To understand how 54-year-old Brian Schmetzer, the Sounders’ interim coach, hs been shaped by his surroundings, and to start to explain why he inspires such deep feeling within the Seattle soccer community, it’s necessary to start with a history lesson.
More than a decade ago, both celebrating successful seasons with family at Sixty Acres Park up in Redmond, local soccer coaches Brian Schmetzer and Pete Fewing asked a passerby if she’d care for a photo.
Fewing’s Seattle University Redhawks had recently claimed the Division II men’s soccer national title, while Schmetzer’s minor-league Seattle Sounders were on the upswing.