Mark Briggs met members of the Birmingham media today after his second training session as Birmingham Legion’s new head coach.

The 43-year-old Englishman became just the second permanent head coach in Legion history yesterday. In his first official press conference, he spoke well about what drew him to the club, his ambitions for the Three Sparks and the passion he has for his job.

“Hearing him speak about the game, I get chills,” Jay Heaps, Legion Chief Soccer Officer and CEO, said. “And I can tell that’s gonna infuse the players to really buy into what he wants to do, from what his standards are, his principles are.”

Heaps joined Briggs at his press conference as the two faced the assembled media. Interviews with team leaders Phanuel Kavita and Enzo Martínez followed.

The press conference began with opening statements by both Heaps and Briggs, where Heaps stated his excitement at bringing Briggs in. He said the club started with an extensive search, but very quickly honed in on Briggs. Legion’s CEO notably highlighted his previous success in the USL Championship as a key factor in the decision.

“What stood out was his process,” Heaps said. “Very, very detail-oriented, tactical acumen, but also how he builds culture. If you look at the players he has, he develops players, but he also develops them into a unit and a great group of men.”

Briggs first coached in the USL in 2017, leading Real Monarchs to their first ever postseason by winning the Players’ Shield. He earned the USL Championship Coach of the Year award as a result.

After his stint in Utah, Briggs moved to Sacramento Republic in 2019. He led the California team to four postseasons in five years, including as Western Conference champions in 2023. He also led his team on an historical Lamar Hunt US Open Cup run in 2022, becoming the first USL team in 16 years to reach the final. Along the way, he defeated three MLS clubs before finally falling to Orlando City SC.

After parting ways with Sacramento this offseason, there were a lot of suggestions that Briggs would return to his homeland to take the next step in his coaching career. He admitted in an interview that he had ambitions of coaching in the English Football League. However, after speaking with Heaps, he quickly changed his plans.

“When I first spoke to Jay, there was an immediate connection,” Briggs said. “Not just about football and about philosophies that way, there’s just an immediate connection and I was excited to work with him. So that for me was the first process in wanting this position.

“And then you look at the roster, you look at the quality, you look at the facilities and the buildings, everything’s here to be successful,” he added. “Now it’s just about pushing the level. It’s about making the players aware of where we want to go and giving them a vision that they can get behind and feel a part of.”

Briggs said that, in the end, his choice revolved around the organization, not the location. He said he did not know what his career held for his future, but he is now fully focused on making Birmingham the best team it can be.

Changing the culture

One of the first things Briggs did after coming into the club, he said, was focus on building a culture where people enjoy what they’re doing. As example, he mentioned that players did not previously play music at practice. He now encourages them to do so.

“You have to enjoy where you come to work,” he said. “You have to enjoy what you do. For me, this is the best job in the world, and hopefully my energy can rub off on those guys.”

Briggs admitted that does not mean this job doesn’t come with pressure. But he believes in the old adage that pressure is a privilege. When you enjoy what you do, he said, performance and growth come naturally.

Martínez said the small changes like the music have already started to create a different atmosphere around the team.

“A lot of the guys, especially the younger guys, really enjoy that,” he said. “It just kind of brings a little bit more energy from the beginning, and things like that. It’s just been good in that sense.”

The veteran midfielder added that Briggs impressed him a lot in his first two sessions. Kavita echoed his teammate’s sentiments and said the entire team is embracing the change. He said Briggs’ winning mentality and detail-oriented approach impressed him most.

Player relationships

Part of that culture comes in how a coach deals with his players, and so far the reviews are positive. 

Kavita left Real Salt Lake, Real Monarchs’ MLS affiliate, right before Briggs came in. And the Rwanda international also has a few other former teammates who played under the Englishman. He reached out to several of them to learn more about his new boss.

“Everything I’ve heard from other players on what he brings is all positive,” Kavita said. “That’s the type of mentality, in my opinion, the type of standards that I want to be a part of. To make sure that every player is also growing and improving on their own, and also as a collective.”

Kavita isn’t the only one with a connection to the new Legion boss. Matt van Oekel played for Real Monarchs in 2017, featuring in a singular game under Briggs.

Briggs said he did remember van Oekel and knew of Kavita as well. He said they were both great people who he was excited to have in his locker room.

But despite these prior connections, everyone echoed that Briggs treats all players the same. Martínez and Kavita both said they could feel they had to fight for their starting spot like anyone else, something that was giving the whole team a boost.

“Regardless of if you’re playing the most minutes or playing the least minutes, regardless of who you are, [he’s] making sure the standards stay really, really high,” Kavita said. “Not allowing ourselves to dip, because there’s always somebody else who’s willing to take your spot. You have to be ready to stay sharp each and every day, so that’s what I like.”

Briggs said maintaining that status quo is a crucial component to what he does. Veteran or youngster, their importance to the team is the same. And it doesn’t just extend to the relationships between players.

Briggs said he is also constantly learning and welcomes feedback from all sources as a result.

“No matter what their age is, if you treat everyone the same and you connect with people, they understand that you want what’s best for them,” he said. “I think those relationships are what create culture, are what drives performance, and that’s the biggest thing for me.

