Mark Briggs named head coach of Birmingham Legion FC
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Birmingham Legion FC has found a new head coach.
Mark Briggs was named Legion FC's head coach Wednesday. He replaces Tom Soehn, who was fired April 9. Briggs is only the second coach in the club's history.
Briggs' coaching debut with the Legion will be Saturday, when the team faces the Tampa Bay Rowdies. From there, the team will come back home for a match against Rhode Island FC on May 14.
'I'm so grateful to Legion FC for giving me this opportunity,' Briggs said in a statement. ''In meeting with staff and ownership, I love the direction and I love the vision. It's a fantastic club that has top facilities. And then you look at the roster and you understand that there is a lot that can be achieved here. I look forward to building something here in Birmingham.'
Briggs, who grew up outside Birmingham, England, was the head coach of Sacaramento Republic FC from 2019-24, where he took the club to the USL Championship playoffs four times and reached the Western Conference Final in 2023. In 2022, Republic FC qualified for the final of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
In 170 games with Sacramento, Briggs' had a record of 74-49-47. Following the 2024 season, Briggs and the club mutually agreed to part ways. Before leading Republic FC, Briggs was the head coach of Real Monarchs from 2017-18, where he was named USL Coach of the Year during his first year with the team.
'We are thrilled to welcome Mark as the next head coach of Birmingham Legion FC,' Birmingham Legion FC CEO and Chief Soccer Officer Jay Heaps said in a statement. 'He is a proven winner with extensive USL experience and is known for building strong team culture, developing players and driving success on the pitch. We are excited about the future of Legion FC under Mark's direction.'
WATCH: BWWB holds news conference opposing bill that would restructure board
Since firing Soehn, Legion FC has gone 2-0-1, winning contests at Protective Stadium against El Paso Locomotive FC and Chattanooga Red Wolves FC. Eric Avila, who was serving as Birmingham interim head coach, is reassuming the first team assistant coach role.
'We want to create a culture where everybody who works for this football club plays an important role in our success,' Briggs said. 'It's about treating people the right way and making people feel special in what they do, then it's about implementing a vision that can be bought into.'I think coaching is the best job in the world and I'm grateful that this club believes in me. I want to repay that belief by creating a culture and getting results. We want to win games, so the importance to the details that allow you to win games have to be understood and valued.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
18 hours ago
- Miami Herald
NBA's Thompson twins receive honorary degrees from Pine Crest. Plus state baseball honors
At the behest of their father, Troy, then 9-year-old twins Amen and Ausar Thompson were already manifesting greatness on a family vision board titled 'Amen and Ausar's 6'9' Dreams'. The first twins in NBA history to get drafted top 5, and to whom Lebron James describes as 'They different. They ain't like the rest of us. I've been able to go against some dudes in my career, and those two guys, man, they're just pure athleticism', tacked two major accomplishments onto that vision board recently. Amen (drafted No. 4 by Houston in 2023 and Ausar, taken No. 5 by Detroit) were bestowed honorary high school degrees by Fort Lauderdale Pine Crest School at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida. 'It means a lot,' said Amen, minutes before receiving the honorary degree with his brother. 'This is where I grew up -- from 8th grade to 11th grade. I had to look for new opportunities in the 12th grade, but I always felt like a Pine Crest Panther. For them ... to present me with an honorary degree means a lot.' After winning a state title with the Panthers in 2021 and becoming Miami Herald Co-Players of the Year for classes 4A-2A as juniors, the 6-8 wings left high school for Atlanta-based Overtime Elite, a developmental professional basketball league, before entering the 2023 draft. The ceremony at FAU followed earlier news that day that Amen was selected to the All-NBA defensive first team. Amen's defensive tenacity, length and athleticism helped the Rockets rank fifth in defensive efficiency and finish with the fourth best record in the league (52-30). 'I have always taken pride in my defense since the Pine Crest days, even before that,' Amen said.'That was one of my goals going into this year was to make first team All-NBA on defense. So just being one of the youngest players to do that in my second year that is one of the goals I established for myself.' Ausar appears to be on a similar defensive trajectory as Amen and helped the Pistons enjoy a historic 30-game turnaround from last season and break a streak of 15 consecutive playoff losses. State baseball honors The Florida Diary Farmers announced the state's classification winners for FHSAA baseball, following balloting by a statewide panel of high school baseball coaches and prep media representatives. Each is eligible for Mr. Baseball honors, representing the best of the best. Coach of the Year recipients were also announced. They are eligible for the state's overall Baseball Coach of the Year accolades. Here are locals who won classification honors. ▪ 7A: Gio Rojas, Junior, Pitcher, Stoneman Douglas, Class 7A Player of the Year Led his squad to the state title with a 12-0 record. Posted an 0.72 ERA in 68 innings pitched with 119 strikeouts and 16 walks. Had a .388 batting average with 24 runs and 32 RBI. Committed to the University of Miami. 