HIGH POINT, N.C. — By the time Eddie Pope was hired as the chief sporting director for Carolina Core Football Club last fall, returning to his hometown to guide its new entry in the MLS Next Pro developmental league, the legendary defender already knew whom he wanted as his head coach: Roy Lassiter, his close friend and former D.C. United teammate during the club’s late-1990s glory years whose coaching career had recently stalled with him as a low-level assistant.
Pope and Lassiter, their relationship so tight they claim to know the other’s thoughts from little more than a glance, worked their vast networks to put together a staff full of longtime friends and colleagues, all with extensive qualifications for their roles: former Honduran star Amado Guevara as assistant coach; longtime Jamaican standouts Andy Williams and Donovan Ricketts as head scout and goalkeeper coach, respectively; and Juan-Carlos Martinez, who worked with Lassiter in Houston, as soccer analyst.