Brian Schmetzer, once a Sounders fan and now their coach, thanks Seattle at victory parade
Brian Schmetzer boarded a bus Tuesday afternoon in downtown Seattle and addressed the thousands of fans lining the streets from its rooftop.
He gave shout outs to the Seattle Sounders FC staff, to its players, to its owners standing atop the adjacent rave green bus — including Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson — and to its fans.
“We have everybody here,” the Sounders coach said to the masses. “Let’s do this. Let’s start celebrating a second championship.”
And then Schmetzer hopped off the bus. He spent the next hour walking alongside the fans celebrating Seattle’s second MLS Cup championship, which the Sounders won two days prior in front of a record-breaking crowd at CenturyLink Field.
He did the same in 2016, when the Sounders won their first league title, but this second parade may have been even more special for the Seattle native, considering the club won it in style — a 3-1 victory over Toronto FC — in its own backyard.
“I loved jumping off the bus, talking to the fans on the way down here,” Schmetzer said after a rally at Seattle Center. “The amount of fans that are out here, the energy in here, being a Seattle guy it’s great.”
Schmetzer gave out high-fives to the fans on the sidewalks. He took selfies with them. He signed their jerseys. He took pride in how his hometown has him embrace him, and a soccer franchise that has roots dating back to 1974.
Seattle native Kris Mann, 52, presented him with a small Sounders rain jacket she’s had for years. It already had a signature from Schmetzer on it — when he wore No. 25 for the NASL Sounders in the 1980s.
“When I was 12, I think it was, my mom took my to a Sounders camp down at Renton Stadium, and I just have signatures of all of the players back then, including Brian,” Mann said.
“She probably got it out of a box in her attic,” Schmetzer said. “It’s special. We have a lot of history in this club, a lot of history in this city, so it was great.”
Mann said it’s amazing to have a coach like Schmetzer, who attended Nathan Hale High School and has a decades-long relationship with the Sounders franchise, leading the club now.
“It’s very cool,” she said. “Especially growing up here and following his career and then the Sounders. I had season tickets when they came into existence. … It’s just amazing.”
Schmetzer greeted several fans along the way, walking alongside those wielding flags and scarves, enjoying the company of people who share a deep appreciation of the Sounders.
Dave Brouillette, 40, from Tacoma, hunched over so Schmetzer could sign a Sounders jersey on his back as they marched along. The jersey had Schmetzer’s name etched across the back.
“When they got the heritage jersey, I thought there’s no other name that would fit better on the back of this jersey,” Brouillette said.
He said when considering players, and how they come and go, he landed on Schmetzer, who has been a loyal Sounder for so long.
“It just feels like old-school sports, back in the day, when being from home was a large part of the importance,” Brouillette said. “If he someday moves on to something bigger and better, I’ll be nothing but proud of him. But, for the moment, having him here is just the best.”
Schmetzer’s Sounders ties run deep. He played for the Lake City Hawks youth program, coached by his father, in Seattle as a kid. As a teenager, he attended the NASL Sounders’ first match at the Kingdome — which attracted more than 58,000 — and followed along with them closely.
He was signed by the club in 1980, right out of high school, and played with them until the club folded a few years later. He went on to play for other clubs, but when he retired, Seattle drew him back. He guided the USL Sounders to two titles in 2005 and 2007, and became a top assistant to Sigi Schmid when Seattle was granted an MLS expansion franchise in 2009.
When Schmid left the club midway through the 2016 season, Schmetzer took over in an interim role, and led the Sounders to their first MLS Cup win. He took them to another the following year, which resulted in a loss to Toronto, and then again for Sunday’s win.
“This is a guy who’s been there since Day 1,” Sounders general manager Garth Lagerwey said recently. “He played for the Sounders, coached the Sounders when the Sounders weren’t big-time, when there wasn’t an MLS Cup, when they were a USL team. He stayed with the (MLS) club for seven years (as an assistant).
“Some people would have said, ‘No, man, you’re not going to make me the head coach? You’re going to bring in this guy Sigi? I’m not going to do it.’ He waits seven years, gets his chance, the team’s failing. One point a game in 2016.
“I said, ‘If you double the point rate, you get to keep the job.’ He didn’t punch me in the face. He was like, ‘OK, I’ll do that.’ And he did it and we won the title. He’s earned everything he’s gotten. Just to have him here as part of our club in this moment is just awesome. It makes me happy and I can see that it makes him happy.”
Schmetzer now has two MLS Cup championships to his name in three appearances across the past four years, and his players say he’s remained the same humble leader through it all.
“What I appreciate about Schmetz is he came in and was always a players’ coach,” Seattle midfielder Jordan Morris, a Mercer Island native, said recently. “Someone who wanted to do what was best for the players. He will have his rules and guidelines, but he listens to us, and he goes off our feedback and kind of lets us be free.
“We appreciate that he hasn’t changed. Even with the success, he’s kept being the same coach. Obviously something’s been working.”
Schmetzer was asked last week if he thinks he gets the respect he deserves in the wider scope of MLS.
“I get enough respect at home,” he quipped. “My mom loves me, my wife loves me, my dog loves me.”
And so does Seattle, and its fans, who he has consistently given everything back to. Two days before the parade, he walked off the field at CenturyLink and into his postgame press conference, the emotion of seeing more than 69,000 cheer for his hometown club still fresh.
He had a Heineken in hand, took a victory sip, and sat down to give a statement he had prepared earlier that morning, should the Sounders win.
He paused and fought back tears as he worked his way through it, thanking the Sounders’ ownership group, its staff, and his own family.
“And most importantly,” he said, before tapping his fingers on the table three times as he composed himself. “Most importantly, the players and the fans deserve this. The players persevered … and they never quit. And the fans never stopped believing. So, I’m very, very happy and proud of the city and the fans.”
He reiterated that again at Tuesday’s rally, as thousands of supporters surrounding the stage changed his name. He referred to them as his family, and thanked them.
“Everybody here in the city of Seattle, thank you for this, thank you for Sunday, thank you for a lot of years — 40-some-odd-plus years for some of us — thank you, thank you, thank you,” Schmetzer said.
He spoke proudly of the connection between the club and the fans, and what it means.
“It’s been great,” Schmetzer said later. “I’m just one part of the Seattle Sounders story. I say this all the time, I’m just a steward of the club. … The city, the sport, the fans, the players, that relationship — that’s what I hope continues for hundreds of years.”
This story was originally published November 12, 2019 at 7:01 PM.
