It’s an exciting challenge that Frank and I had by starting from scratch, and I know Frank has done it before in Arizona. I liked it, but of course, you have to take a little bit of risk when you start from nothing. We didn’t have the time or expense to fly around the country every day scouting talent, so you rely on good information from people you trust in the game and you have to rely on trying to get players that you know, hence why I brought in a few guys from Sacramento. But the real test of knowing a player is seeing them over a course of games and seeing how they play. We’ve had to take some educated risks, but once we were able to get a core group of guys together, we had to find a staff. Front office had their own challenges in building a staff and finding offices. There’s a lot that goes into building a club and if you want to be professional and do things right and succeed, you have to go and find these all of these pieces. All of that had to be done, on top of attending MLS combines, league meetings and scouting players. It was a busy time, an exciting time, but overall on every level, we can sit back and look at all the good things that have been achieved on and off the field.

Things that maybe were overlooked early on was the travel, because there were weeks during which we had to take an extra day to bus to LA or San Jose to catch a flight that isn’t offered out of Fresno. We also dealt with a big spate of injuries and had to resolve those issues, which hurts as a coach, but it comes with the territory of the sport. It has all had an impact on the season, but we’ve been able to sit down and learn from it.