Turn and Face the Strange

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance."

- Alan Watts

The Greenville Triumph Soccer Club faces a new era. From the team's creation through this past season, the club was under the steady hand of founder and owner Joe Erwin and team president Chris Lewis. Even the management of the team has been marked by stability, as inaugural Head Coach and USMNT legend John Harkes' five-year tenure at the helm gave way to a further two years with his former assistant coach Rick Wright filling the big seat.

The undergirding and buttresses of the club have been characterized by permanence, with the only groans of instability audible in the relocation from the cozy Legacy Early College Field, a soccer stadium by trade (even though it was originally home to American football when my grandfather was a pomaded young man at Parker High), to the relatively cavernous and ill-fit Paladin Stadium, Furman University's on-campus football stadium, in 2023.

The Triumph made the USL League One finals in each of their first three campaigns, claiming the 2020 crown, though the Harkes era finished with a whimper amid a first-round playoff exit in 2023.

Green shoots of revival emerged in Wright's first season in charge in 2024. Lyam MacKinnon graduated from a promising young player to the destroyer of worlds, and the team was injected with youth and a vigor across the breadth of the roster that quietly whispered of a bright future.

That future did not come to pass, as the goalscoring void left by MacKinnon was not effectively filled, and a bevy of problems led Greenville to its worst finish in history last season, 11th out of 14 teams in the league.

That difficult season has begotten a multitude of changes, with part owner Wallace Cheves becoming the face of the organization by being named Chairman in September, replacing the venerable Joe Erwin. And though Erwin announced that he will remain involved as a part owner, one couldn't help but anticipate that alterations up and down the organization would follow.

IGNITE THE TRANSFORMATION!!!

The first public domino to fall was the retirement of Head Coach Rick Wright in November. Shortly thereafter, the team announced that GE Vernovo would be the naming sponsor of the new, soccer-specific stadium being built at Mauldin's Bridgeway Station, a cathedral to the beautiful game that longtime footie fanatics in the Upstate of South Carolina have longed to see come to fruition.

December brought news that Team President Chris Lewis was stepping down from his role. The vacancy did not remain open for long, as Cheves quickly identified his man in South Carolina native Zach Prince, naming the former USL coach and MLS assistant coach as the club's new General Manager and Sporting Director.

Prince in turn made quick work of his first hire, selecting Dave Dixon to lead the Triumph into the great wide open of the 2026 season. Dixon boasts 29 years of coaching on his resume with stops up and down the ladder of American soccer. He arrives with a reputation as a top-tier developmental coach, and in his early public appearances and press releases Dixon has stressed that he wants the team to play energetic and attacking soccer, looking to play both aggressively with the ball, and against it when out of possession.

THE PRINCE WHO WAS PROMISED?

The hiring of Prince was one I met with considerable excitement. I have followed his career since his days as a player for the Charleston Battery. His stint at Assistant Manager and later Manager and Technical Director at New Mexico United, where he both started a free academy and had the team playing at a high level after the departure of former boss Troy Lesesne, piqued my interest and birthed a tiny shard of hope in my heart – maybe Prince could one day return to the Palmetto State. Just maybe the prodigal Sandlapper would return as Manager of the Greenville Triumph. Although my vison of him steering the backroom staff has fallen short, I'm equally excited to see him lead the organization's front office.

The hiring of Prince represents a sea change for the club. Chris Lewis was a phenomenal initial hire for the Triumph, a proven executive as President and General Manager with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits hockey team of the ECHL and with numerous years of experience in the NHL and in college athletic departments. His experience guided the club through the fraught startup phase, and his years of dedication and hard work will forever be celebrated in a landscape strewn with many other lower-level soccer teams that desperately struggle to remain viable.

But make no mistake, Prince's hire is altogether different. He is a soccer guy, through and through. He has played the sport professionally, he has coached the sport professionally, and he even served as Technical Director in New Mexico. He has coached at two different MLS clubs, the New York Red Bulls and DC United. And for the first time in Greenville's history, the Sporting Director role has been decoupled from the head coaching position. This speaks to Greenville Pro Soccer's transformation into a more sophisticated and robust organization, one better equipped to face the promise and challenges of the future of soccer in the Upstate of South Carolina.

AND THE OTHERS?

I can't say I have as much familiarity with Wallace Cheves. He's a well-known guy in these parts due to his myriad business interests. He was instrumental in bringing Grupo Ronaldinho, of which he is a member, into the Greenville Pro Soccer fold, a bit of networking that still feels slightly surreal. Seeing the human embodiment of Joga Bonito, Ronaldinho, whisked into the groundbreaking at Bridgeway Station early last year still feels like a fever dream.

Cheves's reputation is that of a man who gets shit done, and I want to go out on a limb here and say that seems like a strong skill set to have as a sports owner. His early tenure has been promising, and he, like his predecessor Erwin, is a Greenvillian born and raised. I think that is important for the club at this point in its trajectory, and I feel a certain amount of comfort in knowing that the Chairman inherently understands the civic duty that this stewardship entails.

My initial impressions of Coach Dixon are also favorable. He's a down-to-earth guy, amenable and easily approachable, both traits that will serve him well in his time here. His various coaching stops and mentors may provide some clues, but I don't think anyone can project what type of system or tactics he will utilize with any certainty. I would presume that his game model will be transitional in nature, and will utilize elements of gegenpressing and verticality. But those are just hunches based on the small bits of information available, and I doubt that he will be dogmatic about his system no matter what he settles on in the early season.

My casual interactions with fellow fans this offseason have been largely characterized by two sentiments: excitement about the potential of the stadium and its impact of the fanbase writ large, and the unease that often walks lockstep with large-scale institutional change.

Though the final destination remains murky, we stand collectively at a crossroads that brooks no debate: this is the dawn of a new epoch for the Greenville Triumph. There is a profound, heart-pounding beauty in this uncertainty, a sense of rebirth that is as terrifying as it is utterly exhilarating.

If you liked this post, please think about subscribing. I will post a roster examination later in the week detailing the offseason comings and goings.

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