In Northwestern’s loss to Penn State on Friday, freshman forward Bo Podkopacz became the latest Minnesotan to start for the Wildcats.
NU’s Minnesotan roots run deep. The team has seven players out of its 27 from the Land of 10,000 Lakes, one fewer than its Illinois contingent. Coach Stephanie Foster is also a Minnesota native.
“There’s a lot of talent in Minnesota,” Foster said. “Minnesota kids tend to be really hard working, have a lot of integrity with their training and their discipline and their focus.
In the 2-1 loss to Penn State, Podkopacz showed the kind of attitude that Foster described. Tirelessly harrying the Penn State defense, she was rewarded for her effort when she chased a loose ball in the Penn State half and set up NU’s only goal of the evening.
Podkopacz even went to the same high school as Foster, but the Minnesota connections on the team don’t end there.
Podkopacz and freshman midfielder Julie Sierks were club teammates before they came to college. Sierks was the high school teammate of sophomore midfielder Meredith Finsand, who was on the same club team as sophomore defender Briana Westlund. Westlund was teammates with Podkopacz on the Minnesota Olympic Development Program.
Also, Sierks said she played against Westlund in high school when their clubs scrimmaged against each other.
“It was really helpful (settling in at NU),” Sierks said. “It was nice to have people from Minnesota who know you and how you play, so you can start integrating with them first. It just helps to get more comfortable with the team.”
Among the upperclassmen, junior goalkeeper Grace Weitz and senior defender Alison Schneeman were club teammates. Schneeman said that, being older, she never got to play against the underclassmen in high school.
“(Weitz) and I were on the same team in high school, so that was really fun going through that, then transitioning to college soccer together,” Schneeman said. “All the Minnesota girls know the same coaches and players… It creates a little bit stronger of a bond.”
Schneeman is the younger sister of former Cats forward Shannon Schneeman, who graduated in 2007 and tied for the third-most goals in school history.
“I went through the recruiting process with her,” Alison Schneeman said. “Actually, my first visit to Northwestern was her first visit as well. So I got to see it through her eyes first, see how awesome the team was, and being at Northwestern. That definitely influenced my decision.”
It is an indication of the wide reach of the Minnesota soccer network that sophomore forward Kelsey Bertamus is the only Minnesotan on the team who didn’t play with any of her teammates until coming to NU.
“It’s a pretty concentrated group of clubs that end up being competitive every year,” Foster said. “There’s just a lot of consistency and stability in the coaching ranks back there…There’s some people that I really trust and can get a great, honest evaluation from all the time. And it helps to have those relationships.”
So, what is it about Minnesota players that makes the state such a steady supplier of the women’s soccer program?
“They’re really blue collar, and I think that’s something we needed to get into our program ,” Foster said. “But I’m really partial and biased – I love Minnesota kids. When you’re from Minnesota, you love it forever
