Page 70 - Las Vegas Golf & Leisure SPRING 2018

[ FE A T UR E ]

fans, and anyone entering Cashman Field, for
a Lights game will be engulfed in an interna-
tional experience with a little Vegas style and
substance added for flavor.
“Fans can expect a unique, sporting expe-
rience that is similar to what international
soccer is like around the world,” Lashbrook
says. “No offense to traditional American
sports, but we are not that. There will not be
cheerleaders. There will not be t-shirt guns
or scoreboards telling you to clap, clap, clap.
What there will be are smoke machines, flags,
banners, scarves, singing, dancing, marching,
drumming and going Ole! Ole! Ole! for 90
minutes. It’s a running clock and the fans will
keep the energy going the entire time. The
crazy guys in the Supporter’s Section behind
the goal are the 12th man.”

The team and players will be made of
locals and other players who embrace the
style of flamboyant coach José Luis Sanchéz
Solá. Known as ‘Chelís’, he plans to coach the
team in the same way he views his new home
and will fill the roster with players who can
execute a fast, attacking, high-scoring brand
of soccer. “For a spectacular city, you need
spectacular soccer,” Chelís says. “I want to
make sure that this team smells like Las Ve-
gas. Players in Las Vegas do smell differently.”

Lashbrook believes he has the perfect mix-
ture of coach and showman in his first major
hire. “Chelís is the personality,” Lashbrook
says. “He is the entrepreneur. He is the expe-
rienced coach. We want and expect this club
to be different and raise the bar of the USL
and further develop American soccer.”

Chelís’s career as a head coach began by
taking over the reins with Puebla (2006-10,
2014) of the prestigious Liga MX. A coach
who immediately earned the support and
loyalty of his players, Chelís helped end more
than a decade of dormancy for the club,
including multiple deep postseason runs.
His experience in Mexico also included head
coaching stints with Estudiantes Tecos (2010-
11), Tamaulipas (2012), Veracruz (2014)
and Venados F.C. (2016-17). His first taste of
coaching in the U.S. was as the head coach of
Major League Soccer (MLS) club Chivas USA
in 2013.

The Lights game events begin at 5:30 out-
side Cashman Field and include a mariachi Head Coach José Luis Sánchez Solá
Photo courtesy of Las Vegas Lights

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