On Thursday, Sounders FC unveiled Adam Owen as the club’s new High Performance Director and Technical Advisor.
Owen, who most recently served as an Assistant Coach with Hebei China Fortune FC of the Chinese Superleague and a Football Consultant for SL Benfica, brings with him over a decade of experience working at the intersection of sports science and tactics.
“I’m really excited,” Owen said following training on Friday. “Everyone’s been really good [to me] since I joined… It’s been great to work with the players over the last four weeks as well, and put a little bit of strategy in place in terms of helping them build a base [of fitness].”
Owen, 39, boasts an incredibly fascinating resume, working in duel fitness and coaching roles for some of the most storied soccer institutions in Scotland (Celtic FC and Rangers), England (Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United), Switzerland (Servette FC), Poland (Lechia Gdańsk) and China (Hebei Fortune).
An expert in his field with a wealth of experience, Owen's addition to the coaching staff has been several years in the making.
“There were a couple of discussions way back when, but the opportunity wasn’t there at that particular time,” said Owen. “Obviously, I’ve been in a couple of clubs since then as well. This time, when I came back from China, the opportunity was there to speak with Garth. I then flew out to have a little look at the club and speak a little bit more in detail. Three weeks later I came back over.”
Having served in myriad roles from youth coach, assistant coach, director of fitness to head coach at the pro ranks, Owen is excited about integrating some of his ideas and practices into an already well-oiled machine at the First Team level.
“I’ve got a specific way of working that we’ve started to impose alongside what’s already been done here,” noted Owen. “The fact is that not many opportunities do you get to walk into a successful team in their domestic league. I’m trying to change a couple of a things, tweak a few things, and bring some of my ideas into place.”
Owen’s tailor-made role with the Sounders extends beyond the First Team, as he’s been assigned the responsibility of implementing a more unified training methodology that extends down to the club’s youth teams. With Sounders Academy and the Tacoma Defiance churning out numerous prospects over the past couple of years, his mandate is to instill procedures that can unlock the full potential of Seattle’s player development system.
“One thing they’ve really tasked me with is developing this linear strategy from the First Team right down to the Academy in terms of training methodology and putting in a methodology within the club,” said Owen. “My background as a coach and a head coach gives me a little bit of more of an insight into where the club is looking to go with methodology that they wanted.”
Now that the team has begun full training, and with the MLS is Back Tournament in Orlando, Fla., looming over the horizon, Owen is eager to ramp up the integration of his fitness regimen with the technical and tactical strategy at the club.
Although Owen’s tenure with the Rave Green has been under unprecedented circumstances, with sports leagues around world shutting down due to COVID-19, working alongside the likes of Head Coach Brian Schmetzer and Assistant Coaches Djimi Traore, Gonzalo Pineda and Preki has made it an enjoyable experience.
“Collectively as a staff they’ve been really open,” said Owen. “There’s a very specific way of working that I like to work with, and they knew that before I arrived, and that’s been really good because it’s allowed me to really do what I feel is the right thing to do at this particular time. At the same time, trying to dovetail into the ideas that they’ve got as well is vitally important for me.”
You can learn more about Owen’s career HERE.
