When Curt Onalfo was a D.C. United player in 1998, he spent a lot of time on the bench (amassing just three regular season appearances), meaning between halves he would often be left outside where reserves were supposed to kick the ball around and stay warm while the starters regrouped in the locker room.
But Onalfo had different ideas, ones that laid the foundation for him to become the team’s head coach 12 years later.
“I used to go in and listen to what [then-coach Bruce Arena] would say at halftime because I wanted to be a coach and I wanted to be a coach for D.C. United,” said Onalfo, who was introduced by the team on Tuesday.
After two and half seasons as head coach in Kansas City, “coming home” was how Onalfo, 40, described his return to Washington. In college, he played under Arena at Virginia, he was both a player and an assistant with D.C., and he has a strong legacy of work as a youth coach in the area.
“I think that Curt certainly has a lot of his philosophy and how to play and how to form a team has been taken from Bruce,” said United president Kevin Payne, who said he’s known Onalfo for 20 years. “I think that as Curt grows, he’s going to put more and more of his own stamp on that.”
Yet, although Onalfo was one of the first of many candidates interviewed when the job became vacant, it wasn’t clear that he was the team’s first choice. But odds mean little to a man who beat Hodgkin’s disease in his mid-twenties.
“My thoughts all along is I felt like I was the man for the job,” said Onalfo, who hopes to do in D.C. what he did with the Wizards, take them to the playoffs in each of his first two seasons. “It’s an identical situation.”
Payne also lauded his new coach’s bilingual abilities. Onalfo, who also speaks Spanish, said he would like to be a bridge between United’s communities of fans and a coach that freely communicates with all his players.
“That’s an important part of D.C. United, the style of play we have had and the culture and identity of our team,” said Payne. “Curt shares the regard with which we hold those players so it’s been a very smooth transition process to date.”
The team announced later Tuesday that Onalfo’s staff would consist of assistant coaches Kris Kelderman and Ben Olsen, while Mark Simpson was retained as goalkeeping coach.
