Several days before the beginning of preseason, I had the chance to speak with Loudoun United President Karl Sharman and Sporting Director Alen Marcina to get their thoughts on arriving at Loudoun, the building of the team and several others in the USL ecosphere and other topics. This interview has been slightly edited for clarity.

The District Press: So how did you (both) come to this? I know you came in at different points.

Karl Sharman: So I joined Virginia Revolution in 2022 and I was a consultant for ownership with their process. I coached for the youth club, with my kids being all in the system, then I was a consultant for the ownership, I led the due diligence of the Loudoun United acquisition. 
So I was in charge of building that project out and spending time with Attain (Sports) and D.C. United. Then I moved full time in August as obviously President and CEO of both clubs.
Since we did the acquisition in April, we’ve been merging everything together, and so that’s been (the) biggest part of my priorities has been merging both clubs and making the transition from Loudoun United being an individual team and making it a bigger club and part of this community in Leesburg, and the wider area of Loudoun County.

Alen Marcina: I think to start, I’m incredibly grateful but also extremely excited for this opportunity. I shared that first, I believe, through the body of my work. I’ve had a number of different options, and with full transparency, those options just weren’t the right fit. For me, it was essential to be aligned with ownership, with the President, that we were all aligned. I wanted to surround myself with like-minded individuals. 
I also wanted to surround myself with people that are high performing people, incredibly smart individuals that I knew that I could also grow as a professional, that was essentially important to me. There was no way I was gonna relocate my family if I didn’t believe in the project and believe in the opportunity and believe in the direction that we’re going. 
So that’s why I said at the beginning how excited I am with this project. I do believe I found what I was seeking in this environment, and super excited of the work ahead and where Loudoun is going, because it is exciting times, and I’m also excited with this next step in my career, because my previous experience as a Head Coach and Technical Director, I can now serve as Sporting Director was something that I sought after, and to work alongside someone like Karl, who has significant experience in this area, I’m incredibly excited to be here.

DP: Did you expect it to happen as quickly as it did? Because it seemed like you did everything that that you wanted to do (in San Antonio), so maybe it was worth taking a sort of break, or were you getting antsy? 


AM: No, I was very, very fortunate. I’m very genuine in that statement. I had a number of offers that I turned down, and that’s not always the case, usually you’re chasing these opportunities, and I had a lot presented. But I knew (in) the conversations I had with Karl, I said this during our conversation, I found that excitement over the call with Karl and as well as the ownership group, and it was something I was missing is something that I didn’t feel through the offers I was receiving. and it had to be a right fit. 
I’ve established myself in this league, had a lot of success, fortunately enough. So I knew for me to relocate, it had to be the right fit, align myself with people of like mind and people who are ambitious for thinking and want to do something special here.

DP: It seemed like Anthony (Limbrick) was a little bit of an off the board pick for Head Coach.
So I was wondering what boxes did he tick off for you?

KS: We made this decision pretty quickly and efficiently with our search, and Alen supported me in terms of putting a shortlist together, head coaches that we felt were right for the next, two or three years of this journey. 
Obviously we know that coaches and players come and go, but it’s really important that we build that around the philosophy that Alen is inputting here from an identity perspective. So Anthony ticked a lot of the boxes around the identity, around the game model that we’re seeking, and also the objectives of what the board’s trying to achieve. We looked internationally because we thought that was important, Alen obviously he has some great USL experience. And so we were aware with Alen’s USL experience, could we find people that had different experiences that could come with a group that, at the end of the day, players have different experiences from different backgrounds as well, right? So it was really important that we found a coach that could relate to that, that has that experience of developing players, because the only way we’re going to win games on the field is if the players are developing and striving for better. 
Finally, we wanted someone who really wanted to win and was ambitious enough to build with us, because everyone here is trying to build their career and get theirselves to the next level. So ultimately, that’s why we went with Anthony. We knew it was left field, we knew that he had no USL experience and that’s okay to us, because I think he makes it up in abundance of his experience and his history of what he’s achieved. And I also think that the same merry go round in the USL is not always healthy, sometimes it’s good to get different ideas from the outside; we really believe in cognitive diversity here for that reason. And like Alen, we selected someone who wasn’t in this area to move into this area and bring something new to us, bring something different to us, and that’s really important for me, because everyone has to bring their own skill set.

AM: I think he’s someone of high character which is important to us. He’s highly motivated, he’s driven, he’s resilient. 
He’s ultra hungry, and he’s got a proven successful track record of developing people, which is one of the key values that we have here. So we’re incredibly excited to have Anthony here, and we’ve also surrounded him with people that are well versed in the USL Championship to help support him in this project, and to also ensure that we are successful.

DP: Obviously Anthony is part of what’s been a busy winter (in the span of one month, the organization announced a USL League Two team, a Women’s Team and and a USL Youth Team encompassing the U10-U19 age ranges for boys and girls), so for lack of a better way to say it, what’s it like putting together 4 different teams? Was there the desire to try and do it all at once, as opposed to dipping your toe in with the Y or the League 2?

