Paul Riley will take the field at WakeMed Soccer Park as the first-ever coach of the North Carolina Courage in April. We asked him a few questions as he prepares his team for the 2017 NWSL Season. What do you see as the positives of bringing women’s professional soccer back to North Carolina? Carolina has been long known for its exceptional female college teams. Icons like Anson Dorrance (UNC women’s soccer head coach) and Robbie Church (Duke women’s soccer head coach) have built their respective programs into major collegiate powerhouses. I think the area is ready to embrace [women’s] professional soccer again and with so many very good teams in the league, they are in for a treat. Young players with exceptional talent to watch on a weekly basis and the learning curve from watching professionals cannot be underestimated. This is the farthest south you’ve ever coached or played. What about the location of the team are you most excited about? It will be considerably different from Buffalo for sure, but last year will always reserve a soft spot for the people of Buffalo. I’ve heard that once you come here you move here! The entire team is excited for our new home, and we look forward to embracing the community in every way possible What have you heard about the Triangle Area? The Triangle area has a ton of soccer going on, and we look forward to being a focal point for all the local clubs and colleges. It’s been a long time since women’s professional soccer was here, but it’s back, and we firmly believe the fan base will allow the Courage to create a fortress at home. What will be the benefits of being just miles away from college programs like UNC, NC State, Duke and Wake Forest? North Carolina is ground zero for women’s college soccer, and it’s going to be fun to be right in the middle of such an extraordinary bunch of great college soccer teams. I truly look forward to sharing soccer talk with Anson, Robbie, Tony da Luz (Wake Forest head coach) and many of the other college coaches in the area. You’ve been in the league for several years. In what ways has the league grown and developed since you started coaching in the NWSL? The strength of the league is in its security, sensible approach, competitive balance, improving fanbases and the belief that the worlds game for women’s soccer is now a global respected sport. Do we have work still to do? Absolutely. There’s been incremental improvements each year, and we are now beginning to attract some of the top players in the world. The new television deal is a massive plus for the league and will undoubtedly bring our league into more American households which, fingers crossed, will enable every team to attract more fan support, sponsorships and overall improve stadia. What are your thoughts on WakeMed Soccer Park as your home facility? Stadium and surrounding facilities make it easy to provide a professional environment for the players. Immediately, the Courage have set the bar high, and we look forward to hearing the crowd roar on opening day. It’s up to us to make sure the fans come back week after week and equally important to ensure our young fans have fantastic role models to look up to. Describe your style of play for fans in NC who may not be familiar with your coaching style. No question the players will say I’m an attacking coach, but I believe in working hard from the front and a high press will be a feature of the team. Players know it’s about the process and the determination to just get a little bit better everyday. Players will be empowered to express themselves and show the fans what they are capable of. We led the league in every attacking category last year, and I think we play the kind of football that fans enjoy watching. We will work tirelessly at every aspect of our game to ensure improvement each day. What is your coaching philosophy and what influenced that philosophy? I think I was influenced mostly by the beliefs of the great Bill Shankly who turned Liverpool FC into a European powerhouse in the 70’s. The simplicity of his beliefs, importance of a strong, unified locker room and his tremendous ability to get the best out of his team were huge pieces in becoming a better coach. Many coaches have helped me understand different parts of the game, management of the playing staff, and develop my training style which I work endlessly at to ensure the players enjoy and flourish in an expansive training environment. Describe this team in one word. Hungry. They were young and wanted a really fun, competitive environment where they could embrace the process and the journey of becoming better players. We wanted them to get out of their comfort zone, be brave and try to improve incrementally everyday. What are your expectations for this season? Expectation is if you have extraordinary belief in your players they will give the team extraordinary results. Improving performance is about freedom to risk and succeed and a safe place to fail and learn. We want, hope and and embrace players to stretch themselves beyond their comfort zone, but not outside their gifted zone. In what ways have you seen Sam Mewis and Lynn Williams develop as players as they’ve become familiar faces on the U.S. Women’s National Team roster? Sam and Lynn are coachable, intelligent, savvy hungry young players. Putting them in a positive environment makes them shine. The experience of last year and the opportunity they have with the USWNT has made them more appreciative and more driven than ever. Two class acts with fabulous future’s in the game. Excited to see where the next few years will take them because they have the talent, athletic ability, hunger and desire to be hugely successful in the international game. Why did you decide to play and coach in the United States as a Liverpool native? As a Liverpudlian I am immensely passionate about the game and I hope that rubs off on my teams. I love football, I love challenging people and I love to be challenged. Watching Liverpool games as a young player helped me enormously to understand the game, and I’m forever grateful to the women’s leagues past and present for giving young females an opportunity to embrace their heroes, watch them in action and learn the game. We have some of the best players in the world in the NWSL and they deserve the support of every soccer mad family in this country. You have a youth program in New York. Why do you feel it’s important to not only work with professionals, but young players as well? I relish working with young players and love seeing their development. When you coach in the youth game you learn to be creative in your practices, you understand the importance of energy and personality, and you can teach and influence young people in their future soccer careers and life thereafter. I truly believe that coaching professional or youth teams the joy is the doing of the task and in the journey itself, however long or difficult. You don’t keep pushing the boulder up hill only to have it come back down on you. How has your youth coaching experience benefitted your professional coaching and vice versa? The benefits or highlights of coaching youth are seeing nine former Albertson Fury players ply their trade presently in the NWSL. We are extremely proud of the pathway we have developed for our club and everytime one of them gets drafted it is emotional to say the least. To see them mature both on and off the field, to see them strive for their dreams and to see them succeed is a fantastic feeling. Paul Riley and the North Carolina Courage begin NWSL regular season play in April 2017. Season tickets can be purchased by calling our box office at 919-459-8144 or online at NCFCtix.com.