‘We want the ball’: Head coach Mike Pellicio brings confidence into Spokane Shadow season

Mike Pellicio has roamed the Spokane Shadow touchline before, guiding Spokane’s top men’s team to a National Premier Soccer League division championship in 2018.

The coach of the year that season, Pellicio has returned to coach the Shadow, who compete in the 10-team Evergreen Premier League.

“Relatability, professionalism. Mike is great with connecting to the players and putting them in positions to succeed,” Shadow veteran Tanner Williams said. “So excited to have him back.”

Pellicio is originally from San Diego but has spent years helping Spokane soccer players reach their full potential .

“I like it a lot,” Pellicio said about coaching the Shadow first team. “It’s a bunch of guys that grew up in the club who are now young men. So it’s working with guys that I essentially helped raise.”

The Shadow men’s top tier is split between the first team and a U23 team that acts as an overflow squad.

The U23s play in the Cascadia Premier League, a relatively new league.

While the name U23 implies the players are under 23 years of age, it is more of a spirit rather than a rule.

Many players don’t actively play on the first team, so the U23 acts as a spillover team for those players, even if they are older than 23.

Pellicio recruited players to the Shadow teams once he confirmed he was returning, knowing that he wanted the U23 team to return.

As of Tuesday, there were 54 players in two squads, including a handful of 16- and 17-year-olds who are either high school graduates or who have graduated from the Shadow club.

The purpose for those players is to experience a higher level of competition, even if they aren’t moving on to play college soccer.

Spokane has been practicing two days a week since the beginning of April in preparation for a 2½-month season. Now they will train three times a week in two sessions.

“Excited to see a lot of young kids making their presence known in the Spokane area,” Williams said. “It is nice to play with familiar faces as well.”

The familiar faces are Nick Hamer, Jesse Retan, Noah Whitman and Chase Reidt, all of whom were on the 2018 team.

“A lot of these names have been around the area for a while, so the younger boys and girls that are growing up in this area are able to recognize them and see them as a standard,” Williams said. “To see them still in the network and raising the bar is cool, and I think that is what is unique about the Spokane and the Northwest football culture.”

The Shadow first team is the highest level of soccer between Seattle and Minnesota. Williams said fans of soccer and those looking for competitive play will enjoy watching Spokane battle on the pitch.

Spokane teams, from the youngest youth clubs to the men’s first team, all play a similar style of attacking soccer.

“We want the ball. We want to be brave and to not fear making mistakes on the ball,” Pellicio said.

Pellicio said his style of coaching emphasizes confidence. He wants his players to be confident making decisions, but his style isn’t that of “joy-sticking.”

“I’m not playing video games with the players,” he said. “I am preparing them and then they make their own choices, and whether it went well or not, they know I support them, I love them no matter what.”

The first team launches its season Thursday against the Walla Walla Stars, a CPL team. The first league game is scheduled June 3 as the Shadow travel to play Leones de Seattle at Ingraham High School at 5 p.m.

Spokane’s first league home game is set for June 10 against Seattle City at the Polo Grounds at 2 p.m.

The playoffs begin on July 22 with a semifinal. The final is scheduled for July 29.