FC Dallas fans are just getting settled into the Luchi Gonzalez era, and still trying to decipher what "Luchi's Dallas" will look like. It's often said that the past defines our future to some degree, and we often see talk of coaching trees in football to show the influences a coach has received.

Luchi Gonzalez can name his two predecessors as two of his big influences. As part of the Southern Methodist University side that made it to the final four of the 2000 NCAA Tournament, Gonzalez spent four years playing under Schellas Hyndman long before the Macau-born coach took FC Dallas to MLS Cup.

"He gave me a chance," said Gonzalez of Hyndman. "I'm a young Latin American player growing up in Miami FL, playing youth national team and thinking I'm going to [the University of North Carolina at] Chapel Hill one day and suddenly Schellas calls. He says 'Nah you're not going there [UNC], you going to come visit SMU'."

Gonzalez hadn't used up his five official visits to D1 schools and Hyndman wanted to build the Mustangs around the young striker from Hileah.

ORG XMIT: S0375642662_STAFF SMU soccer player Luchi Gonzalez won the Hermann Award for his outstanding play this season. The honor goes to the best soccer player in the country. (LAWRENCE JENKINS / 164857)

"Schellas gave me a vote of confidence and I went with it," said Gonzalez. "I learned a lot, I learned a lot about structure, discipline. I'm just this creative player from Miami, or so I thought, and he gave me a lot of discipline. He keeps you on your toes. I learned a lot and I'm thankful to him. I know his family well, and I love him in the same way I love Oscar [Pareja]. As a mentor. Different people, everyone is different that I've learned from, that have been my coaches but I appreciate them equally."

Gonzalez began his coaching while still playing, coaching U-11 soccer while on the books at the Colorado Rapids. While a state championship eluded him as a highly decorated High School player, it didn't as a coach, winning back-to-back titles with Felix Varela High School while still playing professionally for Miami FC. The part-time coach even earned the accolade of having his program named number one nationally by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America in 2008.

After a six-year professional career that included stops in Sweden and Peru, Gonzalez hung up his boots to teach algebra and continue his coaching career. The new career would lead to coaching his former high school, Gulliver, while leading Kendall SC's academy, and a return to Texas in 2012 with FC Dallas.

Before joining the Frisco club then-Academy Director Oscar Pareja made a huge impression on the man who would go on to succeed the Colombian with both the academy and first team jobs.

Luchi GonzÃ¡lez fue nombrado director de la academia del FC Dallas el 1 de octubre.

"He's [Pareja] like a father figure for me," said Gonzalez at his opening press conference. "He doesn't want to hear that because he's not that much older than me, but in terms of his personality and me being newer here - although I came in when Oscar was in Colorado, then he came back - I had a talk with Oscar for two hours. I visited in 2010. I was visiting the club and Oscar gave me two hours, he doesn't know me. He knew I played in the league a little, we played against each other I think one of the years, but he gave me two hours just to talk about football, life, and that taught me a lot. Give time, I think that's important. I use the word maintain a lot. We want to maintain, preserve the culture that Oscar has left and honor that. He would also want that, that the maintenance to be an evolution."

From Gonzalez's early preseason work, you can see aspects of both mentors. The meticulous nature of Hyndman combined with the family feel of a Pareja team. On the sideline of a real game, Gonzalez goes through every emotion with the players much like Pareja. They're both often found crouching as close to the field as their technical areas will allow.

The coaches Gonzalez has surrounded himself with paints a picture of both prior influences and his favored style.

January 26, 2019 (Frisco, TX): FC Dallas coaches (L-R) Luchi Gonzalez (back to shot, wearing a hat), Mikey Varas, Eric Quill, Skylar Richards, and Peter Luccin take part in a rondo passing drill as the FC Dallas players warm up at Toyota Soccer Center. (Dan Crooke / 3rd Degree)

"Peter is the police of our culture," said Gonzalez of assistant coach Peter Luccin. "Peter has that personality. Peter played the game at the highest level, so he has instant respect and credibility from his background, and when he tells a player to respect our process they're going to respect it."

Luccin was a Pareja signing - a cultured center mid just like Pareja - and began his own coaching journey in Gonzalez's academy with U14s. After assisting Pareja in first team practices, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that the former Paris St. Germain and Athletico Madrid midfielder would quickly graduate from his U14 coaching role.

Mikey Varas is someone that Gonzalez brought to Dallas. The USSDA West Conference's coach of the year in 2016/17 combines a Master's in Kinesiology with studies in coaching around the world to be what Gonzalez describes as the technician and planner. A first-rate field coach with a mind for analytics, Varas can bring to life what comes of Dallas' video work on tactical models. A methodical coach with a background in physical education and the mechanics of the human body, just like Hyndman.

Finally, there's the other coach to have spent significant time with both Pareja and Hyndman, goalkeeper coach Drew Keeshan. One of the most respected coaches in the league with over a decade at Toyota Stadium, Keeshan is more than just a positional coach as he dispenses instructions from the touchline. In this setting, he's also the MLS veteran. In an interview with Steve Davis for Soccer Today, Gonzalez spoke about how valuable it is to have the Irishman's experience of every stadium, city, training facility and hotel in addition to someone who knows the personality of other coaches and styles of the teams.

Old traditions and new competitions followed Thursday's training session. #FCDPreseason pic.twitter.com/gHw1X8npcE — FC Dallas (@FCDallas) February 1, 2019

While not following the exact tactical model Hyndman and Pareja utilized in Frisco, Gonzalez takes much from his time with both coaches and what they brought to FC Dallas. Both significantly bought in on the overall youth movement that has led to thirty academy players signing professional contracts with FC Dallas and North Texas SC. Both wanted skillful, attacking play to bring success to the MetroPlex. Hyndman, like Gonzalez, has a teaching background and the disciplined nature that comes with it. Pareja brought a close-knit family atmosphere to the locker room at Toyota Stadium, something Gonzalez talks of preserving.