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Homegrown Cole Bassett makes Colorado Rapids return

After a year of playing overseas, the midfielder feels even more confident about his game and is ready to bring the Rapids back to the MLS Playoffs.

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — After a year of playing in the Netherlands (for clubs Fortuna and Feyenoord) on loan from the Colorado Rapids, homegrown player Cole Bassett is back!

So what did the Littleton, Colorado native miss most?

"It’s the people, I think. Not as much the place," Bassett said Tuesday at Rapids Media Day from Dicks Sporting Goods Park. "You just get accustomed to being around good people and this state has always been kind of known for the people that live here. It’s just a bunch of people that you really enjoy being around and it makes your life a lot better."

One of those enjoyable people? His brother Sam, who just finished leading the Denver Pioneers in goals (7) and assists (6) in his sophomore season.

This was the first time where the two siblings didn’t communicate on a regular basis.

"You get to talk to the kid once a week on the phone, which is not easy when he’s been your closest friend since you’ve grown up," Cole Bassett said. "So I think it’s been nice to be able to bounce ideas and ask questions about how to get better in certain situations."

Cole joked that he will have a talk with Rapids General Manager Pádraig Smith to see if they can sign Sam to a homegrown contract.

With a year of playing overseas, Cole feels even more confident about his game and is ready to bring the Rapids back to the MLS Playoffs.

"Hopefully you see it on the field that I’m a leader and that I can help this team win a lot more because it did hurt not seeing them in the playoffs last year," he said.

"The past two years before that I felt that I was a pretty key member of getting us to where we were so I think I can kind of take an even bigger role now and step into that for the team this year."

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