Ryan Martin became Loudoun United’s Head Coach midway through its inaugural season in 2019, making him currently the third-longest tenured manager in the USL Championship.

Over that span, the club has transitioned from being operated by D.C. United as its affiliate to forging its own path under the ownership of Attain Sports & Entertainment, creating continuity and allowing Martin to take control of the on-field direction of the team.

In the latest edition of the USL Q&A, we spoke to Martin about the differences between the two eras, what continuity in his squad has offered the club in terms of long-term planning and ambition, the importance of the addition of Chief Soccer Officer Ollie Gage to his work, the cap he wears every game on the sideline to pay tribute to his sister-in-law, and how he and his wife honor her memory with the activism for melanoma awareness in the D.C. area.

Editor’s Note: The conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Q: On the sidelines each game you wear a cap with the word cancer struck through in honor of your sister-in-law, who passed away from melanoma. What do you remember most fondly about her?

Ryan Martin: She passed away almost three years ago, this coming June, and I think when I look back at her, I think it was her incredible desire. She was a doctor, and she was on a path to become a surgeon, so I think her incredible desire to learn, her desire to help people. She was a giving person, that was why she chose to be a doctor. She loved soccer – she played at Smith University in Western Massachusetts, and loved the game – and loved everything she was doing. She loved family and her home state of Vermont.

Those are things where, when I remember those type of things incredibly fondly about how passionate she was and about what she gave back to the community, it’s tremendous. She had a great energy and a zest for everything. And so, for us – my wife and I – now, it’s our mission to keep her memory alive in terms of what she’s done for giving to people and what she’s given back, but also to help fight melanoma. As someone who spends countless hours in the sun, and the amount of youth players and parents who spend countless hours in sun, can we be educational? Can we educate people on the importance of sunscreen and the importance of getting checked out. Bryce was her name, and like I said, [she was an] incredible spirit that we honor to this day.

Q: Cancer can touch anyone. What does it mean to you to be a vocal proponent when it comes to education on prevention and checkups and the support the club has provided to those ends?

RM: I think for me, one is cancer can hit anybody, and it can hit anybody at different times. You know, we just lost another family friend two days ago to cancer of a different type. And it’s not fair, cancer. You can do everything right, and it still affects you or affects your family. It’s a nasty disease that hopefully the more education and support we can get in terms of funding to help all kinds of different types of cancer. The one I’ve chosen, that’s affected me the most, is melanoma and melanoma awareness. So, when we do melanoma awareness in May, the club’s been great about putting sunscreen dispensers around the stadium, so fans have access to sunscreen on game days.

Q: You're currently the third-longest tenured Head Coach in the USL Championship, after Pittsburgh's Bob Lilley and Birmingham's Tom Soehn. What's the biggest thing you've learned since you took the helm during United's inaugural season?

RM: I think one is, obviously, to be put up with those names is an incredible honor. Tommy and Bob have done a tremendous amount for the game. What I think I’ve learned the most in terms of my journey, is when you go through and you get your first head coaching experience, or your first head coaching job, you come into an opportunity and you think it's [about], “OK, well, how do we want to press?” Or, “what’s our spacing and structure in our building shape?” You know, what are the X’s and O’s going to look like, which are incredibly important, but the most important thing is the connection with human beings and the connection with your players and the love of a shared passion and competing at a professional level.

At the end of the day, I spend a lot of time with my players and staff, and it’s a journey, but it’s a journey of people, and it’s a journey of people going through situations, and it’s a journey of, how do I help players maximize their best to become the best version of themselves? So, in my time here, that’s been my biggest lesson of what it really is. Whether you call it a manager or a coach – I like to refer to myself as a high-performance coach, because my job is to help maximize their performance on game day – and a lot of it comes with conversation and getting to know who the real person is.

Q: You completed your USSF Pro License this past offseason, you had a couple of fellow USL Championship coaches with you in Mark Briggs and John Bradford from North Carolina in that class. What was that like to experience, and what was it like to go through with those guys?

RM: Honestly, it was an incredible experience, and I think U.S. Soccer has done a great job with the education process, especially at the Pro License level, where it never really becomes you have to do things this way, or that’s a wrong way of looking at it. It’s really more about building your processes and building your identity as, first and foremost, a leader, and then second more as a tactical coach.

When I did it with John and Mark, it’s interesting, because I’ve always had good relationships with both of them for a number of years, but it’s very different when you’re with each other three times a year for a week, and you’re going through the trials and tribulations, or the ups and downs of what it really is to be a head coach in a professional level, in a professional setting. So, to be able to share experiences, to share things that they’ve gone through, or that I’ve gone through, or to be even just… Mark and I were texting yesterday, John and I the week before, and you’re wishing the best for those guys every week.

