The wait  has ended. After carefully searching for a Head Coach of the appropriate level for the team, finally the Austin Aztex, directed by its owner Phil Rawlins, announced that Englishman, Adrian Heath, will be responsible for the club.

(Bio details)

With 12 years of experience as a player and 14 from the bench, and licensed by UEFA to coach professionally, the Englishman is more than what Austin could have asked for a debut in the USL.

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Heath is a celebrity of English football and considered one of the 25 best players in the history of Everton where he played over 300 matches. With more than a decade of experience in English, Spanish and Champions’ League football, Adrian Heath is happy with the opportunity to lead the Aztex. The new coach, visited Austin to work out details of his contract and to learn about the city which will be his home beginning in April.

Happy for the opportunity he’s received, Heath walks us through the grounds of the Capitol while he tells us his plans for the Aztex: "We want the team to succeed, we won’t settle for just participating because it’s the first season. We have a year to play with the U23s, and will use the time to see players and form a competitive team to debut in the 1st division (USL1) in 2009," said the coach.

Q: Is it difficult to form the team?
A: Surely, if we started from scratch, but we have a year to see players, or bring them in from anywhere in the world, young or not so young, to form a good team.

Q: What will you look for in the players who come to tryouts in March?
A: Enthusiasm, determination, talent, ability, and obviously something different from everyone else. No matter the age, race, religion, or nationality, all are going to have the same opportunity, so we invite all the players of Austin to come and show us what they can do with a ball. There are no height or weight requirements, the only thing we want is people with talent who know how to play a position on the pitch.

Q: Do you already have a base of players?
A: Not a single one. My list is blank and will be composed of whoever wins a place. We will seek the 25 best performers in March and throughout the year.

Q: What is the advantage of being a subsidiary of Stoke City?
A: I was born in Stoke, it was my first professional team, also the owner of the Aztex is director of Stoke City, it’s logical that we have an excellent relationship with the team that is in first place in the league (Championship), who may be in the Premiership next year. The benefit is that any player who has Aztex talent will be able to go to England to train and maybe play with the team.

Q: What have you been told about football in Austin?
A: I’m told that there were some attempts at professional football, but for some reason they were not successful. We want to demonstrate that Austin will support a professional team, which could become the next closest thing to an MLS team.

Q: You come from one of the best leagues in the world, what do you think of MLS?
A: With Beckham came a lot of publicity, but also with Angel and a few others. I think that soccer has improved to date. Our teams used to come for preseason and win easily, but now they have to work to get a result. Today important players arrive who are still of a good age to play, before they  retire. You can see it in Beckham of Real Madrid who came from Spain and Angel playing at Aston Villa in the Premiership. It’s improved at the national team level too, playing the US is known to be difficult.

Q: Do you have an idea of how many hispanics are in Austin?
A: Since I talked to Phil about coaching the team, I began to study the population and city. I know that there are 30% hispanics, most of them are Mexicans,  and we definitely have to involve them in our team. That is the message we want to give everyone, this is your team and there is opportunity to play on a professional team, regardless of color or race.

Q: Speaking of Mexico, have you ever played against Hugo Sanchez?
A: Yes, I’ve played against the legend, Hugo Sanchez. I played in Espanyol (RCD Espanyol de Barcelona) and lost against Real Madrid, which also had Gordillo, Michel, Butragueno, Sanhis, Schuster, Chendo Buyo, a fantastic team. Hugo Sanchez was great, and the Mexicans are very passionate, which I learned when I went to 2 Mexico matches in the World Cup. They are fans we want to have.