SANDY, Utah – Real Salt Lake announced on Wednesday that it has named four assistant coaches to work under new Head Coach Jeff Cassar. Longtime RSL player Andy Williams has been promoted to assistant coach from head scout and Daryl Shore, Paul Dalglish and Craig Waibel have been hired from outside the organization to serve on Cassar’s staff.
All four of RSL’s new assistants played professionally, with Williams, Dalglish and Waibel spending time in MLS. Shore and Dalglish both have head coaching experience, with Shore spending three-and-a-half seasons coaching in NASL and Dalglish working as head coach for three years in NASL and the USL Premier Development League. Combined, RSL’s coaching staff has won MLS Cup as either a player or coach a total of eight times.
“I’m very excited for Andy, Daryl, Paul and Craig to join me as assistants,” Cassar said. “Having such an experienced staff on board will help me in my first year as a head coach, and the unique characteristics that each of them bring to the table will help the team contend for another MLS Cup. Their backgrounds will also allow RSL to continue our unique position-specific coaching model, with Daryl primarily coaching the goalkeepers, Craig working with the defenders, Andy coaching the midfielders and Paul spending time with the forwards.”
An RSL midfielder from 2005-2011, Williams served as the Claret-and-Cobalt’s Head Scout in 2012 and 2013. The former Jamaican international will relinquish his full-time scouting duties to become an assistant, with the entire technical staff now sharing RSL’s scouting responsibilities. Williams – who played with 11 players on RSL’s current roster – will serve as RSL’s main midfielders coach.
A longtime MLS goalkeeper coach, Shore most recently served as head coach of the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers, coaching the NASL club from 2010-2013. Shore was goalkeeper coach at the Chicago Fire from 2000-2010, overseeing a pair of All-Star goalkeepers in the Windy City in Zach Thornton (2000, 2001, 2003) and Henry Ring (2004), as well as the 2008 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year in Jon Busch. Shore helped lead Chicago to the 2000, 2003 and 2006 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup crowns, the 2003 MLS Supporters’ Shield and an appearance at MLS Cup 2003. Additionally, Shore trained Cassar and RSL GM Garth Lagerwey in the offseason during their MLS playing careers and was with the Fire while Williams played there in 2003 and 2004.
Dalglish comes to RSL after spending the last two years managing the USL Premier Development League’s Austin Aztex. Dalglish led Austin to the 2013 USL PDL championship, earning the 2013 USL PDL Coach of the Year Award in the process. While with the Aztex, Dalglish also served as one of the technical directors of Lonestar SC, a youth club based in the Austin area. The son of former Scotland international and Liverpool FC manager Kenny Dalglish, the Glasgow native spent nearly a decade bouncing around the English Premier League, Scottish Premier League and English lower divisions before joining the Houston Dynamo in 2006. A forward, Dalglish spent two years with Houston, winning MLS Cup in both of his seasons with the Dynamo. Dalglish spent 2009 as a Dynamo youth coach and 2010 as head coach of the NASL’s FC Tampa Bay, now the Tampa Bay Rowdies. He will serve as RSL’s main forwards coach.
A longtime MLS defender, Waibel arrives at RSL after spending 2012 as an assistant coach at the University of Washington. The five-time MLS Humanitarian of the Year made 156 career appearances across 11 seasons in MLS, playing most of his career in Houston. He won MLS Cup four times as a player, first with the 2002 LA Galaxy, then with the 2003 San Jose Earthquakes and with the 2006 and 2007 Dynamo. An assistant coach at the University of Michigan in 2011, RSL will lean on Waibel’s extensive experience in the college game at next week’s 2014 MLS SuperDraft. Waibel coached RSL-AZ Academy product Danny Gavin at Washington. He will serve as the club’s main defenders coach.
RSL’s entire technical staff will travel to Ft. Lauderdale later this week for the 2014 MLS Combine, which will run from this Friday, Jan. 10 to next Tuesday, Jan. 14. Upon the completion of the combine, the RSL technical staff will travel to Philadelphia in advance of next Thursday’s MLS SuperDraft. The Claret-and-Cobalt has four selections in the SuperDraft, with the team’s first pick coming at 18th overall. The SuperDraft will begin at 10 a.m. MT next Thursday, Jan. 16 and will be broadcast live on ESPNews.
