Minnesota United starts training camp with interim coach, leans on veteran players
BLAINE, Minn. — It's pretty unusual to start a season with an interim coach, who replaced an interim coach. But that's the what the Minnesota United team is facing as they kick off training camp this week.
Camp started Monday at the National Sports Center dome in Blaine. Cameron Knowles, formerly the MNUFC2 head coach, is leading the team for now. He takes over for the previous interim coach, Sean McAuley, who took over mid-season last year, after the club parted ways with former head coach, Adrian Heath.
Knowles is confident he is ready to take on this new role in the pre-season.
"Listen, the expectations don't change. Is the situation unexpected? Yeah, for sure it is, but the expectations for myself, for the staff who have come in, they don't change," said Knowles.
Midfielder and co-captain Wil Trapp isn't worried about all the staff changes. He's focused on what stays the same — the game.
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"Look, no one is going to save us right? We have to put our heads down, we have to work together, we have to control what we can control and that's it," said Trapp.
Trapp is one of more than a dozen veterans returning to the team this season.
"Our veteran leadership will be extremely important at this moment," said Trapp.
"[The veteran players] can help manage the rest of the group," Knowles said.
Rookie midfielder Caden Clark will be leaning on those veterans as he navigates this new team. The Medina native is focused on getting ready for his hometown debut.
"I think that moment is going to be very special to me and my family, and I'm just going to embrace it," said Clark.
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The team will train in Blaine through the end of the week, and then they'll head down south to Tucson, Ariz., and Palm Springs, Calif., where they will have a total of six preseason games before coming back to Minnesota for their home opener March 2.
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