When you first meet Danny Stone, you wouldn’t imagine him to be someone with a childhood connection to Arizona.
His accent, at least, would throw you off. But you would be wrong in your assumption.
“It’s funny, sometimes, how life takes you in those circles,” Stone said. “I actually, now, am back living in an area five minutes from where I went to school.”
At 15, Stone moved to Tempe, attending Corona del Sol High School. Now, he’s the head coach of Phoenix Rising, the state’s highest-level professional club.
Just one month ago, though, this move would have been unexpected.
At that time, Juan Guerra was the Rising’s head coach, and there was little reason to suspect that he’d be stepping down any time soon.
Stone had joined Phoenix at the same as Guerra, with both serving as assistant coaches in 2021. Guerra would take over after then-head coach Rick Schantz was let go in 2022.
But when Major League Soccer came calling, with an offer to serve on the staff in Houston, Guerra seized the opportunity.
“Juan is a good friend of mine, and a fantastic colleague as well over the last three years,” Stone said. “I’ve spoken with Juan regularly. I was very informed on his situation and his process. Both Juan and the club were good enough to keep me informed as they needed to on that.”
Guerra formally left the club just one week prior to the start of preseason. As players reported, there was still no official word on who would take charge for 2024.
“We’d started preseason training already at that time [it was decided],” Stone said. “I’d been speaking regularly with Bobby [Dulle, club president] and Brandon [McCarthy, sporting director] and with the club in general, but it was obviously great news for me to be confirmed and given that news. It was an exciting moment for me, for sure.”
Now, the challenge begins. It’s rare that a head coach takes over when a team is enjoying success, but Stone inherits a squad that won the USL Championship title for the first time just months ago.
“It’s something that I’ve already spoken with the players about,” Stone said. “We have a challenge ahead of us this year that it’s the first time that this club has faced this situation. The way I look at it is, it’s an exciting challenge ahead. It’s something that is for me extra motivation, for the players extra motivation.”
He inherits, too, a squad that has mostly completed its recruitment for 2024. Among those are a key core of returners, as well as several other promising names from inside and outside USL.
“I’m very pleased with the squad that we’ve assembled,” Stone said. “We’ve got 14 returning players, I believe, this year, and we’ve made some excellent additions to the squad as a whole. I certainly don’t see that we have gaps. I certainly don’t see that we have holes in that squad.
“What I do think is that, as always, there’s a process of new players coming in and joining existing squad members and learning about the organization, learning to become familiar with the club. That always takes some time. That always is a process where players coming in have to adapt, and culturally the players that are already in the organization will be able to lead them and guide them on that.”
It’s understood that another new player will be named in the coming days.
He won’t be the only person to join before the start of the season, though, as the club actively looks to add new talent to the coaching staff.
“We will be bringing in an additional staff member,” Stone said. “That’s something we’ve been working hard on here over the last week or so, and we continue to work through that process. It’s certainly something that we are, of course, aware of, that we need another addition to that role.
“We’re taking the right time and doing the right diligence with that process to make sure that the person that comes in is a great member of that coaching staff and will do an excellent job for the team and for the club.”
For now, the focus is on Stone. A former professional player and longtime assistant coach, he’s been handed the reins of a club in his own right for the first time.
“It’s a privilege to be able to lead this team,” Stone said. “It’s something that I feel, connected to the club over the last three and a half years of being here in Phoenix. I’m really looking forward to the challenge. Like I say, it’s a big honor, and one that I don’t take lightly and I’m very much looking forward to the project and to the challenge ahead.”
Rising head coach Danny Stone will join the PHNX Rising Podcast on Tuesday, January 23 at 6 p.m.
