Coaching Staff
Danny Cruz
Danny Cruz is entering his fifth season in charge of Louisville City FC in 2025, having most recently led the club to its first Players’ Shield in 2024, awarded to the USL Championship team with the regular season’s best record.
Cruz’s 2024 team finished 24-4-6, matching the league’s single-season wins record while setting new team marks for wins, goals scored (86) and points earned (76). As a result of that success, Cruz was named the USL Championship Coach of the Year.
The all-time winningest and longest-tenured coach in LouCity history, Cruz led the team to three-consecutive USL Championship Eastern Conference Finals from 2021 to 2023. In 2022, his team advanced to the USL Championship Final where, at 32 years old, he became the youngest head coach to appear in the title game.
Cruz arrived to Louisville in 2018 as the top assistant to John Hackworth, helping lead LouCity to the 2018 USL Championship crown. Cruz took over interim head coaching duties one game into the 2021 season, and LouCity moved to make Cruz its permanent head coach later that year.
Born in Petersburg, Virginia, Cruz attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, before launching a nine-year professional career that included six seasons in Major League Soccer. Playing as a winger, Cruz had stints with the Houston Dynamo, D.C. United and Philadelphia Union in America’s top men’s soccer circuit. Notably, he started for Houston in MLS Cup 2011, facing off with David Beckham, Landon Donovan, and the LA Galaxy.
In 2015, Cruz made a brief move to Europe, playing for FK Bodø/Glimt in the Norweigan first division. He finished his playing career stateside, joining the NASL’s Minnesota United and San Francisco Deltas before retiring from the USL’s Real Monarchs in 2017, where he began his coaching career as an assistant in 2018.
Cruz and his wife, Brittany, live in Louisville with their son, Santiago, and daughter, Isabella.
Simon Bird
Simon Bird returns to Louisville City FC for a fifth season in 2025.
Bird joined the Louisville City first team in 2021, after serving in the LouCity academy.
A native of Lincoln, England, Bird’s relationship with Louisville goes back two decades. He was a star at the University of Louisville from 2001 to 2004, earning Conference USA Player of the Year in 2003. He followed his collegiate career with a six-year professional career in England before returning as a University of Louisville Assistant Coach from 2009 to 2012.
A fixture on the local soccer scene, Bird has worked as Oldham Soccer Club’s Director of Coaching and Kentucky Fire Juniors Boys Director. Bird holds an A License from the U.S. Soccer Federation and is a Qualified Teacher for High School Physical Education and Sports Science.
Paolo delpiccolo
DelPiccolo played eight seasons for LouCity, and served as the team’s captain for seven of those years, including both of City’s back-to-back USL Championship title runs in 2017 and 2018. The 2018 campaign brought about DelPiccolo’s first coaching gig as part of the “triumvirate” of player-coaches that successfully managed through a head coaching change. LouCity lifted six trophies – four Eastern Conference titles and two league championships – during DelPiccolo’s tenure. He ranks second in club history in minutes logged (15,397) and third in games (227). He played collegiately at the University of Louisville, helping the Cardinals to their first-ever NCAA College Cup trip in 2010.
DelPiccolo is also the LouCity Academy Director and holds a USSF C coaching license while working toward his B license.
Scott Budnick
With a steady hand and his keen eye for technical detail, Scott Budnick was brought in by LouCity coach John Hackworth in August of 2018 as interim goalkeepers coach, helping lead the boys in purple to winning the club’s second-straight USL Championship title.
Budnick’s role was made permanent after that, with a top accomplishment his tutelage of FC Cincinnati loanee Ben Lundt, who spent two seasons in purple, capping his stay by being named the USL Championship’s 2020 Goalkeeper of the Year.
Lundt led the league with nine clean sheets in a 2020 season shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Also named to the All-League First Team, Lundt saw his option picked up by FC Cincinnati and will next get his shot in the Major League Soccer ranks.
As a player between the posts, Budnick represented the U.S. at the U-18 and U-20 levels, participating in the U-20 CONCACAF qualification tournament in 1990. After a strong four-year career at the College of William and Mary, Budnick began his professional career in 1993 with the Richmond Kickers and then Hampton Roads Hurricanes in the USISL the following year.
Budnick spent time in the English and German lower divisions before joining Major League Soccer with the Tampa Bay Mutiny and Miami Fusion, eventually retiring with the New England Revolution in 2000.
Making the move to Louisville in 2009, Budnick managed the Louisville Lightning of the Professional Arena Soccer League, winning Coach of the Year honors in 2010. The Alton, Ill., native also has experience at the youth level, assisting the U.S. Soccer YNT Identification Center Program for the Kentucky, Indiana and southern Ohio regions and the U.S.Y.S.A. Region II and Kentucky ODP programs. Budnick also assisted the Trinity and Assumption high school programs and local select youth teams.
Budnick and his wife, Shannon, have two children: Koepler and Dillon.
Support Staff
Ben Hulsman
Jason Israel
Jason Israel is entering his fourth season as Director of Operations with Louisville City FC.
Born and raised in Edison, NJ, Israel graduated with a degree in Sports Administration from UConn in 2008. During his award-winning career, Israel has worked at every level of the game, from the youth ranks to the professional game, including stops with Seton Hall University’s men’s soccer program, New York City FC, the Philadelphia Union, and Sacramento Republic.
In 2023, Israel the USL Championship recognized Israel as the Team Operations Award winner.
Training Staff
Stuart Wright
Stuart grew up in Newcastle, England before moving to the United States for higher-level education. He attended Limestone College where he played soccer and earned his BS in Athletic Training. Over the years he has continued his education by earning his MSc in Sports Therapy from Teesside University and his Doctor of Athletic Training from AT Still University. He is also a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with the NSCS.
He has previously given coverage to Orlando City (USL), Jacksonville Armada (NASL), and El Paso Locomotive (USL) before making the move to Louisville to begin working with Louisville City FC.
Cesar torres
Originally from Mexico City, Mexico, Torres attended El Centro College to earn his AS in Science before transferring to Texas A&M – Commerce to earn a BS in Kinesiology and Sports Studies. He graduated with his Masters in Athletic Training from the University of Arkansas.
Torres was previously a seasonal athletic trainer with the University of Louisville, providing medical coverage to the baseball and men’s golf programs before joining Louisville City.
