In May, when it was announced that a new professional soccer team would be formed in St. Louis, local fans rejoiced. Dale Schilly, who will serve as Saint Louis Football Club’s first coach, got busy.
Schilly is no stranger to the local soccer scene. He coached AC St. Louis, before that team folded after the 2010 season, and he’s currently the director of St. Louis Scott Gallagher, the youth soccer organization that owns the new professional club.
He’s spent months searching high and low for talent, holding tryouts, scouting other teams, watching Youtube videos. Schilly says that when the team begins its first USL Pro season in spring 2015, the goal is simple: Make the playoffs.
How does one go about putting together a professional soccer team from scratch?
Initially, we got a staff of the coaches from the youth club, and we assigned them teams from the USL Pro league. We had them watch games, then fill out scouting reports on the players. It was a pretty extensive process. We met monthly to discuss players, trends, and characteristics. That gave us a database of guys from within the league who we would start to refer to when maybe there was free agency or players who got let go or guys whose contracts weren’t picked up for another year. That was the first step.
What was step two?
We did an invitational trial. We scouted out players from PDL, which is the highest amateur division in this country. We talked to a network of coaches who we’ve worked with through the years. We got players who were recommended, talked to agents. We then invited 25 players into camp, into a trial, which we had last week for three days. Then at the same time, that free agent list was released, so we’ve been cross-checking players who we scouted with the free agent list. Now, we’re working out players who we’ll sign and players in consideration. On top of that, you’ve got about 300 YouTube videos of players from around the country who have interest in being considered for a spot.
You also have some open tryouts coming up.
We’ll have open trials for anybody—which we assume we’re going to find some players at—at the end of November and again in January. So the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we have an open trial. There is a history in this league of teams finding players during that trial.
You haven’t signed anybody yet?
Not yet. It could be in the next couple of weeks. The other part you’ve got is MLS and NASL players who are going to get let go, who are going to be looking for positions in teams. You got a lot of different ways to grab players.
But there isn’t an expansion draft, for you to acquire players from other teams?
Exactly. A draft would have made it a little bit easier. You could have pinpointed some of the guys you were looking at and pulled guys in. But no, this is completely on your work and investigation and diligence to find guys who you want to be a part of your team.
As a coach, do you approach things differently with a brand new team?
We want to make sure that we’re not signing players just to sign. We want to sign players that, one, have the quality that we’re looking for, but also have the character. In terms of coaching, once the guys are in, then it’s high demands, high standard, high expectations. We’ll treat this as if it is the MLS and treat it as if it is the highest level of soccer in this country, because that’s what the guys want and that’s what they’re aspiring to get to. We put those sort of demands on them.
When you coached AC St. Louis, the team’s performance improved, but it still folded. What lessons did you learn?
It’s just how to deal with pros, day to day. You’re working with older guys. Actually, I've got to go to a U10 girls’ session here in about an hour. So yeah, just how to communicate with the older guys, what the standards are you can set for them, how hard can you push them. What motivates players at this level is to set expectations for them that are real and let them go out and get after it.
