COMMERCE CITY — With his playing career winding down last season as a seldom-used striker for the Columbus Crew, Conor Casey began to think more and more about coaching. The Rapids’ all-time leading scorer took a U.S. Soccer Federation coaching course and contacted his hometown club to see if there might be a position for him this year.

“I put out some feelers,” said Casey, a Denver South High School graduate who retired last fall after 10 seasons in Major League Soccer, six with the Rapids. “I wasn’t really sure exactly what that would look like, but then John Spencer left and that all kind of came together.”

Spencer, a popular former Rapids striker, was a Rapids assistant focusing on the attack last season. When he left, head coach Pablo Mastroeni turned to Casey, his teammate when the Rapids won the 2010 MLS Cup. Casey was the MVP in the Cup final, scoring a game-tying goal while tangled on the ground with the goalkeeper that forced overtime.

“It couldn’t have been a better scenario, really,” Casey said of his return last week as the team prepares for its regular-season opener March 4. “I played here, I grew up here and I feel like it’s come full circle — back with Pablo, at this club, trying to push it forward.”

Casey played for Colorado from 2007-12 and is the Rapids’ all-time leader with 50 goals, including 16 in 2009, which was only one shy of the league lead.

Since making the transition from player to coach in 2014, Mastroeni has insisted he never felt the urge to resume playing. Casey said the same. Casey played in only four games last season for Columbus, all off the bench.

“I closed the chapter on the playing thing,” said Casey, 35. “It’s definitely an adjustment, seeing it from a little bit of a different perspective. As a player, you realize when you become a coach that you saw the game very much from your position, and now that I’m working with the offense you kind of see the bigger picture and the connectivity to everything — a lot more than you do as a player.”

Mastroeni respected Casey’s ideas and movements as an attacker when they played together. Casey joins the coaching staff at a time when Mastroeni is trying to redefine the Rapids’ philosophy on offense. The Rapids had the stingiest defense in MLS last year (32 goals allowed), but only one team scored fewer than their 39 goals.

“We’ve been collaborating since mid-December, talking about things and my vision about this group from an attacking perspective,” Mastroeni said. “Just hearing his ideas and the way he articulates in such a concise, clear form for the attacking players has been really, really nice — working with them, pulling them in and showing them videos, just really taking it on. For a young coach to come in and take that type of responsibility is fantastic. He came in and said, ‘I want to be a great attacking coach.’ I said, ‘You’re joining the right group, because we all want to be great at what we do.’ ”

Casey watched from afar as Mastroeni compiled a 15-6-13 record last season after a 17-33-18 record in his first two seasons.

“It says a lot about him as a person,” Casey said. “Obviously not the smoothest first couple years, but through that, what he’s gained from those experiences will make him even a better coach. It’s been great to see. It was awesome to see the success he had last year, considering the first two years. Now, being part of it, it’s just exciting to be part of it and to see how clear-minded he is about coaching.”