COLUMBUS -- The most successful chapter in Columbus Crew history officially closed Wednesday with the announcement that head coach Sigi Schmid would seek employment elsewhere after leading the club to its first MLS championship last month.
General manager Mark McCullers confirmed that assistant coach and former Crew player Robert Warzycha is the frontrunner to be the named the organization's fifth full-time head coach. However, no decision is expected before next week.
"This week would be a fairly aggressive timetable," McCullers said. "Obviously, getting the head coaching position secure is a priority. It's an immediate priority. Because there has been speculation about Sigi not returning I've have people contacting me -- agents and other coaches.
"I want to make sure I do our due diligence working with our ownership and Brian (Bliss, technical director) in the process but my objective is to make the decision as quick as possible."
When asked if Warzycha is the leading candidate, McCullers replied, "At this point in time that's fair to say. Certainly Robert is somebody I respect and seriously considered for the job the last time it was open."
McCullers said no other candidates have been interviewed.
"I need to focus on the candidate pool a little bit. I haven't had a chance to do that. That's part of the due diligence to see if there are any other candidates that warrant consideration," he said.
McCullers made it clear several times that "continuity" was the most important feature of the new head coach, and thus there seems to be little desire to go outside the organization this time.
Warzycha became interim coach on July 12, 2005, after Greg Andrulis was relieved of his duties, and took a team that was 4-10-2 to a 7-6-3 record the remainder of the season.
He joined the Crew in June 1996, two months into the inaugural season, and been a fixture since. He was a player/assistant coach in 2002 before retiring as a player. He stayed on after Schmid was hired in October 2005.
"Robert has all the qualities and all the abilities and he knows the players to be able to continue what we built here in Columbus," Schmid said. "He's been here since day one as a player. He's been an assistant for a long period. He expressed to me he was willing to stay as my assistant for as many years as I was willing to stay here. I really appreciated that.
"He's ready. He's been a tremendous help here for me and I hope I've been a help to him as he's learned and improved. More so than anything, he's got the experience to do the job."
While Warzycha could be on the fast track to take over the Crew, Schmid hopes for a similarly rapid response from expansion Seattle Sounders FC.
"Obviously, everybody knows I had a visit to Seattle last week. Things are on hold there. Hopefully, we'll be able to move that forward in the next few days," Schmid said. "I had come to the decision that I wasn't going to return here and I thought it was fair to let (the Crew) know so they can move forward."
How and why the Crew let go the 2008 MLS Coach of the Year -- the man who led them to the Supporters' Shield title with the best regular season record in the league (17-7-6) -- will be open to debate.
Schmid hinted that if a different offer had been made by Hunt Sports Group during the summer he might have signed then and not let his contract expire after winning the MLS Cup.
"It's like I tell the players all the time when we play: You can't worry about what happened," he said. "Obviously if you go back into August or July and instead of this or that happened we'd be at a different point right here. It didn't happen so we're at this point. We have to accept it."
McCullers said the organization tried to re-sign Schmid.
"I wouldn't classify it as anything going wrong or breaking down for that matter," he said. "Sigi had a decision to make and we respect that decision, and for whatever reasons he made it. He was very clear from the very first conversation we had that it was his intent to explore options that were available to him for professional reasons, for personal reasons and that's what he did.
"We appreciate the fact he was upfront about his intentions all along. We made him a very competitive offer that would have made him one of the highest paid coaches in the league."
Schmid said he decided two days ago that he would not remain with the Crew but said he is taking a gamble by not having an agreement yet with Seattle, or any other organization.
"I was going to try and come to a decision on Monday. As it was related to me, I thought at that point in time the decision would be, 'OK, this or that. OK, I'm going to choose this,'" he said. "What it ended up coming down to was instead of this or that it was, 'Well, you either have this and maybe you'll have that. It's a little uncertain.' I decided I was going to deal with the uncertainty. So I came to that decision on Monday."
There were several reasons given by Schmid for his desire to move on. Among them, his family, including wife Valerie, still live in southern California.
"If things work out as I hope they do and being on the West Coast or that possibility, it's easier on my family. That had a factor in it," he said. "Certainly finances had a factor in it. The negotiations length had a factor in it, definitely.
"Also, looking at everything else and what I mean by everything else is we haven't got an agreement yet here in Columbus on a training site. In this economic climate is that going to happen now? It was definitely hard -- a hard decision. It's not easy."
There could be a hitch to Schmid being on the sideline next season because there reportedly is a non-compete clause that prohibits him from coaching any MLS team in 2009.
"I can't speak to the details of his contract," McCullers said when asked if that was the case. "The short answer to your question is, no, I don't think our intent is to block him from working. In any employment agreement where an employee has access to confidential and proprietary information there's language that protects the organization. I think that's normal."
When asked if he would be coaching in MLS next season, Schmid replied, "I would hope so but I can't really comment on that."
Still, McCullers expressed appreciation for what Schmid has done for the organization. Schmid was 34-33-5 in three seasons and missed the playoffs the first two years as he jettisoned all but three players from the previous regime.
"I have a lot of respect for Sigi and I'm sad to see him go. We've been through some tough times together. We've been through some great times together. Any time you work with somebody that closely and it's time to depart, it's difficult," McCullers said. "As far as I'm concerned we're on good terms. He did what we needed him to do here and brought some hardware to the organization along the way. I'll always look back on my working relationship with him very fondly."
Schmid said the Crew and the Hunt family will always be special because they gave him a chance after being dismissed by the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2004. It was an emotional time for Schmid when the Crew won the MLS Cup with a 3-1 win against New York on Nov. 23 in Schmid's former home, The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.
"As I've said all along, I thank the Hunt Sports Group and I thank the Crew organization for having the patience with me to allow it to happen," he said. "I do feel that (the Crew) is in much better shape than when I came here. The team is going to play in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. We'd never been MLS champion. To win the Supporters' Shield the way we did this year; the young nucleus of players we had this year -- I believe there's a solid foundation.
"Now it's time to turn to another challenge and that's good, too, because challenges keep you motivated and keep you going."
Schmid looks forward to returning to Crew Stadium someday and visiting the Nordecke supporters section that he played such an integral part in developing this season.
"I expect when I come back to Columbus with whatever team I'm with that the fans will respect what I was able to do here but I know they're going to be out to win the game and support the Crew once the game begins," he said. "Fans are supposed to support the home team so I'd be disappointed if the fans here in Columbus didn't support the Columbus team to its full extent.
"The fans -- that's one of the hardest things for me to leave and one of the hardest things in my decision-making process. There was a bond. The scarf I wore was very special to me because it represented for me the bond to the fans and the bond to Lamar (Hunt). That's something that will always be very special to me."
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