Rowdies head coach has soccer lineage

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Paul Dalglish has been named The Tampa Bay Rowdies head coach. The team is set to play its inaugural season in April 2010.

The Tampa Bay Rowdies is a men’s professional team. A new ownership group bought the rights and marks to the famous Rowdies brand.

From 1975 to 1986, the Tampa Bay Rowdies played in the North American Soccer League and won the NASL championship in its inaugural season. The Rowdies also played in the NASL championship game in 1978 and 1979. In 1988, the Rowdies joined the American Soccer League where they played until the team and league folded in 1993.

From 1995 until 2001, Tampa Bay sported another soccer team, the Tampa Bay Mutiny.

Dalglish will be responsible for player selection and management of the Rowdies. He will work directly with technical director and head scout Perry Van Der Beck to build the 2010 inaugural team roster and build the Rowdies player development initiatives. A former Rowdie, Van Der Beck was captain of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team and later coached the Mutiny.

Dalglish started his career in 1994 at Glasgow Celtic FC and went on to play for Liverpool’s reserve team. Dalglish continued his professional soccer career for Newcastle United FC in the English Premier League. While playing for the Houston Dynamo in Major League Soccer, Dalglish helped lead the team to two MLS Cup titles in 2006 and 2007 and he was awarded the 2006 Western Conference Final MVP.

He retired in 2008 to pursue a career in coaching.

Dalglish is a Scotland native and has deep soccer roots. His father, “King” Kenny Dalglish, is one of the “greatest players and managers in soccer history,” according to a release, and his sister, Kelly Cates, is a soccer journalist for ESPN.

“He brings an extensive knowledge of the game and a soccer pedigree that is truly uncommon,” said Andrew Nestor, president and owner of the Rowdies. Nestor was recently honored by the Tampa Bay Business Journal in its annual Up & Comers Awards in its under 39 category.

The Rowdies are already bringing soccer to Tampa Bay. The team hosted an invite-only pro combine in Tampa last month.

The team wanted to build a 5,500-seat stadium with no public financing. It has a 16-acre site in the Town and Country area owned by David Laxer, owner of Bern’s Steak House in Tampa and part owner of the Rowdies.

To make the site work, the team wanted to move the stadium slightly closer to the Veterans Memorial Highway than current zoning allows. After discussion with the Hillsborough County Commission, it became apparent to Nestor that there were too many objections over possible noise and traffic increases in the neighborhood for the measure to pass a vote. Nestor then withdrew the variance request in January.

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