Ellinger a key reason for team's success, head coach's growth

When Schellas Hyndman decided to leave SMU and become FC Dallas' coach in June 2008, he knew he needed someone on his staff familiar with Major League Soccer.

So he called longtime friend John Ellinger, who had just spent nearly three seasons as Real Salt Lake's coach, and asked him to be his top assistant.

"Schellas was looking for somebody that had been in the league," Ellinger said. "What's helped a lot is going through things like the expansion draft, the protected list, the draft, and stuff like what worked and didn't in Salt Lake. I think he's appreciated that."

Hyndman has a great deal of respect for his top lieutenant.

"He's been tremendous. He got me acclimatized to what's going on in the league," he said. "I was here with a college background and great soccer knowledge but didn't know if it could translate into this level."

Before he became Salt Lake's first coach, Ellinger was a key figure in shaping the future of American soccer.

As coach of the under-17 national team for seven years, he helped establish and run the acclaimed residency program in Bradenton, Fla., developing some of the nation's brightest young talents. He worked with future World Cup players Landon Donovan , Oguchi Onyewu and Michael Bradley, among others, as well as FC Dallas players Heath Pearce, Dax McCarty and Eric Avila.

But he wasn't exactly the players' buddy back then.

"I was scared of him, really scared of him," Avila said. "He didn't talk, didn't say much. He kept everything to himself and that just scared me."

"He was pretty intimidating," McCarty said. "Whenever he spoke, it was silence. You could hear crickets."

Now, though, the players have a markedly different relationship with Ellinger.

""You're grown up a little bit and now you can just talk about whatever you want with him," McCarty said. "He's a great guy, a fantastic coach and a guy I definitely feel comfortable hanging out with."

Ellinger realizes his relationship with his players now compared to those days is completely different.

"It's like night and day," he said. "When you're in residency, you're a father figure because they're a lot younger and they're afraid to death of you. Now we're in a different environment. They're more mature. Now it's more of a closer personal relationship as an assistant coach than before."