The Dallas head coach will manage his final home match on Saturday against Sounders FC and longtime coaching adversary Sigi Schmid.
For the last 29 years, Schellas Hyndman has been patrolling sidelines in the Dallas area as head coach of the Southern Methodist University Mustangs and FC Dallas.
At the end of the month, that tenure will come to an end, as the local legend announced Friday that the regular season finale against the San Jose Earthquakes on October 26 would be his last match as head coach at FC Dallas, a position he has held since taking over midseason in 2008.
Along the way, Hyndman has had many clashes with Sounders FC Head Coach Sigi Schmid, who coached at UCLA for 20 seasons before making the move to MLS in 1999, and they will meet again on Saturday when Seattle faces FC Dallas at Toyota Stadium in a nationally televised match on NBC.
“Schellas is a wonderful person and a great coach,” Schmid said. “One of the things I’ve always admired about Schellas is that he is a guy who worked his way up and never forgot where he came from – never forgot his roots. He has a very humble background and he had to work very hard to achieve what he has achieved. I have the ultimate respect for him.”
Hyndman compiled a 61-58-58 record with FC Dallas, including a run to the MLS Cup Final in 2010, where a late own-goal gave the trophy to the Colorado Rapids. At SMU, he went 368-96-40.
“His teams have always been good teams. They’re always competitors. He’s a competitor and he passes that on to his teams,” Schmid said. “I think the league is going to miss him and I know I’m going to miss having the opportunity to coach against him.”
With his FC Dallas career winding down over the next two matches, Schmid anticipates a spark in Hyndman’s team.
“There are some guys who will want to take him out on a high note, for sure and so I think it’s just going to help increase their effort in the game,” Schmid said.
Kickoff in Saturday’s match is slated for 11:30 am PT.