KS: I think my responsibility is to make sure that we set the standards, set the goals, set the mission in what we’re trying to achieve. So I’ve done that from hopefully the top down and for us, it was making sure that we’re set up for the next five, 10, 15 years. 
Some of that means that we have to pull the band-aid off a little bit at times to get through some of that, because there is never a good time to start something new and there’s never a good time to do anything. I wanted to make sure on the field that Alen was able to put his stamp on and that meant there was a lot of difficult decisions that needed to be made at the end of last season with a Head Coach, with an Assistant Coach, with some of the player decisions. So I wanted Alen to make sure that he could set up and put his own identity and stamp on this in line with what we’re building from a club purpose. Then there’s the integration of Virginia Revolution, so now Loudoun United has its own Academy, so it’s able to feed players into that program, which is going to be very sensible from a business perspective, but also very effective on the field as well over time. What we found is that (Revolution) had U19s, but you really had this gap in between,
so USL League 2 allows us to feel that gap, but also allows Alen to recruit, the best college players into that team, which gives us prospects, (where) if they’re not to make the draft, can we actually get some of these players out of college in the future? So we can actually develop our own players, which will create better sell-ons, better opportunities on the field, then with the W League, that was more from a Virginia Revolution perspective, being able to provide a pathway for Women’s and doing that in partnership with DC Power, the USL Super League team in the region, will be able to give women better representation. 
And I think it’s really important; a lot of people that come to games are young girls aspiring to be professionals, so giving them an extra college pathway or the youth an extension of what they’re doing was important to us. 
With the USLY that’s an extension of the Virginia Revolution program, and obviously sits under the youth side more than Alen here. But for us, everything is focused on how do we increase the fan experience and the community engagement? How do we create better pathways for our players, both for Virginia Revolution and Loudoun United and then the wider community? 
And then how do we get more staff developed and give them better opportunities? So it was really great that Matthew Mountford, who’s now head coach of League 2, will have the youth experience because we brought him in from the Philadelphia Union, he will now do a lot of youth development work, but he’s going to be the League 2 Head Coach and he’s going to be able to support the First Team. So for him, that’s a great pathway for us to produce on staff development. and see this as not just a place to provide and produce for players, but also produce for staff, so this has many different benefits. The reason we did it all at once is because like I said, it’s much easier to rip the Band-Aid off now and then be set up for the next 5 years. So we had to be prepared, we had to be planned, we’ve staffed up accordingly on the front office, and we’ve still got more to do on that side. 
But we’re really excited for the year ahead in terms of what we’ve been able to build in a very short amount of time.

DP: Alen, from your perspective, how would you characterize the roster build, and how different has it been to do it here, as opposed to doing it in San Antonio?

KS: What a great question.

AM: Great question. 
I will maybe take a step back and piggyback a little bit on what Karl said. I do believe we have such a unique opportunity to create a total club identity. And very few people have a) achieved that, and b) have that opportunity. 
So it’s something that I’m incredibly excited to be a part of and try to help develop that, because also my long-term goal is for people across across the nation to be able to say, ‘Hey, that is Loudoun United, they’ve got a clear identity from our youngest ages to the first team and beyond.’ That’s incredibly hard to achieve, but I’m confident in the people we have that are willing to roll up their sleeves. We’ve got smart enough people in this building that we could execute this. A little bit about San Antonio, it’s something that I did achieve in San Antonio, and we even had even some tag taglines (like) “the mentality monsters,” and it was exciting to see because that same tagline was our U12 boys all the way up to the first team. So it was consistent what we say about creating a total club identity that was achieved, and we plan on doing the same here with Loudoun United and hopefully even take a step further than that, and we do have that opportunity in front of us. Regarding the roster, we’re very strategic in our roster build, very intentional, methodical, in our approach. Without sharing too many details, we’re making good progress in that area, we’re very excited with the players that we’ve identified and secured. We have a saying here that it’s about winning now and progressing people forward, and we believe we’ve identified the right people that were able to execute that. 


DP: In terms of those that are returning, how did you communicate with, say, (Abdellatif Aboukoura), Quimi (Ordonez) and Jacob Erlandson in terms of how this year is going to look like for them and any other talks (with) the returning players on what what they should expect for this year?


AM: Well, through all my conversations, I can tell you in all honesty, they’re incredibly excited. Change is part of our sport, and they’re incredibly excited with what lies ahead. 
Myself and Anthony have fantastic conversations with players daily, sharing what we will be doing moving forward, about our new and improved identity, and they’ll play a big part. They’ve experienced a little bit of the past, they will be leaders, veterans, and they will help manage the culture that we will create. 
You know, they are our culture givers, they’ll help maintain and establish an identity that we will build a foundation level during preseason, and they’ll help manage it and maintain over the course of season. So they’ve been incredibly supportive and excited with the direction that we’re headed. 


