On Thursday, the Seattle Sounders unveiled Adam Owen as the club’s new high performance director and technical advisor, adding over a decade of experience working at the intersection of sports science and tactics to their club staff.
The 39-year-old Owen boasts a fascinating resume that includes working in dual fitness and coaching roles for famed soccer institutions like Scotland's Celtic FC and Rangers, England's Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United, among others. He was most recently with Hebei Fortune of the Chinese Super League.
At the Sounders, he expects to have a bit of a head start.
“I’ve got a specific way of working that we’ve started to impose alongside what’s already been done here,” Owen told the club website. “The fact is that not many opportunities do you get to walk into a successful team in their domestic league. I’m trying to change a couple of a things, tweak a few things, and bring some of my ideas into place.”
In a conference call last week, head coach Brian Schmetzer alluded to some of that work, prior to the club's official announcement.
Owen's role in Seattle was specifically designed, and will extend beyond the first team. He has been assigned the responsibility of implementing a more unified training methodology that extends down to the club’s youth teams.
“One thing they’ve really tasked me with is developing this linear strategy from the first team right down to the academy in terms of training methodology and putting in a methodology within the club,” Owen said. “My background as a coach and a head coach gives me a little bit of more of an insight into where the club is looking to go with methodology that they wanted.”
