USL Feature
Friday, July 29, 2011
By NICHOLAS MURRAY
August 27, 1995 remains Leigh Cowlishaw’s most memorable moment as a Richmond Kicker.
That was the night the Kickers took the U.S. Open Cup 4-2 in a penalty shootout after they had played the El Paso Patriots to a 1-1 draw through regulation and overtime despite being down to 10 men for a large portion of the match.
With his Kickers side one win away from a return the Open Cup Final next month, Cowlishaw still sounds as though he’d recently walked off the field when describing the biggest win in the club’s history.
“We scored first, and as had happened several times Kevin Scott decided to get himself sent off shortly thereafter, so we had to play with 10 players,” Cowlishaw recalled. “It was the hottest game I had ever played down in El Paso, but we were able to hang in there, again because we had a lot of experienced, talented players, and then we came through the penalty shootout with flying colors. I think we missed maybe one, which was good because I was going to be the next one to go, so I was glad they took care of it in the first five penalties.”
Cowlishaw has been a fixture since the Kickers were founded, first as a player, then as a player-coach from 2001-09 before he hung up his cleats. Now 40 years old, the Englishman came to the U.S. to play college soccer at the University of Richmond where he remains the leading single-season and career points scorer. Recruited to the university by current Coastal Carolina coach Shaun Docking, it was the right move at the right time.
“[Docking] caught me at a good time because it was the middle of winter and he was talking about sun and beautiful women,” Cowlishaw said. “My playing career was kind of stalling and not going where I wanted it to go, so it seemed like the perfect fit.”
Getting a fresh start, and the ability to continue his education, set Cowlishaw on the path he has followed until now. In fact, Cowlishaw credits the degree in business management he earned at Richmond with some of the success he has had in building the Kickers into the club it is now. With the aid of strong ownership groups, the club has grown to include academy teams, while the club itself has been among the most successful on the field in USL history.
In addition to the Open Cup victory, the Kickers have also won three league championships and advanced to five other finals, and while Cowlishaw was able to draw on his experience from his youth days at Everton and then learning from Manchester United legend Dennis Violett when he was coach for the Kickers, he believes his educational background in business has had just as much impact on the club’s success.
“I think being in England, being involved with Everton, which was at the time the best side in the country, seeing those players, seeing how they were coached was a valuable experience,” Cowlishaw said. “Having Dennis was a valuable experience, and then just coming over to the U.S. and seeing the different style of play and different ideas was a wonderful experience, but most of all, going to university and graduating with a degree in business management was the most important, because it helped you understand what you needed to do in order to run a successful team.”
Being part of a successful team also helps, though, which is why Cowlishaw looks back at the Kickers Open Cup success 16 years ago with great happiness. In the first year that professional clubs were allowed to enter the tournament, a team from what is now the USL Premier Development League took the first title in the tournament’s modern era.
“We were an exceptional young team,” Cowlishaw said. “Even though we were playing in our present-day PDL league, the squad of 15, 16 we had, it was the most enjoyable soccer period for me because we had Dennis Viollet, a Manchester United legend, who was coaching the team, all the players were very respectful and coupled with the fact that we had a talented team, and a driven team, he was pretty much able to let us go out there and play, compete in practice.
“There was very little tactical or strategic work, it was just every day coming to compete, coming to try and win and the five-a-side games there were as good as the vast majority of matches I played in and for me, that’s the type of environment I want to be in, it was just a fun time.”
Hopefully for Cowlishaw and his current side, the fun continues. After winning a pair of home games against fellow USL PRO sides the Dayton Dutch Lions and Pittsburgh Riverhounds, the club achieved history with its first win against Major League Soccer competition on the road when it beat the Columbus Crew 2-1 on June 28. The Kickers then replicated the feat two weeks later with a 2-0 victory against Sporting Kansas City, which put it into the semifinals against the Chicago Fire on August 30. Earning those types of victories, despite the lesser resources his side had in comparison to MLS teams, is something that Cowlishaw has come to expect, with the victory against Kansas City the fifth he has presided over as Kickers coach against MLS teams.
“It’s how you have your expectations, and we expect to build teams that can compete with the best in the country,” Cowlishaw said. “Now, we understand that we don’t have the resources and the talent is higher in MLS and continues to grow, the divide continues to get bigger, but that just makes it more of a challenge for us, and it makes it a more enjoyable challenge in that regard. We have a very strong group of players that the coaches have identified and they’ve identified them because of the type of characteristics they show. We want to win matches, and that’s why they’re here.”
Whatever happens against Chicago, though, Cowlishaw will continue to try and run the team as he always has.
“I just hope when they look at the team, they enjoy watching the Kickers play and compete,” he said. “That’s all that matters to me. It’s never about the coach or the manager, it’s about the team he puts out to play, and that’s all that matters to me is that the team is successful and plays quality soccer and goes out and gives 100 percent.”