Photo courtesy of Reno 1868 FC

In 2017, the San Jose Earthquakes began an affiliate relationship with a new USL club, Reno 1868 FC. Ian Russell, the current head coach of Reno 1868, has been an integral part of the San Jose Earthquakes for most of his career, first as a player, winning two MLS Cups and a Supporter’s Shield. Then under Frank Yallop, Mark Watson and Dominic Kinnear, Russell served as an assistant coach. He also had a quiet, but important, impact on the first years of the Earthquakes Academy in the development of youth prospects.

Quakes Epicenter caught up with Russell in November for a face-to-face discussion. Selected excerpts of the audio of this interview will be made available on QuakesEpicenter.com. The full audio is available for Quakes Epicenter Patreon subscribers at https://www.patreon.com/quakesepicenter.

Quakes Epicenter: How do you feel the partnership has been for both sides having come from the Earthquakes yourself?

Ian Russell: I think it’s been actually really beneficial, and I would be the first one to say it’s not if it’s not. I think the Quakes are benefiting, because they’re getting some of their players some game time. And (the Quakes) are also getting some players that were not their players that we found through USL and ended up making their roster. I think Reno is benefiting, that side of it, where they are getting a pretty good product. As a coach it’s really interesting because I’m trying to build a team, and then sometimes you get thrown players. And the players that I sign, they all know it’s going to happen. I say, “Hey, there may be game where you don’t play because I’m going to be getting players from San Jose (who) are going to play. You have to understand this is part of it. But on the other hand, if you play well, you may get a shot at the first team.” And they are willing to take a risk like that. So, as a coach it can be hard sometimes to keep the chemistry. For the most part it has worked pretty well. There will always be hiccups here and there. But it’s really good to get some good quality players from San Jose, and it’s great to see Reno players get signed.

QE: Do you think that having the affiliate relationship for the Quakes, instead of maybe having a Quakes 2 – their own USL club – this is the right long-term thing, or do you think we may see a shift in the future?

R: I think you may see both, actually. I think you may see a (Quakes 2) team where it has a lot of academy players, and they are playing in the next division (USL League One). You may see the Reno affiliate (USL Championship) for the players that are maybe a bit older, and for the Quakes players who are not getting minutes for the first team. What you wouldn’t want is…a Quakes player going to play with 17-year-old kids…when they are trying to get a game. They need to play somewhere where they are getting real games, so I think ideally you’d have a couple tiers to this thing. You’d have all your really good academy players (playing in) the USL. Your young prospects maybe would be there, but if you have a really good one – or they are training with the first team like (Earthquakes homegrowns) Gilbert (Fuentes) and Jacob (Akanyirige) are doing – when they are ready to get games, they are playing in USL games.

QE: Operationally, how does this happen on a weekly basis? How do you and the Earthquakes decide which players may appear in an upcoming game? And do you ever request players because you have a specific need, and how does that work?

R: Yeah, definitely…I’m really proactive with it, because I’m trying to get my roster set for Saturday. The Quakes (sometimes) have injuries…so they’ll say “hey, Ian, you’ll probably have these two guys for sure, and you may have one more depending on injuries.” or “Who do you need? You guys are on a really good run right now – we don’t want to mess with it too much, but do you need somebody?” And I’ll say…”I need a right back, or we’re really thin on strikers” or something like that. So there is definitely dialogue, but there are also definitely times where (the Earthquakes will say), “Ian, this guy needs to play 60 minutes.” That does happen – which is fine, as long as I have an idea what’s going to happen early in the week, so then I can start preparing. Ideally I like to get the players up there on a Thursday so they can train Thursday and Friday. But there are times when they come in Friday night, and that’s tough. I think that’s gotten a little better, especially as the season went on. I (would say), “Hey, it’s really tough when you send me three or four guys the night before, and I’m having a film session at seven at night and showing what we did in practice…it doesn’t work that well at times.”

QE: What role do you and the Reno staff play in the MLS combine and draft, especially considering you may end up with the talent that is selected during the season?

R: There’s two parts to it. We have our own combine – the Quakes do – which our chief scout Bruno Costa does. We get the top seniors from the local colleges, and they’ll come to our combine. That’s a big one for Reno. (There are) a lot of players there that may not be at the full combine, and you can actually find some decent (players). Quincy Amarikwa was at our combine back in the day. Steve Beitashour came through that one. He wasn’t at the (MLS) combine, but he was at the Quakes one. There are some good players that are under the radar that you can find. Bruno has done a really good job of getting that organized, so I’m hoping to get two to four players from that for Reno. Most of those players may not be ready for MLS yet. And then the main combine is where the Quakes make their draft picks, and, most likely, they are going to be sent straight to Reno. I’ll be at that combine as well, and I’ll have input. Hopefully we can find a couple good ones.

