Shocked. Flabbergasted. Dumbfounded. These words don’t even begin to do justice to how the folks at Sky Blue FC felt when then Head Coach Kelly Lindsey informed them that she was resigning on Wednesday morning.
Sky Blue FC General Manager Gerry Marrone said that he had no indication that Lindsey was looking to part ways with the team until the morning that it happened.According to Marrone, Lindsey handed him a one sentence letter of resignation just minutes before training was to begin on Wednesday morning. That came after she did not respond to Marrone’s text messages, calls or emails for over three hours, he said.
Up until that point, Marrone said that he had very good communication with Lindsey.
“Quite honestly, I am just absolutely flabbergasted as to why she did what she did,” Marrone said. “I just don’t know. I wish I knew.”
Lindsey had taken over on an interim basis in late May after the team parted ways with Ian Sawyers and was named head coach soon after.
Now, on the verge of qualifying for the playoffs after a terrible start to the season, Sky Blue FC finds itself dealing with yet another coach leaving. Defender, U.S. international and Sky Blue FC co-captain Christie Rampone will take over as interim player/coach for the rest of the season with assistance from Mike Lyons, a coach well known by Rampone and New Jersey natives.
Lindsey’s actions still remain unexplained, but Marrone has little interest in seeking her out.
“I haven’t even tried,” he said. “I have no interest. Anyone that would resign the way she resigned with no notice – completely unprofessional, about as unprofessional as you can be – leaving her team in the lurch like she did after being so much about the team, clearly it is not about the team. It is about Kelly Lindsey. I don’t have any desire to have contact with her, quite frankly.”
Clearly, the team is looking to move forward. With Boston’s 1-0 loss to Saint Louis Athletica on Saturday, Sky Blue FC controls its own destiny in the final two games of the season.Marrone said that he couldn’t be happier with the situation the team is now in given the circumstances. According to him, Rampone immediately responded positively to the idea of stepping up and helping out as a player/coach.
“I am excited to be able to help my team,” Rampone said in a statement released Thursday. “The team has strong character and the organization has shown a strong commitment to the players, which made this an easy decision for me. What’s more, the players have shown great strength and fight throughout the season. We all hope to finish the year strong and carry our momentum into the 2010 season.”
Her coaching duties are only a temporary solution – a Band aid, as Marrone said. It would not have made sense to hire yet another coach, he added, but Marrone is not worried about Sky Blue FC’s image through all of the chaos.He received eight emails from coaches interested in the job within the first two days of Lindsey stepping down, two of which, he said, were from coaches of top 25 women’s college soccer programs.
Only time will tell how Sky Blue FC will handle the adversity, but for now, the team must collectively focus on Wednesday’s home match against FC Gold Pride and Saturday’s road game against the Freedom in order to make it into the playoffs. That would truly attest to how well the team has responded to such adversity.
