LAS VEGAS – It’s almost a cliché in soccer that new teams promise to play attacking soccer when they come into a league for the first time.

But in Las Vegas there’s something different. When the leaders of Las Vegas Lights FC make that promise, you believe them. It’s the core of their philosophy, and with a myriad of entertainment options available in the Las Vegas area Lights FC owner Brett Lashbrook is determined that his team will play attacking soccer to bring the fans in.

It was that philosophy which guided Lashbrook’s search for an inaugural Head Coach, and that search ended with the popular Jose Luis Sanchez Sola, El Chelis, being hired. At the announcement of Chelis on last week, Lashbrook outlined his philosophy for his team.

“There were three things that we were looking for in this coaching search and it ties into our identity as a club,” said Lashbrook. “The first thing is that we have this awesome opportunity with a blank sheet of paper, I think soccer is more fun when it’s an attacking style of play, I think soccer is more fun when there’s a lot of goals scored. I think soccer is more fun when we have coaches that embrace that this is entertainment and we’re here to entertain the fans as well as winning, we don’t just try to pack it in for a 1-0 victory.

“I believe that teams should represent their community and when I look at Las Vegas it’s fast, glitzy, glamorous, and that’s the type of team I want to put together.”

That philosophy made the search hard, with many candidates thrown up that could not buy into Lashbrook’s philosophy. Many candidates liked the idea but didn’t see it as practical, likely thinking that like so many teams the owner was just talking the talk, that left Lashbrook frustrated by the whole process.

“I met Chelis later on in the process, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t getting frustrated with the process, and I was being told to open up the process,” he said. “My first conversation with Chelis was via a Skype call and I’ll be honest I thought ‘here we go again’ here’s another one, I’m going to give this passionate speech about attacking soccer and he’s going to tell me ‘I like goals too but we’ve got to play defense.’”