Return of the Mack(Keever)
 |
| Photo Credit: Tormenta FC |
"Mark has show not only his ability to win games, but also his commitment to our players, club values and community," said Tormenta FC Owner and President Darin Van Tassell. "Anyone following in the footsteps of Ian Cameron was going to have a tall task, and Mark's vision for the future of Tormenta FC matches our culture and ambitions. We believe he is the right leader to guide us forward, both on and off the pitch. It has been an absolute pleasure to have a front row seat to the work ethic and committment to players displayed by Mark and Associate Coach Jordan Bell. They are a formidable and talented duo."
McKeever was initially hired to be an assistant on Cameron's staff and served in that role for just a few weeks before Cameron surprised the club with his resignation in mid-August. Tormenta had not even sent out a press release announcing McKeever's hiring when Cameron stepped down and McKeever was named as interim head coach.
"I feel very blessed and honored to to be announced as the permanent head coach at Tormenta FC," McKeever said in a statement. "The last year of my life has been filled with lots of learning from a soccer education perspective which will help me level up in my coaching career and my own personal character. I am excited to have the opportunity to help the club continue to move forward and grow and for me to be able to impact many lives through football has has always been my dream job."
"I am truly grateful to Darin and Netra for the faith they have shown me. Everyone at this club has treated me with the utmost trust and respect and I hope to repay everyone by representing the club on and off the field to the fullest. The gratitude I feel for this opportunity is very hard to put into words and I am excited to turn the page and start this new chapter in my life," he said.
McKeever previously served as the Manager for One Knox for more than two years before he and the club mutually agreed to part ways in 2024. I can only speculate, but the reference to the last year being spent learning from a soccer education perspective seems likely to be a reference to allegations that were later substantiated of physical and verbal abuse while coaching in Knoxville.
Darin Van Tassell said he was comfortable with McKeever's integrity when he was brought on as an assistant coach.
"Mark told me he learned a lot from One Knox," he said in August. "One can keep growing. He said 'I have to grow.' He said there were some things there that he wished he'd done a bit differently."
On the field, McKeever has been successful, not just at Tormenta where the Ibises are 5-1-1 under McKeever and back in the thick of the playoff chase, but in other stops as well. He spent time leading the Young Harris college team beginning in 2006 and has also helmed Mississippi Brilla FC and Des Moines Menace of USL League 2. He went 32-23-16 during his tenure at One Knox.
"Mark has a great love for the game and he shows that to us on a day to day basis," Tormenta midfielder and captain Gabriel Cabral said in a statement. "His consistency to achieving high performance is admirable and he pushes all of us to be better footballers but above all to be great people."
In my brief time having covered and interacted with McKeever, a few things have stood out to me. First is the self-deprecating manner in which he downplays his role in any of Tormenta's success. He is very quick to place the credit on the players on the field and say he's just doing what he knows how to do when it comes to coaching, but the players deserve the credit. That's not to say he's just rolling the ball out there and telling the players to go for it. But in our interviews, he's quick to give the players the praise for what they did on the field.
The second aspect of McKeever that stood out is that he is all in on Tormenta. You may recall South Georgia faced One Knox just a few weeks ago that saw Tormenta come away with a 2-1 win over McKeever's former team. I asked him what it meant, personally, to get a win against his old team and he gave me one of my favorite quotes of the season.
"It doesn't mean nothing," he said, before adding "My attachment is to these (Tormenta) guys." He said it was good to see some of the players he'd previously coached and that he was close with a lot of them, but that wasn't where his heart was now.
"My loyalty, my passion, my love now is in this (Tormenta) locker room right here. I've embraced them and they've embraced me and Knoxville's not really a part of that so I don't want to talk about them too much," he said.
The final thing to me that has stood out about McKeever's tenure is that the guys on the field seem to be playing with a little more freedom and creativity than when Cameron was in charge. That may be in large part to McKeever changing from a 4-2-3-1 to a 3-4-3 and playing a more direct and less possession-based style than Cameron played.
As always with my tactical analysis, take it with a huge grain of salt, but as John Morrissey (@USLTactics on bluesky, cohost of the USL show) told me about Tormenta under McKeever "I think you're seeing a team more confident and more willing to take risks. They're keeping the ball on the ground to a greater degree in possession. You're likelier to see one of the center backs step up for a challenge, trusting that the rest of the back three is steady in behind."
As I said at the time when Cameron stepped down, I'm eminently unqualified to say anything about a coaching search and that I would trust the process. Is McKeever a good hire? The players all seem to like him. The Van Tassells like him. The staff with Tormenta seem to like him and he's winning games. Assuming he's learned from his time at Knoxville and has grown and changed (and I've seen nothing to say that isn't the case), then it seems like a great hire for Tormenta.
So Tormenta has locked up their coach and will have stability going into the offseason on that front as they prepare for the 2026 season. But before that, there's still the business of the 2025 campaign. Tormenta has five games remaining, starting with Richmond on Saturday. We'll have a preview of that on Friday as well as our Tormenta Cheering Guide for the other League One games.
Comments
Post a Comment