So, for me to do with those two was really, really good, and it made our relationship much stronger, and I think any USL coach looking to go through it, or any coach in general, it’s a very worthwhile and rewarding – difficult, but rewarding – year to go through the Pro License.

Q: How different is your job now compared to when Loudon had a direct relationship with D.C. United?

RM: Yeah, it’s significantly different. When I was a “Second Team coach”, or we had a direct relationship with D.C. United, you’re really at the mercy of what the First Team wants. I remember getting a call in Hartford, for example, and I had to take out two of my signed players – not even guys on loan from D.C. – at halftime. I got a call 10 minutes before the game, because they were going to do a short-term loan up to D.C. for the Open Cup.

As a coach, unfortunately, they don’t teach you how to deal with taking a center back and a No. 6 out 45 minutes into a game at Hartford that you’re trying to win as a coach and a competitor, but for the best of the club, that’s what you're asked to do. The amount of times I would get a call on a Friday night saying, “hey, originally, you [were going to] have this player, but due to a last-minute injury, this player is now coming with us.” So, you go through a whole week of preparing, and then all of a sudden you have to change your lineup.

So, in terms of my job, role responsibility, it’s been night and day. Now, if a player deserves to start, I can start who I think is the right option, I can pick the tactics based on the way I see the game, as opposed to the way one of the other coaches at D.C. did. At one point, D.C. changed coaches four times in four years, and they all had very different tactical ideas, and that was – looking back on it – a fantastic challenge as a coach, trying to figure out how different players or teams wanted to play and how to implement them in a one-week, two-week period, but it was also an impossible task for any coach.

So, looking back it was a great experience, but at that point, not. The first team wants guys for training, you don’t have guys for training, so then you’re shuffling to get Academy guys, and it was a difficult task, but it makes you more adaptable, I think, because when you get things thrown at you on the fly, you have to make it work. You have no option to say woe is me, or have this Debbie Downer-type situation. You have to find a way, and I think you have to become incredibly resilient.

I think if you took a poll of coaches around the league that have been around for a while, I’d probably be up there with the most resilient that you’d probably see out there, based off all the different things that have happened here.

Q: This is by far the most players the club has retained year on year in its history. What does that provide you and the players in terms of working relationships and setting goals?

RM: To be honest, it took me a little bit to understand how valuable experience is, and how valuable shared connection is until this year. When I started Week 1 and we got to Week 2 of preseason, and players knew what was expected of them on and off the field, they knew the roles and responsibilities, they knew what the standards were, we were able to layer pieces into things. I think that’s why you saw such a fast start from our group, because there was a basis there, there was a belief in each other, there was a shared connection. There were also shared experiences, both good and bad, and when we went down the stretch last year and we didn't end up making the playoffs, you know, it was a disappointing stretch that we all shared together and collectively, and I believe – which is why we doubled-down on this group – it will make us stronger this year for that.

For now, that was the importance of what it is. But you can build layers. You have a connection with people. So, you can dive deeper into your connection. You can see the relationships continue to grow and blossom. You can talk about things that that went well or didn’t go well, and it’s the same person, where in years’ past, I’d [be] “Well, last year this happened,” but it’d be one person or two people that were in that and then maybe they were a fringe player or maybe they were a D.C. loan player, and that wasn’t their goal to win. So then you’re looking at some different things there, but it’s been night and day, and it’s been really refreshing from my end.

RM: I think the first thing we did was really a postmortem of “where did we come up short?” And I think when you look in the mirror, it’s very tough. Sometimes you look in the mirror and see what’s really in the mirror, and why did it not happen? You can sit here and make excuses or different things, but when we dove in, it was some tough conversations with people. We talked to the staff, talked to the players, and it was, “OK, well, the good news was teams changed and adapted to us down the stretch.” We started to see teams sit a little bit deeper, become a little bit more of a low block, and they were able to catch us in transition. We collectively had some issues where we couldn't break down a low block, whether it was patience, whether it was quality, whether it was movement. So that was something that we spent the whole offseason diving into, how do we break down a low block? How do we become more patient and more dynamic and ask more questions of the defense? We felt like we did so much in front of the back line that it made it easy for them at times.

Then we wanted to look in terms of restarts. We felt like last year, I think we had two restart goals all of last year. (Editor’s Note: Loudoun had three goals from corners and two from free kicks in 2024). Today, we already have two restart goals. So, we look at how do we improve that – that’s 30 percent, statistically, of where you get goals in the professional level. Right off the bat, we feel like we’re making progress in that side of things. And then a big focus was our transition defending. You know, how do we not concede so many chances in four passes or less? Some of it was ball security, some of it was our spacing, and some of it was our rest defense. So, it became a deep dive looking at the games.

