Chattanooga Pro Soccer team owner Bob Martino, left, stands alongside coach Tim Hankinson during a news conference to introduce Hankinson on Tuesday at Finley Stadium. At right is president and general manager Sean McDaniel.Considering that Tim Hankinson has experience building a professional soccer team from the bottom, doing so for the new Chattanooga Pro Soccer team shouldn't be that hard of a job.
It doesn't make it any easier, either.
In a 10-minute conversation with the Times Free Press on Tuesday morning, Hankinson outlined some of the things that have to happen - and quickly.
First and foremost, the roster must exist.
"The priority is to contact every relationship I've ever developed in the game," he said. "These are agents, these are other coaches, these are former players to start putting feelers out to let them know things are happening in Chattanooga. Then what happens is the information starts to come to me as far as available players in the future. Obviously the (professional) season is still going on, so all I can do is talk to agents about who is expected to be free as a free agent, but they won't know that for sure until the players know their final status: whether they're retained by the club, whether there's an option, whether they're completely free and ready to move on."
All of that will be settled in the upcoming weeks and months, but Hankinson said it will be important to build the "spine" of the team before taking aim at the exterior pieces. That means he will be looking to sign a goalkeeper, center back, defensive midfielder and a center forward first, then will start looking at the other backs, midfielders and forwards who will complete the roster.
"You have to try to get that structure right, because it's the style of those players and what they bring that will often lead you in one direction or another as to who is going to complement that," he said. "What style do they play? Is it a player that is outstanding without the ball at his feet, therefore making him an option for a pass? Or is it a player that wants the ball at his feet and is better at going one on one? So you look for players to complement each other in that way stylistically."
Hankinson said he hopes to be in a position "in the next couple of weeks" to announce the team's first players.
The veteran coach has used basically every formation possible in soccer, so he isn't married to any particular one. He said Tuesday that it was more important for his players to understand concepts and situations that can be applied once the match starts.
"The formation doesn't really have life. It's a skeleton, it's a framework within a game," he said. "Once the game starts playing, the formation is constantly changing. As the game is moving, things are constantly evolving. When we win a ball, how are we going to transition in the attack? When we lose a ball, are we going to counter-press?
"A lot of that depends on the players you sign. Often a coach wants to play this system and needs this type of player to fit, but I think as a startup, you have to be more flexible, see who's available and look for quality."
With Tuesday's announcement of the Richmond Kickers joining, the United Soccer League Division III has eight founding members. With some clubs still set to be announced, including a few that could be moved down from USL Division II, the league could reach 12 to 14 teams by the time play begins in March.
Regardless of how many teams and how many matches Chattanooga Pro Soccer could play, Hankinson wants to score in them - and score a lot.
"Goals are not scored slowly," he said. "They're scored with explosive movements, therefore you want to find players with athletic speed, fast technical ability, and players that naturally want to go forward and break a defense down. We want to score; we want to play attacking football.
"I think if you play to win, you have a better chance to win, so what we want to be able to do is attack and be a high-scoring team. If you look at leagues that play 30 games, if teams score 50 goals over the course of the season and gain 50 points in the season, that team is going to be in the playoffs.
"Our goal is to make the playoffs, go after its first championship and help Chattanooga make its pro mark."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.