Roy Rees - an american soccer story

Welshman Roy Rees was born in 1937. and studied at Loughborough Training College. Whilst at College, he played football with the Brush Sports Club of Loughborough.

After graduating, he moved to Sussex and made 16 appearances for Crawley Town in the Southern League, before taking up an appointment as an Assistant Lecturer in Physical Education at Liverpool University, in 1962, under the leadership of the former Wolverhampton Wanderers footballer, Bill Slater.

Alongside his work, he continued his football career, playing as a hard-tackling left full back for Burscough, eventually becoming skipper of the side. Rees was a fully qualified and respected FA coach and ran a series of courses for the Liverpool Football Coaching Association alongside other well-known coaches such as Tom Saunders and Alan Hampson.

In January 1965. Rees signed for Prescot Town. However, an injury cut short his season and he left in the summer to join Maghull. As Player-Manager at Maghull, his coaching skills led them to the Liverpool County Combination title in 1967.

In January 1968,. during yet another season of perpetual struggle, Rees joined Prescot Town as Player-Manager, following the sacking of Ronnie Mercer. With the Club sitting at the foot of the Lancashire Combination, they showed immediate improvement, especially in defence, and he worked wonders to lift them from the bottom of the table and avoid relegation, with a 20th place finish.

However, in May 1968, some ill-feeling was generated locally, when he joined Skelmersdale United as Manager, leading Prescot Town to complain, unsuccessfully, to the FA about an illegal approach to Rees.

The next few years saw Rees lead Skem to win the Cheshire League and League Shield in his first season in 1968/69, in addition to reaching the semi-final of the FA Amateur Cup and the first round proper of the FA Cup.

In September 1969 it was reported that Roy Rees has turned down what can only be described as fantastic offer to become manager of English First Division Club, with a wage of £100 a week and a house a a car thrown in. In explaining his decision, Roy said, “It is true that I have been approached by a First Division club, and one from the Fourth Division,. but I have decided to turn down the offers for two specific reasons. First of all, I feel I have a better job at the moment and, secondly, managing a Football League club these days a precarious business. At the moment 1 don’t want to be involved in football full-time, as I am quite happy managing Skelmersdale on a part-time basis.”

1969/70 saw Skem retain the title, and also win the Lancashire Challenge Trophy, The Lancashire Floodlit Cup and League Shield and reach the semi-finals of the FA Amateur Cup, once again. The following season, he succeeded in taking Skelmersdale to Wembley, where they defeated Dagenham, 4-1 in the final of the 1971 FA Amateur Cup. His side also won the Ashworth Cup and retained the Lancashire Challenge Cup.

In January 1972, Rees, surprisingly, moved to Altrincham, as Manager, and began rebuilding the side, with good young players, many of whom would go on to become legends at Moss Lane. In 1972/73 Alty won the North West Floodlit League. In 1973/74, they reached the second round of the FA Cup, losing to Blackburn Rovers in a replay, and bettered that the following year with a memorable run to the third round, eventually losing in a replay to Everton, after a one-all draw at Goodison Park..

1975/76 saw Roy installed as manager of Bangor City, but he was unable to bring the Welshmen any success and left at the end of the season.

In addition to his club managerial posts, and his work as a University lecturer, he acted as manager of the British Universities' football team. He was coach of the British team at the 1978 World University Games.

After leaving domestic football, he began working for FIFA as an international coaching instructor and coached the national teams in Iraq, Iceland, Sudan, and Algeria.

The second part of Roy’s career began in the USA in the early 1980s, where Roy hosted a series of soccer clinics, sponsored by Umbro. He eventually settled in Texas, where he co-founded the Houston Texans soccer club in 1983, from which evolved the Dallas Texans in 1993.

By 1985, he had begun coaching the USA Under-17 national side and coached the USA side at four U-17 World Cups, from 1987 through to 1993. He guided the young Americans to historic victories over Brazil in 1989 and Italy and Argentina in 1991.

By the early 1990s, he had formulated a scheme for a full-time residential soccer school in Houston, although that didn’t come to fruition until 1999, when the the USSF opened the Soccer Residency Program for under-17 players in Bradenton, Florida.

Roy continued to serve as a coaching instructor until 1997 and, before his retirement, directed youth clubs in Oklahoma (Tulsa Thunder) and Southern California (Southwest Soccer Club and Santa Anita). He became a founding board member of U.S. Club Soccer in 2001.

Roy held both a Master of Education degree and a Master of Arts degree from Liverpool University and authored two books on soccer coaching, ’Coaching Soccer Successfully', and 'Manual of Soccer Coaching’.

Roy Rees, died at home in Temecula, California in November 2011, aged 74. In his obituary, U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati said, “Roy Rees was one of the pioneers of what might be called the ‘modern’ period of U.S. Soccer. He was, at heart, very much a teacher.”