At the same press conference in which the Bay Area CyberRays finally announced a head coach — former Stanford boss Ian Sawyers — they learned that they might not play at Spartan Stadium in the upcoming season. Sawyers, who is the husband of U.S. and San Diego Spirit midfielder Julie Foudy, had coached the Stanford women from 1993 to 1995. In ’93, he led the Cardinal to the NCAA semifinals, where it lost to George Mason. Previously, he worked as a full-time assistant coach at Stanford for two years. Before that, he was an unpaid assistant for one year on the Farm. “The only word I can use to describe Ian right now in my job and in my life is gift,” CyberRays general manager Marlene Bjornsrud said. “He is a professional and I believe is destined to coach professional women’s soccer at the higest level. The best players in the world will be coached by who I believe is the best coach in the world.” Sawyers coached the WPSL’s Sacramento Storm from 1993 to 1998. He has also been a golf pro, teaching the game for the Mike McGettrick Golf Camp. Sawyers added that he has been “following my wife around the world, supporting her the best I can.” “It has been a busy week,” said Sawyers, who was the club’s main draft consultant at the Dec. 10-11 draft in Boca Raton, Fla. “One of the things that I’m very excited about is to be back in the Bay Area. Even more exciting than that is watching this league developing from an embryo to where it is now. … Being part of that is a pretty historic moment for that. “I didn’t actually go out and search for a club to work for. Some of the players knew that I was interested if a situation arose. When I got a call from Marlene, actually my first thought was, How can we help, because to go to the combine without someone with a soccer mind or who pretending to have a soccer mind would have been a struggle. And when I got there and met Marlene and Jody [Meacham the CyberRays director of public relations] and the support staff that was around the CyberRays, it became very obvious what a professional organization it was and is. I’m very thankful to be given the opportunity to work with the best players in the world and I think it’s going to be one of the best run organizations, most professional organizations, in the league.” Sawyers said he learned during the draft that he would likely get the job. He has two people in mind — including a goalkeeper coach — to fill assistant coaching positions. He won’t name them “because they are in positions right now.” The club’s selection of Sawyers came after Notre Dame coach Randy Waldrum backed out of the job on Dec. 2 after initially agreeing to coach the CyberRays. Sawyers resigned from Stanford, allegedly due to player unrest, which Bjornsrud investigated. “That’s an issue that needs to be addressed,” Sawyers said. “I don’t harbor any bad feelings. With coaching styles and techniques, it happens all the time in sports. It’s in the past. You let it go. I’m glad that those [former Stanford] players got picked up [in the WUSA draft]. I thought that was awesome. We got Carmel [Murphy, who played for Sawyers at Stanford]. We were lucky to get her. Looking forward is much more important. You’ve just got to develop some thick skin and deal with it. It’s part of the business.” “I looked into it,” Bjornsrud said. “My background is in college athletics. I’ve been an athletic director, assistant or associate AD [at Santa Clara University and Grand Canyon University], for an awful lot of years. I also realize that probably 90 percent of my time was fielding complaints from players and parents. I fielded those kinds of complaints for every coach that I ever supervised, at every level. And, because I was a coach [of the women’s tennis team at Grand Canyon], those were waged against me as well. So my feeling is in some ways we’re comparing apples and oranges when we’re talking about college vs. professional, growing developing players vs. the best players in the world. “My first group to consult with about Ian was the players themselves, and I went [CyberRays players] Brandi [Chastain], Tisha [Venturini], Keysia [Beene]. I had [U.S. and Carolina Tempest defender] Carla Overbeck hunt me down and find me simply to say, ‘I would play for Ian anytime, anywhere on any team.’ And she said, ‘There are soft college athletes who would have a tough time with him.’ “That’s all I needed to hear.” Bjornsrud said she had hoped to receive a call from WUSA acting commissioner Tony DiCicco before the press conference, telling her that the league had come to an agreement with MLS to use Spartan Stadium, where the MLS’s San Jose Earthquakes play. Instead, DiCicco called to tell her that an agreement had not yet been struck, because MLS has not waived the blackout dates it holds at Spartan. “They have been increasingly reluctant to do that,” she said. “They suggested we play in a number of different venues in Year 1. As you can imagine, that is less than ideal for our fans to have to figure out and recall where each game is played. And how do you sell season tickets? … We’re kind of coming to the 11th hour. We need a definitive word. We can’t any longer just wait and hope they decide to let us play.” The club is looking into playing at San Jose City College, San Francisco State, the University of California and 3Com Park, the home of the NFL’s San Franciso 49ers, if Spartan falls through. “We’ve talked to 3Com; they’d take us in a heart beat,” Bjornsrud said. “It’s a rather large venue. We’ve met with Cal. We’ve met with San Franciso State. Today we meet with San Jose City College.” Santa Clara’s Buck Shaw Stadium had been an early candidate, but Buck Shaw is out, because the Broncos baseball season conflicts with the WUSA season. by Soccer America associate editor Dean Caparaz