'It was a bit of a shock': A sit down with Utah Royals' newly-permanent head coach Jimmy Coenraets

139 days ago, Jimmy Coenraets hopped over the Atlantic, left his home in Belgium, and joined the Utah Royals as an assistant coach.

Three weeks after that, he was thrust into being the interim head coach after Amy Rodriguez was fired. The club was bottom of the NWSL table, having secured two wins from 15 matches (W2-D2-L11).

On Thursday, Coenraets officially became the new permanent head coach of the Royals. A stunning transformation for the 2024 NWSL expansion club, which has seen a lot of staffing and player turnover in its first season.

"I went back to them to apologize, because I was really shocked"

A few weeks ago, the formal offer to become head coach was originally pitched to Coenraets during a weekly meeting between the front office, head coach, and ownership.

Two days after that meeting, Coenraets found himself asking for forgiveness because, in his mind, he hadn't sounded enthusiastic enough.

"I went back to them to apologize, because I was really shocked," Coenraets told Squad Depth this week. "At that point in time, I didn't expect them to be making the decision that quickly.

"I was very surprised by it. I appreciated it 100%, but still, it was bit of a shock to me. I was not celebrating or anything. I was more like, "okay." I was trying to process everything."

David Blizter, one of Utah's principal owners, had been in that particular meeting via video call. He asked Coenraets directly, "How are you?"

After Coenraets started talking about training, and his processes with the team, Blizter interrupted to insist that he was inquiring about Coenraets the person, not his duties as Royals interim head coach.

Shortly after that interjection, the conversation shifted to the desire to promote Coenraets and immediately move ahead with giving him the tools to be successful in 2025 and beyond. Coenraets and the club's top brass are already scheming plans for 2026 and 2027 in Utah.

In Coenraets' mind, much like the owners', to be successful means putting a focus on personal connections. With players, with fans, with the club as a whole.

"I want these athletes, these humans, to be successful on and off the pitch, I see it as our main task as a staff," Coenraets explained about his management style.

"One of the first things I did when I came in is that I had a very good relationship with the player care coordinator, which I think is very important. What is life like outside the game? What can we do to make you a better person? How can we facilitate you taking online classes, or with Mina Tanaka, getting Japanese English translators. Those are the elements I highly invest in which I think can make people more more successful."

Coenraets is always trying to listen to his players and what is important to their life outside the Royals. Whether that is family, or a pet, or, in the case of Kate Del Fava and Liverpool FC, a player's favourite football team.

"You can just start talking about, well, how you're feeling, how is your quad doing, how is this doing? And that just opens up a conversation with players. And I think it's a mutual respect thing. If you can show them that you have some knowledge of their lives."

Revival Royals

What was a shock to Coenraets may not have been a shock to everyone. After all, the second half of Utah's season has been buoyant.

The Royals have won five of their ten matches under Coenraets' stewardship and climbed from rock-bottom 14th to a more respectable 10th.

Utah's goals scored per 90 minutes has also surged from 0.46 to 1.4; their defensive numbers similarly improved from 1.8 GA p90 to 0.9.

Under Rodriguez, Utah suffered eye-catching heavy defeats. In particular, a 5-1 loss to Racing Louisville in April, and then a 6-0 drubbing to the Orlando Pride in June. Only once with Coenraets in charge have the Royals conceded more than one goal in a match.

Coenraets says the Royals' sudden success has in large part because of a cultural shift between the players and the staff.

"I think that's one of the things that we really were able to turn around, that culture of appreciating the building, appreciating the facilities, but also just putting them in use to become a better athlete."

Belgian beginnings

There's also the curious symmetry of history repeating itself. Coenraets has been in a similar situation before.

In 2019, Coenraets joined Belgian club Oud-Heverlee Leuven as an assistant. Then midway through his first season, with the club bottom of the table, on zero points, Leuven fired the head coach and within a few weeks Coenraets was promoted.

The 2019-20 season was curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the break in play allowed Coenraets to plenty of time to reset the club's principals and strategize for the next season.

"It was up to us to build a program, build a structure, everything. We did a lot of exit interviews, had a lot of new players, but our strategy was to bring in a very, very young squad," said Coenraets.

In 2020-21, the average age in Leuven's squad was 19 years old, the youngest in the league. Coincidentally, the Royals have the youngest squad in the NWSL this season (average age 25.8).

In that second season, Leuven finished fourth in the regular season and then second in the playoffs. Missing out on a league title, and the UEFA Champions League, by just four points.

Coenraets' final season with Leuven saw the club finish first in the regular season but once again just fall short in the playoff series to secure the league title.

More than just results though, he has immense pride in how he was able to raise the Leuven's standards as a whole, and the Belguim women's game. When he arrived, there were no international players on the team. 40 players received call-ups during his tenure.

"We were one of the only clubs providing food, the only club being a full professional team. I was on a few supportive boards, sporting working groups to help develop a whole system [in Belguim]. We sold four to five players to top leagues, the Italian first league, the English WSL, the Bundesliga," Coenraets said.

When Coenraets first joined the Utah in June 2024, he said it was all about wanting a challenge. Something out of his comfort zone, far away from home. After five seasons with Lueven, he had completed the goals he had set out to achieve.

"When I when I got the call [to be an assistant coach], I was like, that's actually a really good challenge to me, just to develop myself further. A new league, new culture, a fully new expansion team, a league that will add two more teams in two years," Coenraets said.

Jimmy the kid

Despite nearly 10 years of experience as a coach, Coenraets is only 29. Which is unusually young for a head coach.

He is now youngest head coach in the NWSL. He is also well aware that this will be a major headline in the media and in the football world.

But perhaps there's an advantage to being closer in age to much of his squad, and in some cases even younger than some of the leaders on the team.

"It's not about reflecting on age, it's more reflecting on experience, and it's reflecting on discussions we had with players. Like we want this to be a player-oriented environment," he said.

"I can communicate with young players and also like I am someone that can easily trigger fire in someone's eyes. They all need their individual reason, besides having the collective reason to come on a pitch, and that's something I invest a lot in." he said.

Coenraets says he is also using the more experienced players, like Del Fava, Tanaka, Claudia Zornoza, and Cloe LaCasse, as soundboard to make decisions with.

The biggest sign that the players have his backing in Utah is that on Wednesday the players were given an optioanl day to come in and train because it is the international break, with no match on the weekend.

Every single player on the Utah squad showed up the training facility. Some spent five hours at the club facility. Whether it was to ask questions in an individual session, practice with the ball, get treatment, work out at the gym, watch video or just cut loose on the fields.

For Coenraets, that was a special moment. Something he relishes and reminded him what he loves about being a coach.

"Right now, at the end of the season, players coming in to get, like, extra touches, extra technical stuff, that's actually really crazy, that's actually really amazing to see players coming in. On their two days off, just spending time and being a professional."

When I asked if he missed Belguim at all, Coenraets smiled, and said "the food." Not only the rich flavours, but the pace of eating in Belguim is something that he hasn't been able to find in the rapid world of eating in the American West.

"I think that's definitely something I'm missing here, just in general. So I went back home few weeks ago just to visit family because something was going on back at home. And I have to be honest, I spent two days going to restaurants just because I really needed it."

With just one match of the regular season remaining, and playoffs not on the cards for Utah, Coenraets is excited to get to know the area better. He's excited to be have been gifted a ski pass for the Brighton mountains and has really enjoyed hiking trails recommend by more seasoned club staff.

Perhaps on a slow snowy day this upcoming winter, Coenraets will find a nice brasserie to enjoy a meal.