Minnesota Aurora’s first preseason training session last week kept the same high standard as their first two seasons.
The amateur women’s soccer club has a new head coach — Colette Montgomery — but roughly one-third of the roster is back for another season, and those players led the way from the first drill onward.
“The coaches were kind of like, ‘Yeah, you guys can like relax a little, you don’t have to run to every water break,’ ” said Mariah Nguyen, a midfielder from Andover. “That is the environment here. We want to be efficient.”
Aurora posted two undefeated regular seasons in 2022 and 2023 before losing in the championship game two years ago and earlier in the playoffs last year.
“You’re gonna see the Aurora Way — maybe just 3.0,” Montgomery said Monday about another, possibly improved version coming this spring.
Previous coach Nicole Lukic — who took a job as U.S. Soccer director of talent identification for the women’s youth national teams — had instilled a high-octane style of play that Montgomery vowed to continue.
“They’ve played really high press and entertaining soccer, they played a really attacking-minded, playing without fear, which is, for me, a big thing,” Montgomery said after practice at TCO Stadium in Eagan on Monday. “When players are in an environment where they feel safe to make good decisions, they’re going to excel. Then, obviously, really been well organized defensively, too.
“I think that goes into my style when I was recruited by coach Nicole,” added Montgomery, who joins from North Central University in Minneapolis. “And that’s why I came in, I knew what they did and how they did it. And I want to just expand on that and make it even better — if that’s possible. Hopefully, that’s true.”
Montgomery, who is also Aurora’s sporting director, said the club has added some “really top-caliber players” on top of the returners.
Nguyen said Montgomery has led practices with specific objectives and a focus on the fundamentals but also has seen it be open-ended and light-hearted under the new head coach.
“She’s really goofy, which I appreciate a lot,” Nguyen said of Montgomery. “She also tells us, if we’re not allowed to ask questions that we’ve created wrong environment, which is amazing, because some coaches really do not. They have it their way or no way. It’s just awesome to be able to have, like, this learning environment.”
Montgomery brought that same easy-going approach to her interview with local reporters, making a crack about her own short stature when she stepped behind the microphone stand.
“I like to keep it light-hearted,” Montgomery said. “I’m sure the players roll their eyes every now and again. I always say my jokes aren’t for everybody. It’s really for me. So, as long as I laugh, I think it’s funny.”
If Aurora keeps up their peerless standard on the field this regular season, opponents won’t be laughing. The season opener is May 23 against Chicago Ditch Lions. The home opener is May 30 versus RKC (Racine Kenosha County) Third Coast.
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