Three departments, one club. Beyond the coaches and players (and SoundersFC.com, of course) there are multiple people working behind the scenes to get the team prepared for the 2020 season. During this trip, which featured a 12-day preseason stint in Mexico City and another three days in Honduras for Conacaf Champions League, we sat down with the department leads of Team Administration, Equipment and Medical to hear how they prepare for such a long trip.
ADMINISTRATION
“I have been to the U.S. embassy in Mexico City four times. I know the route well. I know the guards by name. The local Starbucks knows my order when I walk in the door.”
For Director of Team Administration Grant Clark, there is no possible way to be fully prepared for what the day has in store. The man in charge of travel logistics and player personnel for the Sounders since the expansion season in 2009, Clark is the guy who gets the job done behind the scenes.
“I keep a legal pad and I update it every morning on what the schedule is for the day and what my priorities are for the day, what my deadlines are,” Clark said. “I try to adhere to that – that’s what I want to get done. Then the day imposes itself on you and things come up. Then you have to continually prioritize what is next.”
Each year, Clark and the rest of the technical staff aim to have the following year’s preseason plan ironed out by mid-summer. Through Assistant Coach Gonzalo Pineda’s connections, the Sounders were able to spend nearly two weeks at Centro Alto Rendimiento, the home facility for Mexico’s national teams. In December, the Sounders found out they would play Honduras powerhouse CD Olimpia, which lined up the Mexico-Honduras February trip.
In this world, flexibility is key – the venue for the Concacaf match changed from Tegucigalpa to San Pedro Sula in January – and Clark has made a life out of prioritizing, organizing, cancelling, booking and reacting. He wouldn’t have it any other way.
“My responsibility is to make sure Brian [Schmetzer] has every player he wants to have available for every session or game,” Clark said during a training session in Mexico. “To be a part of it in Seattle has been special. To be able to share the experiences of the growth and successes, and how much it means to people and the community, it feels special to be a part of that.”
Director of Team Administration Grant Clark, left, takes Xavier Arreaga around CenturyLink Field on a home matchday last summer |
Corky Trewin
EQUIPMENT
“A lot of what people say about referees can be said about equipment. You hear it all the time: 'If you don’t notice a referee, they did a good job.’ That’s what applies to equipment – if nobody is noticing us, that means we did a good job."
Nolan Myer has a lot of baggage. The Director of Equipment Operations for the Sounders is in charge of making sure all the equipment and gear get from Point A to Point B, everything is set up once they’re there, and just about every random thing in between.
For this trip alone, the team brought 55 bags of just equipment, which doesn’t include another two dozen for the medical staff or anyone’s personal bags. If you think you overpack for a trip, well, Myer has you beat.
“You always overpack,” Myer said. “There are so many different aspects just from clothing: different-colored shirts, extra clothes for staff members, other players coming in. There are so many different types of stuff that we bring. You want to be over-prepared, but you also don’t have unlimited space on planes and buses, so you play the odds a bit.”
Two weeks of travel means the usual weekend weather report won’t cut it, so the equipment team has to be prepared for every possibility. The preseason trips will always be the ones with the most bags due to the length of stay and the amount of players and staff involved. An often unnoticed aspect of the job is overseeing all of the field equipment, ranging from goalkeeping dummies to field tape to mini-goals.
For international trips, he has to keep his eyes wide open and expect the unexpected: smaller hotel rooms, lack of space underneath busses, tarantulas in the locker room. Yes, it's happened before.
“For preseason you have to be prepared for all possibilities,” said Myer, who has been with the team since 2009. “If you try to get it just right, you will have so many moments where you didn’t have something you needed.”
Director of Equipment Operations Nolan Myer gets the locker room prepared prior to a scrimmage in Mexico City |
Lindsey Wasson
MEDICAL
“In 2009, my first year with the team, we just had two athletic trainers – a medical staff of two people. What you’re able to do with two people to 30 guys is different than what you can do with five people to 30 guys.”
As the league has grown, so has the club’s investment on the medical staff. Nobody knows this more than Director of Sports Medicine and Head Athletic Trainer Chris Cornish, who has been with been the team for all 11 seasons. Cornish’s staff faces the challenge of preparing the team for competitive matches at the end of preseason with Concacaf Champions League looming. Especially on a trip like this with the squad spending nearly two weeks in Mexico before heading to Honduras.
“Logistics becomes the hardest thing,” Cornish said. “Our home training facility is set up to be used in the way you need it… When the franchise is away, the facilities are set up different from what you would like. Typically the availability of facilities is a challenge on the road.”
For this trip, the medical staff features two athletic trainers, a physical therapist, a massage therapist and a medical doctor. On the performance side, there is also a strength coach and a sports scientist. Together, the group aims to get the squad prepared in the most effective way possible.
“We have four people here managing 30 people, of that you may have injured guys who are on different timetables, and then making sure the healthy guys are getting everything they need to stay healthy,” Cornish said. “A lot of planning goes into the process of ensuring we have everything we need for the entirety of our stay.”
Physical Therapist Hilary Obert, left, and Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Sean Muldoon wait on the sideline during a training session in Mexico |
Lindsey Wasson
