True to word, Sola leaves Lights FC By quitting, Sola turns his back on team, fans
Technical director departs after talk with team owner
Technical director Jose Luis Sanchez Sola, who is better known by his nickname “Chelis,” has left the Lights FC.
Coach Isidro Sanchez, his son, will remain in his position and lead the Lights through the remainder of the season.
Sola’s departure doesn’t come as a surprise after comments he made Sunday night following a 2-1 home loss to the Portland Timbers 2, a loss that dropped
LIGHTS
A Sfailed experiments go, it wasn’t exactly Jeff Goldblum climbing onto a laboratory telepod in the movies and becoming “The Fly.”
As far as anybody knows, Jose Luis Sanchez Sola — aka “Chelis,” first coach, then technical director (whatever that is) of Las Vegas Lights FC — didn’t grow bristly hairs on his back and become arrogant and violent.
Unless he was in the presence of a referee or a loudmouthed spectator.
But in the end, the experiment failed just the same.
Check that. Chelis didn’t even make it to the end of the team’s first season. He resigned Tuesday with six matches left.
Wrote somebody who ap
KANTOWSKI
the team to 7-15-6.
“Sincerely I want to leave. I can’t anymore with this. Tomorrow I’m going to talk with the owner,” he said. “I don’t have the intention of continuing here.”
Owner Brett Lashbrook said those comments were surprising to hear.
“We had a long conversation yesterday about the state of the team, the future of the team, the vision for the team and decided to part ways,” Lashbrook said.
The announcement to the team came right before practice on Tuesday morning.
“Obviously, it’s shocking for us because at the end of the day we obviously wanted him to be with us and everything,” midfielder Carlos Alvarez said. “We respect his decision, and as a group we got together and we still have a head coach. That’s his son, and (we) respect him and trust him because he’s been trusting us all season, so we just need to keep working and keep fighting for him.”
Sanchez has dealt with most of the day-to-day duties this season, especially as Sola was suspended earlier
in the season for 12 games.
Most of his coaching experience has come with his father, though he did lead CF Real Cuautitlan in Mexico in 2015.
“I don’t have aspirations to be an assistant coach. I’m a head coach.” Sanchez said. “… I have the wings, but I (was) always living in the cage. It’s my time to fly with all the responsibilities … I have always been prepared. Since I was playing 15 years ago, I have been prepared for this moment.”
Sanchez has six remaining games this season to try to right the Lights, who haven’t won a game since Aug. 4.
Lashbrook said the team would “re-evaluate everything,” at the end of the season as any team would but affirmed his confidence in Sanchez.
“He will have every opportunity to prove himself in the role,” Lashbrook said. “Isidro is his own person, his own man, and clearly there’s an interesting father-son dynamic. But as I’ve gotten to know Isidro, and I think anyone that has gotten to know Isidro knows how different he is from his father.
“Isidro knows exactly what’s expected of him the rest of the year, and he absolutely will be considered moving forward.”
Sola, who spoke to the team Tuesday morning, issued a short video on his personal Twitter account thanking the fans, Lashbrook and the front office.
He had expressed frustration Sunday after seeing a lead slip away late, and Lashbrook said the technical director “took the losses this season extremely personally,” while nothing that that commitment to excellence was what drew the team to him in the first place.
Sola was a splashy, high-profile hire because of his past coaching experience and fiery personality. But the first-year Lights were just 1-71 in their last nine games, and the roster has been drastically altered through the course of the season.
“This doesn’t change the goals, the aspirations of our club,” Lashbrook said. “I still firmly believe that Las Vegas Lights can be the next great emerging soccer success story.
“It’s disappointing, but it’s just a bump in the road and it does not derail us in any way, shape or form. We remain full steam ahead with what we’re building and what we’re creating here.”
Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com.
Follow @Betsyhelfand on Twitter.