Phoenix Rising FC begins defense of league championship with new head coach Danny Stone
Danny Stone left his native Liverpool, England, in 1997 to move to Tempe and attend high school at Corona del Sol.
After decades as a soccer player and coach, he returned to the greater Phoenix area three years ago to become an assistant coach for Phoenix Rising FC. Now, he's the head coach of the defending USL Championship League champion club.
Stone was named Rising head coach last week and guided the team through its first full team practice of the 2024 season on Monday at the club's facility near Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.
Stone was an assistant for Juan Guerra, the coach who led the team to its first USL title last November. Guerra recently moved on to a coaching staff position with the Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer.
"It's a pleasure and it's a privilege to be able to lead this team. It's something that I feel connected to the club over the last three-and-a-half years of being here," Stone said. "And I'm really looking forward to the challenge, like I say. So it's a big honor and one that I don't take lightly."
It didn't take Rising FC long to choose Stone after Guerra departed. Stone had a conversation roughly a week ago with co-owner Brandon McCarthy and team president Bobby Dulle, and things moved quickly after that despite the club conducting a search for a new head coach.
Repeating as champions with a few players having departed in a league where there is an annual high turnover of staff and players won't be easy. On Saturday Rising FC takes the field, only 2½ months since winning the league title, against MLS club Portland Timbers, who are also tuning up for the start of a new season and will be in the desert Southwest for favorable training and preseason match weather.
"I believe they were pleased with it. I believe they were happy," Stone said of the returning players' response to him being named head coach. "They certainly have shown me a tremendous amount of support so far. And I thank them for that. I look forward to working with them. We have several players, of course, in the squad that I know very well from this last season. So I look forward to working with them again, and welcoming new players to the squad to add to and to improve the already strong group that we have."
Midfielder José Hernandez is one of the returning players and affirmed that continuity with the coach and roster matters for Rising FC coming off a league title.
"I think everybody knows how valuable everybody was last year to the run we had, from players to coaches to everybody," Hernandez said. "With (Stone) around, obviously he knows the majority of the group, he was here with us, and he knows what it took to get us where we were last year. And I think it's a good opportunity for him to continue to carry us even further."
Before returning to Phoenix in March of 2021, Stone served as an assistant coach with USL Championship club Oklahoma City Energy FC during the 2019 and 2020 seasons. He began his coaching career with the Colorado Rapids of MLS in 2010, where he helped establish the franchise’s youth academy structure.
Stone, who played professionally in England, was an assistant coach for the Rapids from 2015 to 2018. His ties to Rising FC youth academy coaches and the Phoenix area soccer community helped in his decision to first join the club in 2021, and he now resides five minutes or so away from the high school he attended in Tempe years ago.
"He has been an integral part of our organization over the years, both with our youth club and the first team, demonstrating exceptional professionalism, tactical expertise and the ability to do what is necessary at any given moment to help the club succeed on and off the field," Dulle said of Stone in a statement from the team.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix Rising FC coach Danny Stone eager to defend club's 2023 title
