{"id":879953,"date":"2026-09-01T22:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T22:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/879953\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T22:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T22:02:12","slug":"as-nwsl-grows-head-coach-retention-should-become-a-new-marker-of-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/879953\/","title":{"rendered":"As NWSL grows, \u2018head coach retention\u2019 should become a new marker of success"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orlando Pride parted ways on Monday<\/a> with head coach Seb Hines, who led the team to an historic double in 2024 \u2014 winning the NWSL shield and championship.<\/p>\n

In some respects, the announcement was standard procedure.<\/p>\n

This cutthroat industry yields high turnover rates among head coaches of any sport, in any gender. The win-or-go-home mentality no longer applies exclusively to playoffs and tournament knockout stages, but every match day for most managers, particularly during a club\u2019s transition period when new owners or general managers are brought in with lofty expectations and no patience for their return on investment. Even in the well-heeled English Premier League, the cult of the manager is losing its sheen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Pride dominated the NWSL two seasons ago but have looked directionless this year, even as Zambia striker and Golden Boot hunter Barbra Banda continues to lead their attack with 13 goals. The 2024 champions have won just three of the last 10 matches they\u2019ve played since the NWSL summer break and are scrambling in the bottom third of the table in 12th place, five points below the playoff line.<\/p>\n

Hines, a 38-year-old English center-back-turned-manager, was the first Black full-time head coach to lead an NWSL team \u2014 let alone lift a trophy \u2014 and he did so with the support of two Black assistant coaches, Giles Barnes and Yolanda Thomas. A month before Hines\u2019 departure, Barnes stepped down from his role with Orlando to become the head coach of Saudi Women\u2019s Premier League club Al Qadsiah FC.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Seb Hines was the first Black full-time head coach to lead an NWSL team and the first to win an NWSL trophy. (Mike Watters \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Thomas will serve as Orlando Pride interim head coach following Hines\u2019 dismissal. Orlando Pride Vice President of Soccer Operations and General Manager Caitlin Carducci said Tuesday that Thomas \u201cknows our system, knows the players,\u201d and would be supported by player development coach Scott Sutter and technical director Mark Wilson, whom the club hired in March.<\/p>\n

None of the head coaches in the NWSL have anywhere near the cult-like followings of a J\u00fcrgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola, but Hines has a uniquely profound history with the city of Orlando. A former Orlando City FC player in MLS before transitioning to coaching roles within the club, Hines famously scored the team\u2019s first goal following the mass shooting at Pulse Nightclub, a gay bar in the city. He waved a rainbow-striped armband around his head toward the crowd to celebrate.<\/p>\n

History and business can only align so much, for so long. Carducci said that the conversation with Hines was \u201crespectful, cordial,\u201d but that the club needed to prioritize its short- and long-term health as a title contender.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur expectations for the club is to compete for championships year in and year out,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re given the resources with which to do that, and we felt like the resources and the talent that we have would allow us to do so, not only this year, but again, as we look and plan and think about what the future holds for us, and how we can become the best women\u2019s football club in the world, this was ultimately a decision we felt we had to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July, I argued that a new barometer of global dominance in soccer should be determined, in part, by a\u00a0country\u2019s ability to find success on the men\u2019s and the women\u2019s sides<\/a>, as Spain have shown with their World Cup victories this summer and in 2023.<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s game, it\u2019s worth considering a new frontier in light of Hines\u2019 exit: that a club\u2019s pedigree might be illustrated by its head coach\u2019s tenure. It\u2019s one thing to maintain competitive parity, but developing clearly defined objectives and styles of play (possession or transitional, attacking or defensive, youth- or experience-centered) from one NWSL club to the next is another. Head coaches do not define those things on their own, but they contribute to a team\u2019s identity. That\u2019s why this week\u2019s \u201cThree Words,\u201d a weekly column that takes key players, teams and moments in global women\u2019s soccer and boils them down to three words, is about\u2026<\/p>\n