QE: Kevin Partida primarily played central midfielder for you and in college, but then when he came up to replace Shea Salinas, because Shea was injured, he ended up playing left back. He also played right back in a US Open Cup game. What the reason to put him at outside back for the Quakes? Do you know you know why the Earthquakes did that instead of playing him in the central midfield?

R: Yep. A little bit on Kevin: we scouted him at UNLV, and he actually had an ACL injury, I think his junior year, so he didn’t have a lot of hype coming into his senior season. A player that…I mean, if you look at his stats, the amount of ground he covers when he’s playing central midfield – it’s off the charts. It would be probably right around what Diego Chara does or an Ozzie Alonso did in his prime (note: Russell has coached against both Chara and Alonso at the MLS level). He can do it. So when we were able to draft him…he kinda had a knee issue, so (the Earthquakes) sent him to Reno on a Reno contract. For me, he was just excellent. His work ethic – he’s one of those 6s that are hunters – I call them hunters. Like I said, Alonso and Chara are the perfect (comparison). Is he as good as those guys? Not yet, but he has the same mentality of winning the ball, hunting the ball. So I think when he came to San Jose, they were very thin at left back. Shea was hurt, maybe (Joel) Qwiberg was hurt as well. Maybe it was an experiment to see how he does there. He’s a decent 1-1 defender. So right or left back is a position he can play. It may not be the best position for him, but the coach (thought), “We need someone, and he can probably do it.” I was hoping to see him play the 6 or an 8, because I think he’s really good there. I thought he did okay at left back, for having never played that position. I don’t think the Quakes were playing very well when he went there, and they were getting overloaded on that side. He was in a tough situation.

QE: At the end of the season, the Earthquakes featured a lot of their youth. You were trying to make the playoffs, fighting for a playoff spot, and then in the playoffs. It didn’t seem like you had a lot of the Earthquakes young (players) available to you. Did you have the setup you wanted for the playoffs or did you want something different (given the loss of Lindo Mfeka to injury)?

R: I would have loved to have had Tommy Thompson (laughs), but he was playing a lot with the Quakes. It was tough because Eric Cavillo started to get some games (for the Earthquakes), and he would have helped me. I had Tommy for two games last year, and he was excellent. He actually started playing pretty well. Luis (Felipe Fernandez) was another one, and he killed me (laughs). He was my 6. I had Partida and Luis (at the start of the season as my two 6s). Partida was (lost to a season-ending injury), so that hurt. The Quakes were starting to use a lot of the…young guys late – and I knew this was going to happen – so I was confident with the team I had, but it would have been nice to use a couple of those guys late (in the season and in the playoffs). It is what it is (laughs). Gilbert (Fuentes) was able to get some minutes. He played in five games or so, which was I think really good for him. His minutes are going to keep on ramping up, and the same with Jacob.

QE: After the first season of Reno 1868, the Earthquakes gave MLS contracts to three players (in 2018): Chris Wehan, Jimmy Ockford and Luis Felipe Fernandez. Wehan and Ockford got their opportunity early on. Felipe came in much later in the year and got a great opportunity. What’s the process by which the decision was made these three guys were the ones that were ready and we wanted to offer them Earthquakes contracts with the potential of still getting some time in Reno?

R: With Jimmy, the Quakes were pretty lean on center backs, so that was a pretty natural fit, and he had a really solid USL season (in 2017) so it made sense to just bring him in. Chris Wehan was (USL) rookie of the year (in 2017) so it’s always good to take a chance on a young player like that. You don’t want to lose the rookie of the year to another MLS team or another USL team. And then Luis Felipe – young, showed a lot of promise. Luis…had a really good season (in 2017) once he came in. Interesting story with Luis: he was signed, and came in in preseason with the Earthquakes (and) didn’t show up in preseason. He just struggled. I don’t know why. He ended up getting sent back to Reno for some games. At first he wasn’t playing well in Reno, either. And both clubs had a chat with him, said “Luis, you need to get going here. Just because you are on a first team contract doesn’t mean playing time is even guaranteed in Reno at this point.” And then it’s like he just turned on the switch, and he had a run of about 10 games with Reno that…I thought he was one of the best players in the league.

QE: (Reno 1868) really seemed to struggle when you lost Luis Felipe completely to the Earthquakes. You were on a streak, and it took a dip. It seemed like losing your 6 was a big deal for you.

R: Yeah, it was definitely a big deal, because we play diamond, and we have one 6 in there. So when you lose that player, it can be an adjustment, and Luis was a really, really big part of it. Now we had some guys come in and do really well – Guy Abend and Seth Casiple could play in there – but it took them a while to get going, because it’s harder. There’s one player. So Luis had a really good run of games. I have to send in a ranking of how I rank the players, and I kept on ranking Luis really, really high. He played (in the Earthquakes friendly) against Man United and played really well. In the next (MLS season) game, I thought he was one of the best players on the field, and he was just really solid. It’s…really good to see when that happens. That’s what Reno is all about – not only to promote players, but to get players back in form and get a reality check sometimes.

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