Growing The Game - Triumph's New Coach Spent Decades Growing Soccer In The Upstate

The new head coach of the Greenville Triumph spends almost as much time thinking about future generations of soccer players as the generation of professionals on the field in front of him.

That’s no small thing for Rick Wright, who was named the team’s head coach and technical director in November.

“There's nobody – and when I say nobody, I mean nobody – who hates losing more than me,” Wright says.

The Triumph played its first season in 2019, after the United Soccer League created a third division of professional soccer called League One.

Wright was an assistant coach that year – tapped by the team’s original head coach, John Harkes.

“John encouraged me to become involved because I do love soccer,” Wright says. “But if you had told me six years ago that I would be sitting here in this position, I would have thought you were crazy. God has an amazing way of guiding us in directions we sometimes don't understand.”

When Harkes announced in October that he would not return this season, the Triumph’s leadership chose Wright to succeed him. The sixth season began in early March with the Triumph clinching a 3-1 win against Spokane Velocity.

But Wright’s history with soccer in the Upstate began long before the Triumph played its first game.

He took the field for his first college-level season in 1976 at Erskine College in Due West. But he began learning and playing as a child in Bermuda.

By the age of 12, he was playing with 18- to 20-year-olds.

“When I got off the bus after school, there was a big open field at our church rectory. People played there every day, all ages,” Wright recalls.

When he was 12 years old, Wright told one of the players, a neighbor, that he wanted to join in.

“My neighbor said, 'Rick, you can play on one condition.' He said, 'You can't cry.' I went out on the field, and the first time I touched the ball, I got kicked. That’s when I realized why he said what he said.

“But I firmly believe that helped my development as a soccer player, that I was able to play against people who were older.”

So, the guy who has decades of soccer under his belt … and is also the coach who hates to lose and the boy who didn’t cry … believes that the game can only become better and more popular when more youths learn to play.

And Wright says more youths will play when they can watch teams like the Triumph and the Liberty, the club’s pre-professional women’s soccer team launched in 2022.

“I'll never be too busy to do a soccer clinic. I’ve done a tremendous number of soccer clinics, soccer camps,” he says.

“A big part of our club is to make sure that we do reach out into the community, and we do have an impact in the development of our game. We set up clinics and camps for anybody who wants our handprint on the development of their players.”

Back when Wright’s father tricked him into staying at Erskine College with only $45 in his pocket … (his dad promised to pick him up after a business trip but instead returned to Bermuda without his son) … the quality of soccer play in the United States was far below what Wright had experienced back home.

But the game has evolved in the country and the region where he chose to stay, became a citizen, and raised a family with his wife of 43 years.

“There has been a massive evolution of the game, not just in America, but worldwide. If you look at Major League Soccer, arguably the best player in the world – Lionel Messi – is now playing in America,” Wright says.

“The growth is spectacular. We want Greenville to have that as well. That's why it's important that we keep our arms in the community. We want people to understand that there is an opportunity for their children, to not only go to college, but to play at the professional level.”

A coach can teach children and teens the game, he says. “But at the end of the day, if they watch great players, they have someone they can aspire to. That's something we're trying to do with the Triumph.”

Wright has hired two players from Greenville for the Triumph roster: Hayden Anderson attended Woodmont High School and then played soccer at USC Upstate and the University of Memphis; and Sebastian Velasquez, originally from Colombia, South America, grew up in Greenville and played at Greenville High School before traveling the nation and the world as a pro.

“We're hoping that the community can say, ‘This guy who has played at the very highest level ... He's now back home. Let's go watch him play.'”

The Triumph has also racked up impressive statistics since it became part of USL League One, the third tier of American professional soccer. It has earned playoff berths in each of its five seasons and won the League One title in 2020.

The team plays home games at Furman University’s Paladin Stadium. Its team offices and retail store are at 22 S. Main St. in Downtown Greenville. Joe Erwin is the chairman and majority owner.

Wright’s resume is impressive. As assistant coach of the Triumph, he helped spearhead youth initiatives such as the Academy Cup team, Pass It On clinics and Future Leaders programs.

Though he spent much of his business career in the paper industry, he helped start Anderson University’s soccer program and became head coach, then returned to Erskine as head coach of the men’s and women’s programs. He led Anderson and Erskine to multiple conference titles and spent decades working in U.S. youth soccer Olympic development programs.

Today, Wright says he is happy to focus on the Triumph and the community.

“The Triumph is trying to make Greenville the best soccer city in South Carolina, in the Southeast. But at the end of the day, this is the community’s club,” he says. “We want people to be proud that we're putting a good soccer team on the field.”

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Growing The Game - Triumph's New Coach Spent Decades Growing Soccer In The Upstate