COURTESY NEW MEXICO UNITED

Troy Lesesne, a former Charlotte Independence assistant coach, was named USL Championship coach of the year.

Troy Lesesne’s time in Charlotte prepared him for success in New Mexico.

The New Mexico United head coach and technical director was named 2020 USL Championship coach of the year, along with Reno 1868’s Ian Russell. Lesesne, who was hired as an assistant coach by Charlotte Independence head coach Mike Jeffries for their inaugural season in 2015, was part of playoff appearances in 2016 and 2017.

“The expansion process and working with Mike Jeffries is what prepared me for helping New Mexico get off the ground,” Lesesne said. “There is no way I have the same level of expertise without the guidance of Mike and the Charlotte Independence.”

Said Jeffries: “I probably didn’t tell him this at the time, but he was the first and basically only guy I interviewed. You could tell his passion for the game, his passion for teaching and that he was a young coach who wanted to develop and move forward. He was super energetic and super organized.”

Lesesne joined New Mexico United as their inaugural head coach and technical director in 2018, and the club debuted in 2019. He took the club to the playoffs in their inaugural season and the quarterfinals of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, beating Major League Soccer sides Colorado and FC Dallas along the way. New Mexico advanced to the USL Championship Western Conference semifinals this season, where they fell 5-3 on penalties to El Paso. All 17 of their 2020 matches were played on the road.

“Year one, we established a wonderful foundation and a culture and a community here that I am really proud of both on and off the field with making the playoffs in year one, the quarterfinals of the Open Cup,” Lesesne said. “Then in year two, you are seeing our culture really be amplified and just brought to light by the challenges of playing every match on the road and still having success and actually progressing further in the playoffs this year amidst that challenge. Now year three it’s about how can we make New Mexico a champion?”

Lesesne helped create a culture that extended off the pitch through the Somos Unidos Foundation, creating initiatives like New Mexico United’s Diversity Fellowship Program, which is designed to provide a pathway for people of color and women to attain and succeed in leadership roles in the sport. The first team also established a raffle of 2020 jerseys to raise money to help the Community Desk Project build desks for children learning at home called the Shirts Off Our Backs. The project also benefits the Somos Unidos Foundation.

“Our goal is to be an agent of positive change and to bring people together in a way they have never been brought together before,” Lesesne said. “That’s our club. That’s part of the mission of our club. We have to measure up to that every day. We are not just going to talk. We are going to bring actionable change. The Diversity Fellowship Program is one of those ways, and what you are seeing now with selling the jerseys off our players’ backs to raise money for desks for kids here in New Mexico is another. We hope that influences other clubs, and that there is a national way of positive change brought by all clubs.”

Said New Mexico defender Josh Suggs in a statement: “Working alongside Troy for these past two seasons has been an absolute honor and a pleasure. Troy pushes us to not only be better soccer players, but better men. To say that he is deserving of this award is an understatement. He has striven for excellence in even the most adverse circumstances. The best coaches are those who promote growth in their players, and every player who has come into contact with Troy has grown immensely.”

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