Head coach retention<\/p>\n

Historically, the top women\u2019s soccer coaching jobs in the U.S. were doled out exclusively amongst an old guard boys\u2019 club, which occasionally included a few women and was seldom determined by skills, credentials, and experience.<\/p>\n

Not only did this allow toxicity and abuse to fester, but it created an environment in which many players\u2019 accomplishments happened in spite of their coaching staff and front office, not because of their support.<\/p>\n

The league is in a healthier place now.<\/p>\n

It has outgrown the need for tentative scarcity after the two failed attempts at women\u2019s professional soccer leagues that preceded it, and the cost of entry is only rising, as the $205 million expansion fee paid by the ownership group of a future team in Columbus, Ohio, can attest. Players are earning more, clubs are constructing their own training facilities and building their own stadiums, and the league is increasingly attracting top talent from every continent.<\/p>\n

Not every coaching job needs to come to a gentle conclusion, but the absence of a succession plan can also belie a lack of preparedness on the club side. Casey Stoney was the first head coach of the San Diego Wave and guided them to the playoffs during their inaugural NWSL season in 2022. The following year, they won the shield. Midway through their third season, which was easily their roughest, Stoney was fired. Two interim coaches followed (one of whom was Landon Donovan) before the Wave hired current manager Jonas Eidevall from Arsenal. Stoney now manages the Canadian women\u2019s national team.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Former San Diego Wave FC head coach Casey Stoney won a trophy during her short tenure with the team. (Orlando Ramirez \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Former\u00a0North Carolina Courage head coach Sean Nahas<\/a>\u00a0didn\u2019t find the same level of on-pitch success as Hines or Stoney, with a 2022 Challenge Cup his only trophy with the two-time NWSL champions. Nevertheless, Nahas\u2019 firing last August was just as much of a shock as Stoney\u2019s and Hines\u2019, as was that of\u00a0ex-Angel City manager Alex Straus, who was let go on June 17<\/a>, right before the summer break for the World Cup.<\/p>\n

What Orlando, North Carolina, and Angel City have in common is that their front offices made their decisions with theoretically enough time to make a playoff push. North Carolina ended their season one point shy of the line, while Angel City and Orlando are still in the running in ninth and 12th place. But what, if any, are the long-term visions for NWSL coaches? What do the succession plans look like, particularly for qualified assistant coaches who will not hesitate to join another league if it offers upward mobility? In addition to Barnes, former Racing Louisville assistant coach Carm Moscato joined the Saudi Women\u2019s Premier League last July as the head coach of Al Qadsiah FC, whom Barnes now manages.<\/p>\n

Not everybody can or should be like Laura Harvey<\/a>, the longest-tenured head coach in the NWSL. She managed Seattle Reign from 2013 to 2017 before taking a job with the Utah Royals from 2018 to 2019, and spent some time with the U.S. U-20 national team before returning to the Reign in 2021.<\/p>\n

She signed a contract extension with Seattle that runs through 2028 at the start of this year, and has yet to win an NWSL championship. But it\u2019s telling that the top two teams in the NWSL right now, Gotham FC and the Washington Spirit, have enjoyed coaching consistency over the last few years \u2014 and that the team at the bottom of the table, the Chicago Stars, have not. (Even with Jonatan Giraldez\u2019s short tenure in the middle, Spirit head coach Adrian Gonzalez has been a constant for the team.)<\/p>\n

Consistency and stability within a coaching staff and front office signal an alignment of vision that can then be marketed: to prospective players, investors, and fan bases alike. The pool of qualified coaching candidates will only continue to grow in women\u2019s soccer, and the length of a coach\u2019s tenure can and should be considered another marker of the growth of the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orlando Pride parted ways on Monday with head coach Seb Hines, who led the team to an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":879954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,8081,97724,561,82,1418],"class_list":["post-879953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nwsl","tag-orlando-pride","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-womens-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}