| REGISTER TO WIN | |
 |
Preki (right) has made the transition from Wizards star to coaching players such as Raphael Wicky with Chivas USA.
A quick look around the 14-team league reveals that nine former Wizards are in charge — whether as technical director, general manager or head coach — of a MLS team.
That’s 33 percent more than the next-highest team total in MLS. The San Jose Earthquakes, who rejoined the league this season, have six. So what is it about the Wizards and Kansas City that seems to cultivate leaders in soccer?
“Maybe there’s something in the water,” said Mo Johnston, a Wizards midfielder during 1996-2001 who recently moved from head coach of Toronto FC to that club’s technical director.
“It just may be a coincidence.”
It’s a pretty heavy coincidence. In addition to Johnston there’s Peter Vermes, a former MLS defender of the year who played in Kansas City during 2000-02 and took over as the club’s first technical director last year.
The greatest Wizards player ever, Preki, is beginning his second season as head coach at Chivas USA. Brian Bliss, who played as a defender here for part of the 1998 season and was an assistant and interim head coach, is the new technical director of the Columbus Crew. Chris Henderson, who like Johnston, Preki and Vermes was part of the Wizards’ 2000 MLS Cup championship team and was an assistant coach here last season, is now technical director of the expansion Seattle club that will start play next year.
Alexi Lalas, who played one season in Kansas City in 1999, began his executive career as general manager of the MetroStars (now the New York Red Bulls), and is now GM of the Los Angeles Galaxy. Former Wizards forward Frank Klopas (1996-97) is technical director of the Chicago Fire. Mike Burns (2001-02) is director of soccer for the New England Revolution. And former goalkeeper Garth Lagerwey (’96) is GM at Real Salt Lake.
“Obviously, we had a couple of pretty good teachers of the game there,” Johnston said. “Maybe it just sprung from that.”
The Wizards’ first two coaches were successful at both the professional and international levels. Ron Newman won 10 Major Indoor Soccer League championships while coaching the San Diego Sockers, most coming in the heyday of that league in the 1980s. Bob Gansler coached the U.S. national team at the 1990 World Cup in Italy, the first American team to qualify for a World Cup in decades.
Both not only were accomplished coaches, but were cerebral soccer minds and deft communicators and teachers of the game.
“Those people brought in competent people who were more than passionate about the game as players, which translated to post-playing careers in the game at this level,” Bliss said. “I think it speaks volumes about guys like Newman and Gansler.”
Gansler, who most recently assisted Johnston in coaching in Toronto last year, said it had more to do with the quality of individuals that played on his teams during 1999-2006.
“Every coach worth his keep tries to not only find good players, but those with other qualities that allow them to operate in life,” Gansler said. “I saw it in them that they were good people. They were passionate about the game and students of the game.
“They had work ethic, conscientiousness. Those are prerequisites for the jobs they have now.”
Henderson said, “You look at the leadership we had on that 2000 team. When you have a team with that many leaders and (high-)quality guys, you know they’re going to go on and do other things.”
Join the discussion
Share your observations and experiences about news. Lively, open debate is the goal, but please refrain from personal attacks or comments that are racist, vulgar or otherwise inappropriate. If you see an inappropriate comment, please click the "Report as violation" link to notify a KansasCity.com editor. Thanks for your feedback.