By 2003, Mark Lowry had started to fall out of love with playing football.



The circumstances around that are fairly understandable. At that time he was a central midfielder playing for Stafford Rangers, helping the team to a second-place finish in the English seventh division. While that guaranteed promotion, it wasn’t the level that had gotten the 18-year-old down. It was the style on the field.



“I grew disillusioned with how football is played in England at the lower professional levels,” Lowry said. “Outside the Premier League 15 years ago, the type of football being played at the levels I was in was awful. The ball was in the air the whole game, it was less technical and more physical. I just didn’t enjoy it and fell out of love with playing the game. I was looking to enter the next phase of my career at 21 or 22.”



He moved on to Halesowen Town and Hereford United and started the process of going for his coaching...