Kolze's return puts her on 'Cloud Nine'

Meghan Kolze played soccer at Lake Zurich and enjoyed four outstanding years handling her positions on defense and the midfield.

Ten years later, she's running the show as coach of her high school alma mater.

Kolze took over the reigns from longtime coach Pete Ternes, who stepped away from the game to devote more time to his wife and two young children.

"Back in high school, I never had the thought of coaching," Kolze said.

Her college years took her to the University of Illinois in Champaign, where she played another four outstanding years of soccer.

However, in her junior year, Kolze suffered an ACL injury and was redshirted. That meant she had to watch games from the bench.

"I was really bummed at not being able to play," Kolze said. "I tried to do a good job of leading and tried to motivate my team the best I could. I always traveled with the team and did cheerleading from the bench."

She even gave pep talks to her teammates.

"I just tried to take negative situations and turn them into positive ones," Kolze said. "I thought I could make a difference being a leader and wanted to lead by example. I was also determined to make a comeback as a player."

Kolze attended some leadership conferences that year with her coach Janet Rayfield, before finishing out her college playing career.

Kolze had aspirations of playing soccer at the professional level but instead became a volunteer coach under Ternes in 2004. The former Bear was hired a year later and coached the sophomore and JV levels the last few seasons.

"It was my goal to be a varsity coach," said Kolze, who was hired for the position in June. "I thought I'd be a real good candidate for the job."

Fremd spoiled Kolze's head-coaching debut by beating the Bears 2-0. She notched her first win as coach on Thursday, when Lake Zurich defeated Elmwood Park 9-0 in the Pepsi Showdown.

"It still hasn't hit me," Kolze said of being a head coach. "Maybe it will as the season goes on. I'm still so excited and on Cloud Nine. I'm still trying to get used to coaching against coaches I used to play against."

Scott Steib coached Kolze in high school and knew then he had a special player.

"She was a phenomenal leader," said Stieb, who now coaches at Barrington. "I remember her as a 'Mama Duck.' The rest of the team would follow her. She was a top player and always did the dirty work."

Kolze played ball with Shannon (Mackey) Etnyre for three years at Lake Zurich. Etnyre is now the head boys coach at Vernon Hills.

"She was one of the players who built the (Lake Zurich) program and now she can coach it," Etnyre said. "She was one of the main leaders in the midfield. I've always respected her and everybody else respected what see did on the field."

Joining the club: Tennessee-bound Ali Hall, who earned all-state recognition last year, is not playing her senior season for Stevenson. Hall opted to play club soccer.

Three-class system: The IHSA has expanded girls soccer into three classes for the state tournament. In Lake County, a number of teams will be split up between Class 2A and 3A, depending upon enrollment.