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The decision to retain Sigi Schmid as the coach of the Seattle Sounders in 2016 was confirmed on Thursday night when Garth Lagerwey made the announcement during the Q&A session of the annual Alliance Meeting.
"Let me put something to bed: Sigi is our coach. Sigi will be our coach. Sigi is my coach," Lagerwey said. He then asked Schmid if he was OK with that. The coach confirmed he would be back.
Sigi had a tumultuous season with the Sounders, riding waves where the club looked like it was the best in MLS history, the worst in the season and then pretty good, but not great. During that time he was also hospitalized and prevented from traveling to an away match for an undeclared health issue.
Schmid is the league's winningest coach, has the second most trophies and earned five major trophies in seven years with the Sounders. This year he was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame as well as the Pac-12 men's soccer coach of the century.
Now majority owner Adrian Hanauer had previously announced that former player Djimi Traore would join the first team coaching staff as a defensive specialist. Traore was an unofficial coach for S2 in 2015.