Chris Agnello
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Chris Agnello (ah-NELL-o, born 1968) an American soccer coach. His most recent position was as Coach/General Manager of the Portland Timbers soccer team in the USL First Division.
Chris Agnello developed into one of Utah's top youth players in the early 1980s, winning a state championship with Woods Cross High School and being named the Gatorade National Player of the Year for Utah in 1985. Following high school, Agnello received a scholarship and played for Warner Pacific College in Portland, Oregon.
Upon returning from Portland, Agnello focused his energy and love of the game into coaching. He has coached several Utah state champion youth club teams, winning numerous high school championships with both boys and girls teams in Utah. His abilities as a talented young coach were noticed early on as he became one of the youngest state ODP coaches before quickly moving up the ranks and coaching at the regional ODP levels for both the girls and boys programs.
Agnello helped establish the Utah Blitzz of the United Soccer Leagues (USL) D3 Pro League (now USL Second Division) and led the team to five conference titles and two league championships. Agnello, was D3 Pro League’s Coach of the Year in 2002 and compiled a 64-21-11 regular-season record over five seasons (2000-04) with the Blitzz.
As coach/general manager, Agnello was responsible for everything from negotiating contracts to making sure sponsor banners were hung straight to gametime coaching. Agnello also helped establish the Junior Blitzz recreational youth soccer program and Blitzz FC, Utah's largest elite youth program. The programs included about 15,000 young soccer players.
Before joining the Timbers Agnello served as an assistant coach with Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer. There, Agnello assisted with the training and coaching of Real Salt Lake’s first team and reserve team during the franchise’s inaugural 2005 season.
In September of 2006, Agnello resigned as coach and GM of the Timbers under intense controversy. During the 2006 season the Timbers had underperformed and finished next to last in the USL First Division.
