Richard Lewis Schantz is an American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

. He co-founded

FC Tucson FC Tucson is an American soccer club based in Tucson, Arizona that plays in USL League Two. The club has an amateur women's team, FC Tucson Women, that play in the WPSL. Organized in 2010, the club first fielded a team in March 2011, then joine ...

in 2010 and was its first head coach. He was also head coach of

Phoenix Rising FC Phoenix Rising Football Club is an American professional soccer team based in Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 2014 as Arizona United Soccer Club, the team is a member of the USL Championship. They won the league championship in 2023, defeating the ...

in the

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a men's professional association football, soccer league in the second tier of the United States soccer league system#Men's leagues, United States league system. It is organized by the United Soccer League (USL) a ...

Coaching record

Honors

Coach of the Year **Winner:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Personal life

Schantz is a native of

Tucson Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, and graduated from

Salpointe Catholic High School Salpointe Catholic High School is a college prep Catholic high school in Tucson, Arizona. Although located in the Diocese of Tucson, it is administered by the Carmelite Order. History Salpointe Catholic High School is named for Arizona's first B ...

Homophobia controversy

During a Phoenix Rising game with San Diego Loyal on September 30, 2020,

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Junior Flemmings Junior Flemmings (born 16 January 1996) is a Jamaican professional footballer who plays as a winger and forward for UAE Pro League club Ajman and the Jamaica national team. Club career Early career Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Flemmings began ...

was accused of using a Jamaican homophobic slur against the openly gay Loyal midfielder Collin Martin. Loyal, who had been leading 3–1 up to that point, walked off the field in protest and forfeited the match. Video capturing an exchange between Rising coach Rich Schantz and Loyal coach

Landon Donovan Landon Timothy Donovan (born March 4, 1982) is an American former professional association football, soccer player and coach who was most recently the interim head coach of San Diego Wave FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Often co ...

over the incident led to claims of Schantz telling Donovan that the incident was "part of the game," that the players were "competing," as well as accusations that Schantz tried to downplay the incident. Schantz later denied such accusations, saying his words were "misconstrued," and that he was not excusing "any alleged homophobic behavior" from his players. The incident led to an investigation by

, and Schantz was placed on administrative leave following the incident. Team officials say Schantz's placement on administrative leave was unrelated to the investigation, but did later say the administrative leave was related to his initial reaction to the incident, which team officials categorized as "dismissive". Schantz later apologized to Martin, as well as his team, the USL Championship league, and the LGBTQ community over the incident, and subsequently resumed his coaching duties on October 21.

Leaves Phoenix Rising FC

Schantz parted ways with Phoenix Rising FC on August 17, 2022.

References

Living people American soccer coaches FC Tucson coaches Phoenix Rising FC coaches Year of birth missing (living people) Portland Pilots men's soccer players USL Championship coaches USL League Two coaches Soccer players from Tucson, Arizona Men's association football players not categorized by position American men's soccer players {{US-footy-bio-stub