3739: MLS Memorial: R.I.P. Mooch
by : Bill Urban
The US Soccer community lost one today; not a football match, but something, or someone, rather, far more important.
Glenn “Mooch” Myernick died in hospital Monday morning, four days after suffering a heart attack while jogging with a neighbor near his home in Colorado. At age 51, Myernick had fashioned an impressive playing and managing career, with the promise of future distinction yet to come despite a disappointing World Cup summer. Myernick was ex-US National manager Bruce Arena first assistant during the tournament, and spent gargantuan quantities of time before Germany 2006 compiling scouting reports on the nations the US might face.
One of the abiding memories from the 2006 World Cup, indeed for US supporters one of the few positive ones, was Myernick rather than Arena handling all the interview chores, a move which, while enabling Arena to avoid speaking to the media, an aspect of the game he clearly deplores, put Myernick in the media spotlight, a generous gesture from Arena which may have been intended to position Myernick to become the next US National manager.
The interviews were delivered with grace, charm, and a wry twinkle in the eye, as if Mooch knew that the match day media circus, like so many other aspects of modern sporting culture, meant little more than the opportunity to gather fresh storytelling material to deliver to the boys later that night, with a far more boisterous and earthy delivery thrown into the post-match mixing. The sly irreverence during Mooch’s matchday interviews will be sorely missed by supporters subjected to endless spells of obfuscation, belligerence, and excuse-making from modern managers.
A man whose passion for the game was most clearly illustrated by the pick-up matches played before and after training sessions, in which any media member, league official, and presumably stray individuals walking by the pitch might be offered the chance to play, Myernick built an interesting and varied career around the game he clearly loved.
Mooch would never have blamed ballboys for his team losing a match; he might very well have played keepy-uppy with some or all of them afterwards.
After winning the Hermann Trophy, awarded to the best university player in the US, in 1976, Myernick turned professional, signing on with the Dallas club before playing both for Portland and Tampa Bay during an eight-year career. In an era when fewer international matches were played, and fewer still if a player turned out for the US, whom no one was particularly bothered with playing, Myernick earned ten caps and the honour of captaining his country.
After hanging up his boots, the coaching bug bit, with Myernick taking on various coaching and administrative positions within the US National Team youth program during the 1990's, including managing the U-17's at the FIFA World Championships in 1995 in Ecuador. Professional football called again shortly thereafter, with Myernick signing to manage the Colorado Rapids in 1997, taking the side which had failed to qualify for the previous season’s play-offs all the way to the MLS Cup Final, where the Rapids lost a close contest to DC United, 2-1.
Myernick worked for the Rapids for four years before leaving the Mile High Club in 2001, wherein he hooked up with National Team Coach Bruce Arena, working as an assistant on the staff of a squad that made it to the quarterfinals of World Cup 2002. The same tandem did not have the same success in 2006, but Myernick’s reputation for passionate commitment, to the game, his players, and his coaching, did not suffer.
Myernick had recently returned stateside, following a trip to South Africa on behalf of the US State Department’s International Sports Initiative, where he gave clinics and undoubtedly enjoyed himself thoroughly, playing ball with South African youngsters looking forward to the World Cup coming to their country in 2010.
The simple fact is that Glenn Myernick always had a blast whenever there was a ball about.
At 51, gone far too soon.
R.I.P. Mooch...
