Last year in his American debut, the junior forward led the Radford University soccer team in scoring. He first had to adjust to the differing styles of play here and in his native land. Colas started playing soccer in France when he was six. For 13 years he played for numerous coaches and absorbed a variety of influences.

Now he's learning another aspect of the game.

"It's more direct here," Colas said. "You get the ball and you bring it up the field to try and score. Sometimes play gets more sloppy because of the consistent attack."

In France, Colas remembers the ball being moved faster from person to person than here. As far as advancing the ball up the field goes though, Europeans were more patient and took their time to make attempts at the goal.

Radford coach Spencer Smith thinks Colas has done well since arriving in Radford.

"He's adapted well to the American game," Smith said. "He's come a long way in adjusting everything that he originally learned."

The more aggressive American game calls for much more running than Colas was used to in France.

"It was hard at first to improve my fitness to where it needed to be," Colas said. "Sometimes we'd be 60-65 minutes into the game and my teammates couldn't pass me the ball because I couldn't get to it."

In adequate shape or not, Colas made his mark last year by scoring a Highlanders-best 24 points. That was good for a selection to the All Big South second team. He finished with 10 goals, three of which were game winners.

Colas lost his freshman year of NCAA eligibility because he attended the University of Rennes in his home town. Though he didn't play soccer for the school, NCAA rules counted it as a year of eligibility. Colas will have an increased role this year for Radford in the wake of graduation of 2003 assists leader and second leading goal scorer Erik Sokolik.

"He's real important to our team," Smith said of Colas. "He's a guy who can put the ball in the back of the net."

RU junior defender David Harpula remembers seeing Colas' name on the list of newcomers and expecting big things out of the Frenchman.

"We needed somebody to score and that's what he did," Harpula said. "He matched up to his expectations as well as he could."

Colas is proud of his performance last year, but thinks things are going to be different this season.

"Last year was a transition year for me," Colas said. "This year I'm more ready to play, I'm going to be more involved, I've learned to move without the ball better, and I'm in pretty good shape."

The first order of business is to help the team improve on its 8-8-2 record of a year ago.

"I think we have what it takes to win the Big South," Colas said.

The Highlanders are off to a good start. In two games the team has yet to lose, defeating Elon 3-0 in its opener and tying Charlotte 1-1 in its second game of the season.