Two and a half years into standing at the helm of the El Paso Locomotive, Head Coach and Technical Director Mark Lowry has earned recognition from USL Championship as Coach of the Month for the month of July.
“It’s a credit to the guys and how they’ve worked and the sustained success they’ve had,” said Lowry. “The staff – Matt [Williams], Dom [Casciato], JC [Garzon], Saul [Soto], Ricardo [Ruiz], Nate [Soto] – those guys make my job a lot easier on a daily basis. It’s a great staff we’ve put together and a great group of players. We continue to do well, which is a credit to them and the club.”
Under the stewardship of the young 36-year-old coach, Locomotive has experienced near-unprecedented success to kick off the franchise. In its inaugural year, El Paso finished sixth in the Western Conference, making a playoff run that challenged for the Western Conference Final. The second-year only improved, finishing top of Group C in the abbreviated 2020 season, affording a second straight run to the Western Conference Final.
Now, halfway through the third year of play, the Boys in Blue have only improved in part thanks to the leadership and guidance provided by Mark Lowry, sitting neatly atop the USL Championship over Phoenix Rising FC and Louisville City FC with 37 points in 16 games. The club leads the league in clean sheets (8) and fewest goals conceded (10) while tied for seventh in the league in goals scored with 26.
Lowry has most recently put the cap on a tight six-game schedule in July that saw the Locos come away with five wins and a draw for an undefeated six games, setting the club up to control not just the Mountain Division but the USL Championship.
The success that Lowry has brought to El Paso in the first two and a half years of play has been nigh unparalleled. While he may never admit it himself, his passion and understanding of the beautiful game tactically have provided massive contributions to that success. Paired with his commitment – yet willingness to adjust – to particular principles such as the ‘We, Not Me’ mentality, Locomotive is queued to continue to build upon the accomplishments it has already achieved.
“We have said the same messages on Day One that we are saying now,” shared Lowry. “Valuing the ball, those things, all the time trying to tweak it to get better at it and find a way to score more goals along the way. The game is about scoring goals and stopping goals. First, we did a great job stopping goals, now we’re creating chances, scoring multiple goals per game, so it’s been taking that philosophy and tweaking it along the way.”
July proved that the versatility to tweak small things along the way flows through the entire club. While Mark Lowry is at the helm of El Paso’s flagship soccer club, the guys on the squad buy into that philosophy and belief system. Coach Lowry has created an environment where he could take a hands-off approach, and the team would still be successful.
As the Technical Director of the club, Head Coach Mark Lowry has a large say in what players come into the club. He has recruited a squad that he believes in, and he will show his faith in. Through the month of July, rotation was key to get through the tight rotation of six games in rapid succession. The six July games provided an opportunity for Mark to show that faith and for the players to prove their versatility.
“You look at the front end of [the six-game stretch], in the New Mexico game, Ricardo [Zacarias] plays right-back for 90 minutes and in the back end of it, [Matt] Bahner is right back. Another example of it, Leandro [Carrijo] comes off the bench and scores and he starts one game. It was a squad effort. It was intentional to challenge the group. I wanted to see if we were capable of getting through this mini-season of six games because I know in October, we’ve got this times two. We now have a group of players that can face these moments and come out of the other side successful.”
Success on the other side now in July was 16 points out of a possible 18. It was triumphantly staking a claim at the peak of the Mountain Division. It was contending with top teams in the league for the USL Championship Regular Season title. Success on the other side was the belief that come October, when the schedule tightens up again and Locomotive begins its run for a third straight Western Conference Final, it will be ready and able to answer the challenge.
Courtesy of Head Coach Mark Lowry’s leadership, players such as Macca King, Eder Borelli, Diego Luna, and Lucho Solignac have earned Team of the Week accolades, while the team as a whole finds success together in the standings and in an incredible 18-game undefeated streak at Southwest University Park.
El Paso Locomotive is more poised now than it ever has been in its first two years to make a run at the USL Championship Title.