Louisville City just announced the arrival of Mario Sanchez to the club. Sanchez will take on a newly-created role with LouCity, Director of Youth Development and Community Relations. Sanchez, who carries a USSF A license, was previously head coach at Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville, which has a very successful mens soccer program and a prior relationship with Louisville City in terms of preseason friendly matches. Prior to his tenure at SIUE, he was an assistant on Ken Lolla’s staffs at both UofL and Akron, with a head coaching stint at UNLV in between stops. He also played professionally in the old USL A-League for the Orange County Zodiac and the Central Coast Roadrunners in the USISL, back when soccer team names were way more interesting.

From the looks of the press release, Sanchez will also be working on John Hackworth’s senior team staff at least on a part-time basis. Off the field, Sanchez says he’s looking forward to “work[ing] with all community leaders to help grow the sport of soccer and to give back to the Louisville community.”

I’d love to see the job description for this role, but suffice it to say it’s nice to see this sort of thing addressed with a specific person. Louisville City’s plan with respect to youth soccer in Louisville remains to be seen, but having a presence and a contact person for the local youth scene is definitely a good PR move for the club, to say nothing of whatever the Community Relations part of his job is. My speculation about the sale of Mockingbird Valley and Kentucky Fire Juniors earlier this week turned out to be only that, as Mockingbird and KFJ released a statement to players and parents on Tuesday that the club would be continuing to do business as usual. That leaves Louisville City’s academy or youth development plans very much up in the air from my view, but it was always going to be a long term process now matter what direction it would take.

In any event, Mario’s addition to the club sounds like a smart one. Welcome back to Louisville, Mario Sanchez!