Tyrone Marshall played for five different clubs in his 15-year MLS career. Three of those clubs were the fiercest competitors with Real Salt Lake – the LA Galaxy, Colorado Rapids and Seattle Sounders FC. Yet the 40-year-old Jamaican who was hired this week as an Assistant Coach under Jeff Cassar has a familiarity with the coaching staff bordering on brotherhood.
That stems from stints early in his career with the Miami Fusion and Galaxy when he was a teammate of Jeff Cassar, Andy Williams and Craig Waibel, as well as RSL leaders in the locker room Kyle Beckerman and Nick Rimando. With Cassar, who like Marshall is an alum of Florida International University, the connection even goes beyond his time at Miami.
“I’ve known Tyrone since the college days. When I graduated from FIU, Tyrone transferred in. So I was familiar with him during his college career. Then we were teammates on the Miami Fusion and I was able to see him at the beginning of his career,” Cassar said. “He was a young player who was hungry to prove himself. Then I played against him on many different occasions and became a fan of how he approaches the game.”
Marshall wasn’t hired just for his traits as a player. He was captain of the Jamaican National Team and a bona fide leader on the teams he played on. But Marshall also put in the work as a coach of the PDL’s Derby City Rovers last year, going through the work to see the coaching side of the game to complement his extensive playing career.
Marshall will assume the role vacated by Waibel, who served as the assistant coach responsible for defenders for the 2014 season before taking the position of technical director last month.
