Crown Legacy Midseason Update: Top of the East, and leading MLS NEXT Pro in goals

By Brian Maurer

Hugo Mbongue (Photo courtesy of Charlotte FC)

While Charlotte FC is on a World Cup hiatus till July, their development team, Crown Legacy FC, continues to push through their summer grind as they look to maintain their place at the top of the Eastern Conference.

Legacy will be making some adjustments to its daily routine with Scotland in town for the World Cup. Still, Legacy Head Coach Kevin Sawchak sees this as a new opportunity to enhance the team-building environment. "We are gonna try to make it our own camp while we are there...make it a home for us up there," Sawchak said on temporarily moving their home base. He continued saying that the group is moving ping-pong tables, and they all plan to have tons of competitions and trash-talk as they spend time together watching the World Cup. "It connects you," Sawchak continued.

Crown Legacy looks to maintain the top spot by sticking to its identity

A positive cultural environment is key for a group riding high as they have 30 points with an 8-4-1 record and lead MLS NEXT Pro in goals scored (37) midway through the season. When there is this much success at the developmental level, players start earning promotions, and openings are there for the taking. Like when Rodolfo Aloko, Legacy's leading goalscorer at the time, earned a first-team contract. "The guys kept pace with the goalscoring, which was great to see," said Sawchak on the team adjusting to players earning first-team moves.

One area of focus for Sawchak with all the early season success is helping the team stay grounded and remembering the habits and identity that helped lead them to success "We were so aggressive at the beginning of the season" stated Sawchak, "Part of what happens with young players is you win, you win, you win, you win, and then some of the habits can come down a little bit...we found that we need to really stay on top of them and keep training our identity."

Legacy has had several key players move up, creating new opportunities

Besides Aloko, Morrison Agyemang, Aron John, and most recently Will Cleary have all earned first-team opportunities this season, which has forced the Legacy squad to make several adjustments, a testament that the group continues to find results.

Sawchak points to the examples that those players set that help continue to push the Legacy players forward and keep them eager to improve. "It just shows the example of what it takes to get there...if anything its made our job as coaches easier, to just show guys there's the example, now it's time to catch them," explains Sawchak. He also mentioned that the openings left by the first-team signings have opened the door for academy players like Ethan Curtis and Wyatt Holt. "For us, it's a really good thing to give those guys more opportunities."

Will Cleary's impressive MLS starting debut

As mentioned before, Aloko, John, Morrison, and Cleary all have earned reps with the First Team. Aloko was a highly touted transfer going into this season, with some reports saying his fee was as high as $6 million. The expectations were for him to move up quickly. John has been around the organization for years now, and expectations for him have grown with his recent USYNT callups and earning a spot on the MLS NEXT Pro Best XI back in 2024. Morrison had six months acclimating to Charlotte before earning his first-team deal and starting spot.

The more surprising MLS debutant this year has been Cleary, who was just recently drafted out of Stanford and has already impressed, making his first MLS start against the New England Revolution right before the World Cup break. While the young fullback's start was impressive, Sawchak was not surprised he rose to the occasion in a big moment. "We believe in Will...I think the scouting department and everybody did a great job identifying Will, the personality that he has, we're seeing more and more the players that make it and make it fast are the ones that have a good mindset, and Will's got an excellent mindset," Sawchak stated. "To see him make that jump, we weren't surprised. I talked to him about it, he said he had a good couple of first actions in the game...and after that he was flying."

Sawchak mentioned that Cleary's work during the second half, when Charlotte was down a man because of David Schnegg's second yellow, was an important opportunity for him to feel the extra pressure. "Towards the end of the game, when they were under it a little bit, it was good for him to feel that," Sawchak said, "I think the cup games helped as well...he played against Atlanta, that was a really high-paced game, so I think he already felt it."

Former college players having strong rookie campaigns for Legacy

While Cleary has already impressed with the First Team, several other college players have hit the ground running in their rookie seasons including Nathan Richmond, Daniel Longo, Andrew Johnson, and Ashton Kamdem "They're all good kids, that come here, they want to work, they want to learn, they're all really coachable, they really are here long hours a day trying to learn and get better." Sawchak also reiterated that the recruiting at the college level in Charlotte has been really key in finding players who are capable and eager to make the jump.

Richmond's success has been particularly impressive as he has been extremely productive (4g/8a) in a crowded front line.

Crown Legacy FC Head Coach Kevin Sawchak (Photo courtesy of Charlotte FC)

The Captains

The leadership group at Legacy took a hit on the field early in the year as their captain, Willian Sangoquiza, has been out with an injury since March. "He's got such an elite mindset...the physios are saying that he's progressing through the rehab at a record pace," said Sawchak. "He's still a captain, he's still around the group all the time, he's still giving advice to the guys and pushing the guys in training...he's a really special character," Sawchak said that their captain should be back training soon and is hoping to see him back on the field in games in the coming months.

While Sangoquiza has continued to be a leader off the field, winter transfer and striker Hugo Mbongue has been able to lead the group on the field "Hugo's done amazing since he's been here in terms of an example...he still has some reactions that we're working on, but he's just such a competitive guy...the biggest challenge with Hugo is making sure he doesn't get too frustrated when the competition isn't going his way...I think we can take Hugo really far." The striker's competitive drive has also led to impressive production as he has 11 goal contributions (8g/3a).

Sawchak reflects on his role as Head Coach

Sawchak is familiar with leading the group as he was the interim manager back in 2024, but he said he has been learning a lot after earning the full-time role at the beginning of the year.

"I'm learning to try and keep it simple...it's our job to really set the environment to drive the behaviours that we want to develop players...the longer I have been in the role this year the more I believe in that, that we need to make training really hard, really intense, make sure they recover for the game, so that they're developing during the week, and then they're able to express themselves in the game," stated Sawchak.

Legacy's Head Coach also mentioned that an important part of his role is establishing environments where players have to adapt to multiple scenarios so they are prepared for anything while in a game. "Not making it too complicated tactically, not giving them too much information to fill their heads...put them in the environment that's going to expose them to so many things that they're going to learn, so they can adapt to whatever comes their way."

Sawchak's definition of a coach and expectations for the rest of 2026

At the end of our conversation, I asked Sawchak for his definition of a coach. His focus was on leadership and driving an environment every day that is more challenging than gameday:

"For me, in my role right now, it's a developer and a leader...find the mix between both...

First, I have to be the leader of the group, I'm the one who sets the environment straight, but that also means that I need to convince the staff and the players that this is the best way to develop...through driving the environment to be harder than the game."

His response blended right into his expectations for the second half of the season, which had no set number or place in the table in mind: "Keep improving as a staff and as a group to make sure that we keep pushing these players beyond what's expected of them."

Next Match

Carolina Core FC vs Crown Legacy FC 8:00 PM ET tonight, June 13