Gophers sophomore listening to parents, producing for soccer team

The wealth of knowledge flows into the back seat and fills Simone Kolander's tired head during postgame car rides.

From the driver's seat comes feedback from a former college basketball player. A former college soccer mind in the passenger's seat translates the dialogue to soccer lingo.

For the Gophers women's soccer team's emerging star, this wisdom is welcome. Her early-season success shows these family chats are paying off.

Kolander, a sophomore forward/midfielder, leads the team with 14 points and six assists, and shares the lead with four goals entering Saturday night's Big Ten home opener against Iowa. Kolander's early surge earned her Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week honors on Aug. 28 after recording two goals and four assists in the season opener.

These are heights dad Chad and mom Natalie Kolander dreamed of as student-athletes.

"No question she's going to pass us both as far as what she does collegiately," Chad said.

He played for the Gophers basketball team in the early- to mid-'90s. He's arguably known best for his last-second blocked shot in the 1993 NIT championship game, a 62-61 win over Georgetown.

Her parents' impressive résumés keep Kolander from tuning out on the car rides from home games to her apartment.

"It really helped my upbringing through sports," said Kolander, who plans to major in business/marketing/management. "It made me really competitive having competitive parents. I think having parents that can watch your game and really know what's going on and then give you feedback … that really helped me grow as an athlete.

"Their minds are still in the game. There are plenty of times after the game where I haven't done well and my parents are there and they've got a whole lot of stuff to tell me on the car ride back to my apartment. So they're still very competitive people and they want the best for me. … So taking their criticism, and really taking it to heart because they know what they're talking about, that's important for me."

Chad couldn't help but speak up after the Gophers' 3-0 win over North Dakota in a preseason exhibition. Simone had finally shown the awareness he had encouraged. The 5-11 forward made a run across the back line to set up an easy tap-in goal. A year ago, Simone said she would have stayed wide, waiting for someone else to make a decision before reacting.

Her newfound confidence is something teammates have come to rely on.

That boost stems from a summer filled with what felt like failure to Kolander. She earned a spot on the Pro-Am W-League's Colorado Pride, where she competed with and against current and former international and professional stars.

The former Metro Player of the Year from Lakeville North, used to being among the most skilled players, felt like she didn't belong among those elite players.

"She decided this summer to go to Colorado to train, which was completely outside of her comfort zone," Gophers coach Stefanie Golan said. "She goes into an environment with a lot of high-level players and international kids and she took a lot from that experience.

"Simone is a player that has great feet for her height, so her touch on the ball is pretty consistently good. She wants the ball on her feet and she wants to compete and you don't see that a lot in that body frame. It's pretty special."

It didn't take long to see the effects. Kolander scored nine points with two goals and five assists in the opening weekend of the season against Stetson (10-0 win) and No. 2 Florida State (4-1 loss).

The Gophers split with Michigan and Michigan State last weekend on the road, falling to the Wolverines 2-1 in overtime and defeating the Spartans 1-0 in OT. Kolander had one of the assists on the Gophers' first goal of the weekend. They enter Saturday's game 4-4 overall, 1-1 in the Big Ten.

"We saw it right away," Natalie said about her daughter's improvement. "It was evident that she was playing with confidence and as a leader. … In one weekend alone, she scored and assisted as much as she did last year."

Jason Gonzalez • 612-673-4494