already played some friendlies and will begin league play Aug. 17.
Torreense announcing the signing of Sequim native Claire Henninger to their pro women’s club.