KS: Yeah, I think I’ll build a little bit off that to give you an idea of the process where I am on this, on how this happened. When your season ends so abruptly, I can’t really describe how strange I think that was. You’re excited in the buildup for the playoffs on that Saturday, then Saturday evening it’s all over. And I was there in North Carolina, and it was tough to take that drive back and process that. So I took a few days to make sure that Alen and I were aligned and I then I went and spoke to the board about what I think the decision should look like, then we articulated that to the players. To Alen’s point, especially for the ones that were returning, was ‘this is where we are now, this is where we want to head to, and this is the role you’re going to play in that.’ 
Whether it’s six months, a year, two years, we all know your Aboukouras of the world and Quimis of the world, they have ambitions, right? That’s why we love them. They’re hungry, they want to be ambitious, but they’re still going to understand that we can help them get there, but they’ve got to help us get there. 
And it goes hand in hand. So articulating that very early on the process it’s got them bought in. Then spending time with people with Alen’s experience and then speaking with Anthony as soon as that was done, it was very important to get them on board. 
But we articulated this pretty quickly and early that there was going to be a lot of change, but this is why we’re doing it, and this is why we’re gonna move forward. It’s that’s really important for us. 


DP: What was a little bit of the pitch to maybe an Ezra Armstrong or a James Murphy in terms of bringing them here? You’ve got guys that, that are veterans, but they’re also maybe familiar with the reputation that preceded Loudoun before Revolution Soccer came in. Has there been any sort of of shifting of opinions that you’ve had to do when it comes to kind of bringing people in? 


AM: Well, I think it starts off with our vision. We want to be a team that competes for championships while simultaneously progressing people forward, I think those two do coexist. I had proven that concept in my time in San Antonio, we were the most successful club in terms of progressing players on. We also won a Championship, went to the Finals multiple times, were the most successful club in the Western Conference between 2020 to 2024. So it’s something that we will bring here to Loudoun United. We obviously shared that conversation with players, players are no different from us, as leadership is, you believe in people. 
So these players have entrusted us on staff that we are able to deliver. They bought in already to what we believe in and our vision and our commitment to each of our players that this is a platform that we’re trying to help them progress their careers (while) simultaneously putting a great product on the field, positioning ourselves to compete for championships and just creating a great environment for our fan base. 


KS: If I can just comment a little bit on that. Yeah, yeah, because I think Alen got it exactly right. When I did the due diligence, it was one of the risk factors that I knew, that pre-perception. 
If you remember when that Athletic article came out maybe 24 hours before we were about to do the acquisition about like the cold showers and stuff like that. So from an infrastructure, macro level work, the move to Raventek Park, is a huge benefit for a selling item, because previously and historically the team always trained at Segra, and it doesn’t give Segra any special feel for a player. As now they’ve got their own home here at Raventek, where they can come and train, they have a gym, they’ve got very nice locker rooms here, all the staff are based here, and it feels much more collective. And I think the players that have visited here, really feel that unique environment and that professionalism that comes through with that. And I think that was a bit like what I said that going from Loudoun United being a little island, now being much more of a collective, and being much more united through that, is hugely beneficial for the club and for the player, and for the agent, and for the families of the players, and everyone that matters to that individual, because they can really buy into that.


DP: Piggybacking off of that, when I talked with Niko (Eckart, former General Manager) when he was still there, there was talk of maybe trying to figure out a way to not gussy up Segra, but make it a little bit less containerless. So I was wondering if there’s been any planning along those lines or anything that’s maybe on the docket for the county to address, or has it been really been more about aligning all of the assets first and then kind of figuring out that part? 


KS: No, from Day One when we acquired the team, that’s been our number one priority, is the Segra Field, let’s call it “redevelopment. “We’re working in partnership with the county on this right now and going through the process. I think it will be a public and private partnership to get this done, and I think everyone understands the need for that. Every day there’s a new USL Championship or USL League One club that’s getting a new stadium or getting a new redevelopment, and even though Segra is 7 years old this year, we know that it needs a lot of improvements, and our owners are willing to invest in that. We own Raventek Park for that reason and we’ve invested in these facilities. You have to invest in facilities because infrastructure is one part of the platform of development and winning. 
Yes, you can get fortunate for a year and you can win it without having infrastructure, but Alen will tell you what they have in San Antonio with the Spurs organization, that’s what we need, we need that level of infrastructure and that starts with facilities. We have a great ownership group together that are willing to invest in every aspect of what we try to do. We have this great youth program, but we have to get Segra right, and that’s number one on my agenda for the next couple of years ahead.

DP: With the signings planned and camp getting ready to start, how do you prep for that knowing that bargaining talks are sort of on, sort of off with kind of the league office? Or is it business as usual until something is communicated down? 


KS: It’s business as usual, we’re here to prepare for a season. We have strong targets that we need to hitas a club and as a group. And time is everything in business, so we can’t sit here and twiddle our thumbs while that’s figured out. I think for us, we expect everything to go ahead and we expect that we’re going to be competing on the field. And so the only way we can do that is buy a strong preseason. With everyone aligned and moving forwards internally, we do what we can to control the external elements, but at the end of the day, we’ve just got to focus internally on what we can achieve.

We’re going to have ups and downs as we go through this journey, but we want to make sure we get in that vision now for what we’re trying to achieve, because the most important thing for me is that the club is better set up in a year’s time, 10 years time, 20 years time, and that this club is still here. That’s why I say to the fan base, we’re here to build this long term, and that’s what we’re really excited about.”