The Tampa Bay Mutiny has re-signed head coach Tim Hankinson through the 2000 MLS season. In addition to being retained as the head coach, Hankinson has also been given the title of Director of Player Personnel, in which he will be responsible for all player movements. In keeping with MLS policy, no terms of the agreement other than its length will be disclosed. Sakiewicz did say that Hankinson was rewarded for a “job well done” in 1998. Taking over a 3-12 Mutiny team on June 9 after guiding MLS’s Project-40 team through the first half of the season, Hankinson helped the Mutiny turn the corner in the second half of the year. The club posted a 9-8 record, including wins in five of its last six games, and although the Mutiny’s playoff quest fell one point short, Hankinson established himself as one of the league’s best coaches. “With all due respect to some outstanding coaching jobs in MLS in 1998 by Bob Bradley in Chicago, Bruce Arena at D.C. United and Ivo Wortmann in Miami, for me, there was no finer coaching performance in MLS than the one turned in by Tim Hankinson,” said Mutiny GM Nick Sakiewicz. “When Tim took over, there were a great deal more questions than there were answers regarding our team,” Sakiewicz added. “Tim came in, established a program, implemented it and I think we all saw the results. To go 9-8 and get us to within one point of the playoffs is an outstanding accomplishment. I am confident that under Tim’s direction, we can build on that record and once again become an elite team in Major League Soccer.” Hankinson said that in addition to training the team throughout the offseason, he already has and will continue to look where needed to find the players needed to improve the club. “South America, Central America, Europe, and, yes, the U.S., and in MLS, too…I will leave no stone unturned in my quest for us to be the best,” said Hankinson. “I honestly believe we can achieve our goals in 1999 or I would not have taken the job.”