The new head coach of the Greenville Triumphs spends almost as much time thinking about future generations of football players as he does the pros on the field in front of him.
That's no small thing for Rick Wright, who was named the team's head coach and technical director in November.
“There's no one who hates losing more than me — and when I say no one, I mean no one –” Wright says.
Triumph played its first season in 2019 after the United Soccer League established a third division of professional soccer called League One.
Wright was appointed as an assistant coach that year by the team's former head coach, John Harkes.
“John encouraged me to get involved because he loves soccer,” Wright says. “But if you had told me six years ago that I would be sitting in this position, I would have thought you were crazy. I have a method.”
When Harkes announced in October that he would not return this season, Triumph leadership selected Wright to replace him. The sixth season began in early March with Triumph's 3-1 victory over Spokane Velocity.
But Wright's soccer history in the Upstate began long before Triumph played his first game.
He played his first season at the collegiate level in 1976 at Erskine College in Due West. However, he started studying and playing in Bermuda as a child.
By the age of 12, he was playing with kids between 18 and 20 years old.
“When I got off the bus after school, there was a big field in the church parsonage. People of all ages played there every day,” Wright recalls.
When Wright was 12 years old, he told one of the players who lived in his neighborhood that he wanted to join.
“My neighbor said, 'Rick, you can play on one condition.'” He said, “Don't cry.” He went out on the field and the first time he touched the ball he was kicked. At that time, I understood why he said such things.
“But I strongly believe that it helped me develop as a footballer and I was able to play against older players.”
So this guy who's been playing soccer for decades, a competitive coach, a kid who never cried, believes soccer can get better and more popular if more young people learn it. .
And Wright says more young people will play if they can watch teams like Triumph and Liberty, the club's pre-professional women's soccer team, which launches in 2022.
“I've never been busier than doing soccer clinics. I've done a huge number of soccer clinics and soccer camps,” he says.
“A key part of our club is making sure we reach out to the community and influence the development of our game. We want to leave our mark on the development of players who We have set up clinics and camps for them.”
Those days when Wright's father tricked him into staying at Erskine College with only $45 in his pocket (his father promised to pick him up after a business trip, but instead he went to Bermuda without his son). )…the quality of soccer in the United States was far below what Wright experienced back home.
But the game evolved in the countries and regions where he chose to stay, where he became a citizen and where he raised his wife of 43 years and family.
“The game has evolved a lot, not just in America but around the world. If you look at Major League Soccer, probably the best player in the world, Lionel Messi, is playing in America now,” Wright says.
“Growth is remarkable, and we want that for Greenville, too. That's why it's important that we continue to arm our communities. We want people to be able to protect their children. We want them to understand that they not only have the opportunity to go to college, but they also have the opportunity to play at the professional level.”
Coaches can teach the game to kids and teens, he says. “But at the end of the day, when you look at great players, they have players to look up to. That's what we're trying to do at Triumph.”
Coach Wright recruited two players from Greenville to Triumph's roster. Hayden Anderson attended Woodmont High School and later played soccer at USC Upstate and the University of Memphis. A native of Colombia, South America, Sebastian Velasquez grew up in Greenville and played at Greenville High School before traveling the United States and the world as a professional.
“We want the community to be able to say, 'This guy who played at the highest level is now back home.' Let's go see him play.”
Triumph has also amassed impressive statistics since becoming a member of USL League One, the third tier of American professional soccer. They qualified for the play-offs in each of their five seasons and won the League One title in 2020.
The team plays its home games at Furman University's Paladin Stadium. The team's offices and retail store are located at 22 S. Main St. in downtown Greenville. Joe Erwin is chairman and majority owner.
Mr. Wright's resume is impressive. As an assistant coach at Triumph, he helped spearhead youth initiatives such as the Academy Cup team, Pass It On Clinics and the Future Leaders program.
Although he spent much of his business career in the paper industry, he helped start Anderson University's football program and became its head coach, then returned to Erskine as head coach of the men's and women's programs. He led Anderson and Erskine to multiple conference titles and spent decades working with the U.S. Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program.
Right now, Wright said he is happy to be able to focus on Triumph and the community.
“Triumph is trying to make Greenville the best soccer city in southeastern South Carolina. But at the end of the day, this is a community club,” he says. “We want people to be proud that we have a good football team on the field.”
