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Laura Halldorson. Photographs courtesy of University Athletics

Women’s hockey coach Laura Halldorson

Coming off two consecutive NCAA titles, Gopher women’s hockey head coach Laura Halldorson knows the program faces a “transition period.” Losing her four best players to the Olympic team and a four-year starting goalie to graduation, however, seems to call for a much stronger statement. But Halldorson, who has taken the Gophers to the Frozen Four in seven of her eight years at Minnesota, is confident her team is up to the challenge. In mid-November, with her team at 9–3 and ranked fourth in the nation, Halldorson sat down to talk with Minnesota.

Q: Are you worried about how your players might react to not being a dominant team for the first time in a few years?

A: No, I feel really good about the attitude. I think we’re very resilient and have been able to bounce back from losses—the players probably better than the head coach. We’ve already lost three games. That’s more than we lost all last year. I think our opponents are licking their chops to play us.

Q: What is the first thing you need to work on for the team to be successful?

A: Consistency is the thing we want to achieve. Our team is so different this year. We have a lot of talent, but these players are in different roles. They’re not going to just jump in and do things they’ve never done before. Gradually, though, these players will gain confidence and settle in. We knew we’d have our ups and downs. These are great learning experiences.

Q: Does the team have good enough chemistry to work through the ups and downs?

A: Yes. A big part of the recruiting philosophy is getting players who fit together well on and off the ice. We look at attitude, work ethic, academics, team-first play. This year’s team is really exceptional. I really enjoy getting to know them and hanging out with them. They just really enjoy being together and having fun together.

Q: Is it easier in some ways to coach a team of relative newcomers instead of established stars?

A: I don’t know that I’d call it easier. We have to focus more on breaking things down and working on specific areas. For example, last year, our power play had four national team players and they were so instinctive. They’d just know what the opportunities were and what the other team was doing and be able to adjust. This year we don’t have that, so we have to break things down, practice it piece by piece, look at videotape. I enjoy that. It’s rewarding when you see the improvements and you know that they’re absorbing the information.

Gopher Sports Notes

>>> As the academic calendar moves into the hottest time of year for Gopher athletics—with both hockey teams, women’s basketball, men’s swimming, and wrestling all looking to continue making their marks on the national scene—it’s appropriate first to look back at some pleasant surprises from the fall. The soccer team rode the superb play of senior goalkeeper Molly Schneider, who was named first-team all–Big Ten, to a 9–8–2 overall record, 6–4 in the Big Ten. It was the first winning season for the Gophers since 1999. The Gopher volleyball team, after compiling a 24–7 regular season record, earned its ninth trip to the NCAA tournament in coach Mike Hebert’s 10 years (the Gophers won their first match for the sixth consecutive year but lost to host Tennessee in the second round). But perhaps most impressive was the women’s cross country team, which not only made the NCAA championship meet for the first time in four years, but ran to a ninth-place finish,

From left, Ladia Albertson-Junkans, Emily Brown, and Lauren Williams finished third, second, and fifth, respectively, at the Big Ten meet. The trio then led the Gophers to their best-ever NCAA finish.

the best in school history. Sophomore Ladia Albertson-Junkans ran to all-American honors and set a school record for a six-kilometer cross country course. Junior Emily Brown was just seconds behind, also running to all-American honors and beating the old school record. Senior Lauren Williams just missed all-American honors. “I told the team before the race that you haven’t accomplished anything until you finish the job,” coach Gary Wilson said after the November 21 meet. “Boy, did we finish the job.”

>>> Non-wrestlers have a hard time fathoming the sheer physical and mental exertion the sport demands. In wrestling, the ability to work until you can’t do any more, and then doing more, is the paramount factor in becoming a champion. When Gopher heavyweight Cole Konrad arrived on campus in 2002, he was surrounded by recruits who had earned far higher accolades, even national titles. But, as Gopher wrestling coach J Robinson said after Konrad’s redshirt freshman year when he finished fourth in the nation: “He did everything we asked him to do for 18 months and now he’s an all-American.” As a sophomore last year, Konrad was second in the nation, and this November he defeated the two-time defending national champion in an early-season showdown. Konrad anchors a Gopher team that entered the year ranked fifth in the nation, with five wrestlers earning top-10 preseason rankings. Minnesota hosts sixth-ranked rival Iowa on January 22 at Williams Arena in its biggest home match of the year.

>>> It’s heartening to see two of the U’s marquee coaches taking academics seriously. Men’s basketball coach Dan Monson put sophomore Rico Tucker, who played in all 32 games as a freshman and started four times, on “academic lockdown” just before the season started, allowing him back to the team only after getting his school work in order. And women’s coach Pam Borton put her star player, preseason all–Big Ten forward Jamie Broback, a junior, on a “leave of absence” over academics that lasted for two weeks, including the first two games. Graduation rates for college basketball players are abysmally low across the country. We can only hope that coaches at other universities are as serious about their student athletes as Borton and Monson.

>>> Hope springs each August when the Gopher football team takes to the practice field. Weaknesses are overlooked and strengths overestimated. But for the past four years, going to a bowl game has justified some of those early dreams. Thing is, we’d like to move up in the Big Ten bowl pecking order and see a different part of the country in the post season. How? Let’s be realistic. When’s the last time Minnesota had four consecutive winning seasons? We had to look it up too. It was in the late 1940s, when Bernie Bierman was the coach and Memorial Stadium was still a gem. So here are two places to start: get Glen Mason a long-term contract and get out of the Metrodome, which wasn’t a gem the day it opened. 

Quotebook

“I wish I could come up with a definitive answer for everybody out there to make them feel better, but you can’t because it’s unexplainable.”
 —Gopher football coach Glen Mason after Minnesota fell 52–28 to Iowa November 19 in a game with major bowl implications. The Gophers finished the regular season 4–4 in the Big Ten, 7–4 overall.

“I’ve said it before: I want this to be my last coaching job. I may not just have the best job in college hockey, I may have the best job in hockey.”
 —Gopher men’s hockey coach Don Lucia, who signed a three-year contract extension, through the 2011–12 season.

Chris Coughlan-Smith (B.A. ’86) is director of electronic communications at the UMAA.