Where were we at our best? Maybe Birmingham, late in the season, when we beat them 4-2 and we were in a pretty good place. What were we at our worst? You’re looking at Pittsburgh, Indy late in the year, where we lost both games. So, it's a deep dive, and for us we obviously lost to Louisville, but before that, we’ve scored five goals in three games on the road, and if you throw in the Open Cup, it’s eight in four. So, that was something we wanted to be, more lethal, more ruthless, and just better.

Q: What's it been like working alongside Ollie Gage since he came on board as Chief Soccer Officer last year?

RM: He’s been great. He brings, obviously, more of an analytical background and statistical background, whether it was his time in Houston or obviously within the Canadian Premier League. So having his help of helping create [Key Performance Indicators] for the club, in terms of positioning, how do you improve and more so even attaching a “why” to it. He gave a presentation a couple weeks ago about the importance of through-balls, because I’ve been preaching running in behind and creating danger from movement. He was able to take that concept I wanted to add and be more dangerous in terms of, how do we create, and then he went through and put the numbers [showing], “OK, a through-ball from this position is this much better than five yards to the right or left.” Or, how do we get services from what we call the “gold zone”, which is right around where the width of the 18 yard box is, and how much more of a percentage is it to score a goal if you can get into that zone? So, he was able to attach a lot of why it’s important to where it is in my game model.

Then, it’s been good to have someone that’s sole focus is Loudoun and not someone who was doing both D.C. and Loudoun, so you’re not getting mixed messages for both. So having Ollie around has been great, and I’m excited to have him at the club.

Q: Is there another club in the Championship that you’re looking to emulate in terms of approach to on- and off-field success?

RM: I think there’s a ton of clubs you can look at in terms of what they do. I think Charleston is probably one you look at in terms of what [Head Coach] Ben [Pirmann] and [President] Lee Cohen have done down there in the short term, turned around the franchise and got them into a really good place. I enjoy the way they play and do things. It’s a similar-type stadium situation to us. I think there's a lot of similarities between us and them, and I call Ben a friend as well, and in terms of the way he does things, that's probably the one that we look at the most and say, “OK, well, how can we get there and how can we emulate that?”

Clubs like Louisville, it’s a tough comparison because the stadium is a different level, and there’s a lot of things that are out of our control. But yeah, I’d say, [Charleston’s] probably the closest to who we want to be.

I think his consistency – we saw flashes of that last year – but his consistency this year is significantly better. We're working on him in terms of his ability when he’s on the dribble, to make better decisions and to play off the pass a little bit more than always off the dribble. I think if he can do it, he’s going to add a new element to his game, which we’ve slowly started to see in terms of some of the chances he’s created through three games.

Q: Moses Nyeman came back to the club this offseason. What does it mean to have him in Loudoun’s colors again, and what are you hoping for out of him this season?

RM: When I talked at the beginning about what I’ve learned in this journey, and probably what makes it the most special, is the people, and I think when you have a young man who’s still 21 and has already played for four professional clubs around the world, if he was in a college route, he wouldn’t have even gotten through college yet. So, you’re looking at an incredible talent, but more importantly, an incredible kid. So, for him to put his faith back in me to help him get back to where he should be in terms of whether it's MLS or Europe, it means a lot to me personally before it even means a lot soccer-wise. For that, I’m honored and humbled.

Then in terms of the soccer side, my job and my goal is to help him find his confidence, find his belief in himself, and to help put the pieces back together where maybe they were broken elsewhere. Maybe it wasn’t a right fit, or he didn't get the attention that he maybe needed as a young, talented player, because I think when you sign so young, and – like I said, at 21 he’s already played in Belgium, and then he’s also played with three MLS clubs – you forget he’s 21. I think it’s important that people realize he’s just got to find himself again. My hope is it’s in Loudon colors.

Q: The question that will always be out there until it isn't, is whether this is the year the club breaks through and earns its first postseason berth. How close do you think that this year's group is to that?

RM: I think when you look at last year, we were pretty close. And I think when you return everybody, you’ve got to believe that you’re close. And so, for us, we believe this team is good enough. We believe that the guys, individually and collectively, have made a stride forward in the offseason and in their preparation to do it. We feel collectively like this team is ready to make the playoffs. And we think we’ve shown some good moments of that and belief of that in our first three games, winning in two places we’ve never won before. I think that says a lot about the character of this group and the ambition of the group. So, we think this team can do it, and we believe that, and we’re going into every game like that.

Q: Given the length of your tenure, how much would earning that first postseason berth mean to you?

RM: Yeah, I mean, a lot. We try to keep it focused on the process and growth and development and getting better each day. But yeah, it would mean a lot, because it would mean more, not necessarily for me, but for the players, because they put so much into this, and they put so much belief into what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to do it. To have them find the joy of getting to something and building a new memory for the club, and a new tradition for the club, and a new chapter of the club would be incredibly rewarding for me to see the joy in their faces and how much they work to get to what they're trying to achieve.