“It’s about treating people the right way, always being open-minded and always understanding that sometimes I don’t know it all,” he added. “Sometimes Jay might say something where I’m like ‘God.’ Sometimes a player might say something where I’m like ‘they’re right.’ Sometimes I might do an interview and you guys say something and I’m like ‘Jesus,’ you know? So I think it’s about being open-minded and being able to put your hands up and say [you were] wrong.”

Tactics

Briggs’ favored formation for Sacramento was usually some type of a 3-4-3, whereas Legion have almost exclusively played four-at-the-back since their inception. When asked, Briggs said he wasn’t married to one formation, but rather focused on finding the best fit for the players at his disposal.

“My philosophy is about principles, so the system kind of is what it is,” Briggs said. “It can be a four, it can be a three, it can be different systems. It’s about the principles and the players understanding those principles, and utilizing what you have, recognizing their strengths and their weaknesses. Are we a better team in a three or are we a better in a four? That remains to be seen.”

Briggs expanded on his principles by stating he wants to play an exciting, attractive brand of soccer.

“We want to value the ball, we want to be courageous, we want to have courage,” he said. “And what I mean by courage is to continue to want the ball, don’t hide behind people, whether you make a mistake or not.”

Once his team loses the ball, however, it won’t be about being pretty.

“When we don’t have the ball, to be quite honest, I want us to be horrible,” he said. “I want us to be nasty to play against. I want good men off the field that are humble and treat people the right way, but when we cross that white line, we’ve got to represent Birmingham and we’ve got to die for the crest that’s on our chest. That’s the attitude that we have to install.”

That message has clearly already resonated with the players, as Martínez demonstrated when asked a similar question.

“He wants us to be brave off the ball and on the ball, bring energy, be able to make it very difficult for other teams,” the Uruguayan said. “[He wants us to] press and be good on the ball.

“And I think when you look at the top teams in this league, that’s one of the things that they do really good,” he added. “They get after you, they don’t give you any time to rest, any time to think. So hopefully we can get that and start changing things around.”

Ambitions

With those tactics in mind, Briggs is not hiding from his goals. He wants to win.

He credited the work Tom Soehn put in for the past six years and said Legion is a team headed in the right direction. Now he wants to raise the standard even higher.

With the turmoil of the last few weeks — three different men led training in the last month — he also emphasized the work Heaps and Eric Avila, interim head coach, put in. Avila will remain on staff as a first team assistant coach, and Briggs said his help will be invaluable to the upcoming transition period.

“[It will be] huge,” Briggs said. “He knows the players, he’s been here a long time. He’s just been in a position of leadership, so it’d be foolish of me not to lean on Jay, not to lean on Avi. They know the players better than I do, so it’s about getting the right information and me dissecting it and then delivering it in a way that gets the guys excited.”

Martínez added that the past month had been hard, but it was now up to the experienced players to help their younger teammates adapt to the rapid changes.

“When you have different coaches, maybe they ask you for different things in certain situations of the game,” Martínez said. “There have been things that have been totally different from each one of them, and I just think we have to have a team that’s able to really understand what’s being asked in what moments.

“And maybe that’s when [you need] a little bit of the leadership of guys who are able to pick up on those patterns more,” he added. “Because they played more years, they played more games and see those things to be able to help everyone around them. To send the same message as what the coach wants.”

Heaps admitted it had been a tough start to the season, and the decision to fire Soehn was not made lightly. But after giving him the offseason to turn things around after missing out on playoffs for the first time in club history, the progress just wasn’t there.

“It was a process of kind of evaluating what it would look like through the offseason, preseason and the start of the season,” Heaps said. “Results are obviously what you’re looking at first and foremost, but then it’s also performance. It’s about where were the players and what were we getting out of each player?”

Heaps was keen to emphasize that Soehn was not alone in being at fault for the team’s poor run of form. He said he and the players felt the same responsibility, and it hit them hard.

But now, after coming to terms with the change and enduring a tumultuous few weeks, everyone’s raring to go.

“Now we’re at the exciting part of bringing in a new leader, bringing in someone that brings the values that you’re trying to continue to build,” he said. “There’s nothing harder than taking over a team without a long preseason, without a lot of time to work through the nuances of how you want to play, how you want to build. But at the same time, I do think Mark’s smart enough. He knows the league, he understands what it takes to win at this level.”

“It’s not gonna be fixed Saturday,” Heaps added. “It’s gonna take some time to get there. There’s gonna be a grace period of time to really figure out what the best way for us to play is. But for me, starting day one, the music on, the culture, the guys, the way they respond, that is really further ahead than we’ve been. And I’m excited about that.”

Briggs will lead the Three Sparks for the first time Saturday when the team travels to Florida to take on the Tampa Bay Rowdies. The game will kick off at 6:30 p.m. and be televised live on ESPN+.

The new head coach will then enjoy a welcome 10-day break to get better acquainted with his team. His first home game will be a midweek matchup with Rhode Island FC at 7 p.m. Wednesday May 14.

Click here for the full transcript of Mark Briggs’ introductory press conference.

Featured photo courtesy of Birmingham Legion FC.

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