Friday, November 20, 2015

Swope Park Rangers Name First Coach, First Player Signing

The Swope Park Rangers, Sporting KC's USL team, today announced the club's first head coach and their first player signing. The team confirmed rumors that have been around for the last couple months about their head coach, as Marc Dos Santos was named the team's first coach. Dos Santos joins the Rangers from the Ottawa Fury, where he'd spent the last two seasons coaching the NASL side. This past season he won coach of the year helping lead the Fury to the NASL title game while finishing first in the fall season. He finished with a record of 22-18-17 with Ottawa, going 15-4-11 this season. From everyone that I've seen talk about Dos Santos, that follow him and the Fury more closely than I do, this is a steal, Dos Santos seems to be a very smart coach that will bring a lot of the same things that Peter Vermes brought to Sporting KC, but also new ideas as well.

Also as part of Dos Santos signing on with the Swope Park Rangers is that he will become an assistant for Peter Vermes and Sporting KC at the same time. This makes the deal look that much better.
The club also announced today the signing of their first player. Returning to Kansas City after being waived last year, Christian Duke was the Swope Park Rangers first player signing. Duke spent two years with Sporting KC, never appearing for the first team in a league game. He spent a lot of time those two years on loan with Sporting's two USL affiliates, Orlando City and Oklahoma City Energy. After being waived by Sporting, Duke signed on with the Energy for the 2015 season, becoming a key part of their 2015 run to the Western Conference finals.
It is two strong starts for the club as they build for the 2016 season.

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