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Behind The Stripes

Steve Cooke

By Atlanta United FC

June 14^th, 2023

There comes a point in every soccer player’s career when they decide to hang up their cleats for the final time. Most of them remain a fan and spectator of the game, or they might play pickup in their free time. But a few continue with their passion in a different way by teaching the generation after them.

Steve Cooke is one of the latter. Cooke admitted coaching almost came to him more naturally than playing.

“My brain probably worked a little bit better than my feet at times when I was playing,” Cooke said. “Into my 20s, I was coaching and playing, and it was just something I really fell in love with and really felt I could make an impact with some young people.”

Cooke was named the head coach of Atlanta United 2 in February of this year, but his coaching career started decades earlier back in the UK. The Sheffield, England native signed up for his first coaching course at just 16 years old, and his first coaching job came six years later at Sheffield Wednesday Academy, a club in the English Football League Championship.

It wasn’t until 1997 when Cooke made the move across the pond to America. His first 10 years in the U.S. were spent in Arizona coaching at Sereno SC and SC Del Sol in Phoenix, followed by a few years in Las Vegas as Neusport FC’s technical director.

“Why I came to America, I have no idea,” Cooke said, “But I came, and I fell in love with not only the place, but the people. I’ve lived in a few different places, and now as an American passport holder, I would consider myself way more of an American than I am an English person.”

Cooke made his move to MLS in 2010 when the Colorado Rapids hired him as the club's academy director. He transitioned into the assistant head coach of the first team a few years later, and by 2016 had helped the Rapids to a second-place finish in the Supporters’ Shield standings, a Western Conference Final and qualified for the 2018 CONCACAF Champions League.

Cooke spent a few years with USL Championship clubs OKC Energy FC and Phoenix Rising before joining his second MLS club, Seattle Sounders FC, as their U-17 head coach and academy director. The Sounders had an extraordinary season under Cooke in 2022 when they won the Generation Adidas Cup and the MLS Next West division.

That season and Cooke’s staff connections in Seattle put him on Atlanta’s radar in its search for a head coach for ATL UTD 2. In November, Atlanta hired its new president and CEO Garth Lagerwey, who spent 2015-2022 as the Sounders’ general manager and president of soccer.

“When somebody of that stature in the game, that record of incredible success, and somebody who is so regarded in world football, not just in the USA, asks you if you’d like to be considered, then I jumped at the opportunity,” Cooke said.

While Cooke’s road to Atlanta involved various clubs and leagues, the majority of his coaching career has been with academy teams and younger players looking to move up the ranks within their club. Those coaching positions helped him focus on improving his athletes just as much as, if not more than, winning games.

Atlanta United 2 has become an integral part of the club’s pathway from the youth level to the first team. Since its inaugural season in 2018, multiple players have moved up and become Homegrowns for the 5-Stripes.

One of Cooke’s main goals now that he’s with Atlanta is to continue helping the players move from this point in their soccer career to the next.

“Ultimately, the goal is that they become first team players,” he said. “Yes, there is getting them the platform in Georgia to really help their careers whether it be here in Atlanta or somewhere else and into college. But really the goal is can we help young players who are elite performers get into the first team? And then can they also contribute to the first team, winning games and championships? That is the goal, and hopefully we have many more (Homegrowns) to come.”

In just the few months since joining the club, Cooke has seen the effort each Atlanta player puts in and their desire to improve as athletes.

“One thing I can say is they’re working so hard and really trying every day to make progress, which is all we ask,” he said.

"I was coaching and playing, and it was just something I really fell in love with and really felt I could make an impact with some young people.”

While Cooke has fallen back on his years of coaching experience this season, he also credits the success and development of the team on his coaching staff. Along with the announcement of Cooke joining Atlanta, former Academy U-19 coach Jose Silva transitioned into the assistant coach position for Atlanta United 2.

Silva has been with Atlanta for two years and recently coached the U-19 group to a first-place finish in the Georgia Conference regular season. Another key to the staff is goalkeeper coach Lewis Sharpe, who has been with Atlanta since 2017.

“I don’t think any one person has all the answers, and different people respond to different coaches in different ways,” Cooke said. “I’m one of the voices, and at times I think people would assume I’m the most significant voice. I don’t know whether I believe in that, but I do believe in that collaboration, all of us working hard together. As long as our ideas and principles are the same, I think every single one of us can lead the group.”

Multiple Atlanta coaches from the Academy up to the first team have brought success to the club and helped turn the city into a major soccer hub. It was one of the reasons why Cooke wanted to join the club in the first place.

But this year, Cooke has the opportunity to become the first Atlanta coach to make a name in MLS NEXT Pro. Atlanta United 2 announced last year it would move from the USL Championship and join the new league for the 2023 season, making Cooke the inaugural head coach for this next chapter.

With Cooke’s coaching history spanning multiple leagues, he knows where MLS NEXT Pro compares and how the challenges the team will face this season can help them improve in the long run.

“I think this league is really high level, especially when it comes to young players and their technical abilities, their tactical understanding,” he said. “Sometimes I think that difficulty in USL is really because of the physicality of some older players who’ve been around the game for quite some time.

“In MLS NEXT Pro, I think the challenge will be different,” Cooke added. “It will be of more technical challenge, more of a game understanding challenge. I think they’re really good quality players and teams, really well coached. If our young players are going to compete in Major League Soccer in the years ahead, these are the kinds of players and teams they’re going to be playing against weekly.”

Cooke is more than ready to help the team conquer those challenges this season and even more excited that it gets to be here in Atlanta. After living and working for clubs all over the country, Cooke is grateful that the next step of his coaching career is with the 5-Stripes.

“Atlanta United is world-renowned. Everywhere you go, everyone has heard of Atlanta United,” he said. “To now be at a club like Atlanta United, a big, big club with high aspirations and the yearning to be the best in the business, I think is a real honor.”

Story by De Turner / Photos by Jay Bendlin, Atlanta United

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