Over the weekend, Detroit City FC announced additions to their technical staff (link paywalled) for the women’s side as they prepare to embark on its second season in the USL-W league.
Joining head coach David Dwaihy are associate head coach Nate Northup, assistant coach Dani Evans, goalkeeping coach Gabby Schriver, and sports-performance coach Elisa Baeron. Schriver and Baeron may be immediately familiar to City supporters given their on-the-pitch roles with the club over the past couple of seasons. Schriver played goalkeeper while Baeron was the team captain for as recently as last season for DCFC. Both will also maintain roles as first-team players with Evans possibly adding on that role herself. Evans is a former captain of the now-defunct Detroit Sun and offers up a wealth of experience to the women’s side having coached the club’s downriver squad and the Lincoln Park High School girl’s varsity team among other stops. Meanwhile, Schriver is getting a chance to get her feet wet in the coaching realm while Baeron will take on a similar role with DCFC that she currently has over at Oakland University.
Other additions to the women’s staff include sporting director Nate Stovall who according to the Detroit News will be the de-facto general manager of the team having served in a similar role with the Michigan Hawks. Another familiar face that City supporters are sure to recognize is Tiffany James, who will serve as the women’s team director of player wellness/assistant GM a role she also maintains with the men’s first team alongside her husband, men’s first team head coach and general manager Trevor James.
In 2022 the women’s side, unfortunately, become the first City team (of the men or women) to finish with a losing season compiling a 3-6-3, record, good for fourth in the USL W League’s Great Lakes Division. So it should go without saying that changes and perhaps a renewed sense of commitment were needed for the women’s team. This current assembly within the technical staff certainly seems to show that commitment.