Two defenders from Sporting Kansas City's 2012 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup championship team, Michael Harrington and Lawrence Olum returned to Kansas City to attend courses at Compass Minerals National Performance Center in order to receive their B-License in coaching.
Harrington joined the club in 2007 after playing for the University of North Carolina men’s soccer team and Raleigh CASL Elite of the premier development league. He made 149 appearances and scored five goals for Sporting after being drafted third overall in the 2007 MLS SuperDraft, and came on in the 100th minute of the 2012 Open Cup final win. He went on to play six more years of professional soccer following the 2012 MLS season with stops in Portland, Colorado and Chicago.
“I liked the idea of the competitive challenge to influence a team,” said Harrington about why he got into coaching. “It was a natural transition for me just being around the game and in that type of environment. I will say that sometimes as a player you think you know everything and have all the answers and once you put that coaching hat on you realize it’s a bit more complex.”
Olum made two stops in Kansas City as a part of a 15-year professional soccer journey which included appearances in MLS, USL and the Malaysian Premier League. All told he made 86 appearances for Sporting, scored five goals, started in the 2012 Open Cup Final and played 112 minutes of Sporting’s 2013 MLS Cup final victory.
“Around 2017, I for sure knew that this is what I wanted to do,” Olum said about when he realized that he wanted to coach. “Because of the opportunity that soccer brought me, I saw the impact of what coaching can do. I knew I wanted to stay around soccer.”
Harrington and Olum played key roles in Sporting’s first major trophy win since the 2004 U.S. Open Cup. Harrington saw the club grow from the Kansas City Wizards into Sporting Kansas City, and Olum witnessed Sporting's rise as an MLS powerhouse.
“As I walked into this building a couple of days ago, I was pretty wowed by it,” said Harrington about Compass Minerals National Performance Center. “I feel a sense of pride that I had been a part of this club and that there is an environment like this for the current players.”
“This shows what Sporting is still doing,” Olum said about the facilities and success of the club in recent years. “Other clubs are trying to do this, but Sporting is way ahead of everybody else. Coming back to see all this makes me want to go back a few years so I can be a part of this. It shows that what the team was doing then is what made all of this possible now, so I will take that as a small victory.”
Harrington is currently an assistant coach at his alma mater, the University of North Carolina, while Olum is on the coaching staff at Montverde Academy. They are two former players who helped grow Sporting Kansas City into what it is today looking to cultivate the next generation of soccer players in America.
“Everything is a journey,” said Olum about what lessons he wants his players to learn. “At any moment when you look back, you might think different, but when you see the bigger picture and the result that is the lesson. Nothing is ever permanent but if you stick with it something positive will come from it.”