7A: Todd Fitz-Gerald, Stoneman Douglas, Class 7A Coach of the Year Led his squad to a 31-2 record and a fifth consecutive Class 7A state title. ▪ 6A: Zack Malvasio, Senior, Outfield, St. Thomas Aquinas, Class 6A Player of the Year Helped his team to the Class 6A title by hitting .414 with 16 doubles, 16 home runs, 45 runs and 48 RBI. Signed with the University of Central Florida. 6A: Joe Wardlow, St. Thomas Aquinas, Class 6A Coach of the Year Led his squad to a 29-6 record and the school's first state baseball title since 2018. ▪ 5A: Humberto Bencomo, Mater Academy, Class 5A Coach of the Year Led his team to a 27-6 record and the school's first state baseball title since 2014. ▪ 4A: Danny Machado, Senior, Shortstop, Archbishop McCarthy, Class 5A Player of the Year Helped his squad to a 19-13 record by hitting .442 with 6 doubles, 5 home runs, 36 runs, 20 RBI and 16 stolen bases. Signed with Florida Atlantic University. 4A Bruce Aven, Plantation American Heritage, Class 4A Coach of the Year In his second coaching stint at American Heritage, Aven finished as the 2024 state runner-up, and in 2025 led the program to the state title with a 29-6 record, It's Aven's second state championship (2012) with the Patriots. ▪ 3A: David Fanshawe, Miami Springs, Class 3A Coach of the Year Led his team to a 28-3 record and the Class 3A state championship, the school's first state title. ▪ Other locals who were in the top 3 in voting for top classification honors: 6A: 2. Gabriel Milano (Doral Academy). 5A: 2. Alfrin Rosario (Mater Academy). 4A; 2. Jordan Rich (Plantation American Heritage). Send sports results For high school and middle school athletes in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, if you have summer sports results and top performers (with stats), email hssports@ They will run in the newspaper and online. Photos accepted, too. No deadline. You will be alerted when it will appear in the newspaper and online. New athletic directors, coaches For high schools in Broward and Miami-Dade, if you have new sports administration and/or coaching hires to announce, email hssports@ --- Compiled by Jim Varsallone jvarsallone@
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Washington Post
Washington Capitals' Spencer Carbery wins the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year
Spencer Carbery of the Washington Capitals has won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's coach of the year. The league announced the honor Saturday after members of Carbery's family surprised him with the trophy earlier in the week. Carbery is the first person to be named coach of the year in the NHL, American Hockey League and ECHL.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Nets parting with Cavaliers' Kenny Atkinson fueled his COTY bid
The Brooklyn Nets made an important decision more than five years ago when they had a mutual parting with then-head coach Kenny Atkinson as the Nets had a 28-34 record. Since then, there has been to make over the paths that Brooklyn and Atkinson took since the parting, but Atkinson deems the splitting of ways to be beneficial to his coaching career. "That one hurt," Atkinson said of the mutual parting, according to Shaun Powell of "Hurt me, hurt my family; they were settled in Brooklyn. You've got to sit down with your kids, tell them you've been fired. And it's also not just personal, but a competitive and pride thing. I'm a local. I do think in another city the blow would've been less, but coming to New York, it was more. I wanted to stay long there." Advertisement After the Nets parted ways with Atkinson, the team finished the 2019-20 season with a 7-3 record under interim head coach Jacque Vaughn, allowing them to make the NBA playoffs where they proceeded to be swept by the Toronto Raptors in the first round. After leaving Brooklyn, Atkinson went on to be an assistant for the Los Angeles Clippers and the Golden State Warriors before being hired as the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 2024-25 campaign. While Atkinson had a tough act to follow given that Cleveland fired JB Bickerstaff after the team finished with a 48-34 record before losing to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals in the 2023-24 season, the former Nets coach managed to turn things around for the Cavaliers. Under Atkinson's watch, the Cavaliers went on to finish this season with a 64-18 record that earned him the Coach of the Year award. "I'm definitely different," Atkinson continued. "I've changed. I wouldn't have been ready for this job before. I needed to get fired, needed those experiences, needed to go through all that. Now I feel super confident in my own skin, whereas before, maybe not that much." It's tough to say that a firing benefits someone, but it seems like Atkinson did what he could to learn from the situation and move on. This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets parting with Cavaliers' Kenny Atkinson fueled his COTY bid
