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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

It feels like the last few weeks have been dominated by coaching changes. Some of them have been voluntary, like my alma mater Samford losing both its men’s and women’s basketball coaches to bigger opportunities, and some by force, like the mind-numbing firings by two NBA playoff teams–the Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies.

As a sports fan, I’m conditioned to this regular turnover, and as a sportswriter, such moves come with the end of each of the athletic seasons I cover, both voluntary and by force.

However, one recent move hit me in a different way than usual–Birmingham Legion FC’s firing of head coach Tommy Soehn.

For those who aren’t as well-versed in the ways of our local professional soccer club, a quick recap. Soehn is a former MLS-level coach at D.C. United and joined Legion FC for its inaugural USL Championship season in 2019. The first five years were mostly great, highlighted by five-straight playoff appearances and deep runs to the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals (when Birmingham hosted Inter Miami in front of 18,000 fans the day it announced the Lionel Messi signing) and Eastern Conference Semifinals in 2023.

Last year saw the Legion regress and miss the playoffs for the first time ever. That was paired with early crash-outs in both the 2024 and 2025 Open Cups, the latter of which came at the hands of an amateur team from Little Rock, Ark.

The latter run was part of a six-match winless run to start the 2025 season. Needless to say, the writing was on the wall and some very vocal fans online had called for his head for over a year.

However, I found myself conflicted internally because when I hear the name Soehn, Tommy isn’t the first person to come to mind.

Those who follow our girls soccer coverage know Addy Soehn is one of the key offensive pieces of the Spain Park Jaguars’ attack. The senior midfielder made the All-State, All-Metro and All-County teams last year and helped the Jags achieve the No. 1 ranking in their classification’s coaches poll in each of the last two seasons, in 2024 with an undefeated regular season in 7A and in 2025 in Class 6A.

Tuesday, April 15’s game against Chelsea was the first time I saw Addy play since her father’s firing. While I couldn’t see her father in the stands, I nonetheless couldn’t help but remember the human element of the coaching transaction.

This was a father-daughter duo who posted soccer videos on X during the COVID-19 pandemic as Addy used her time at home to train for the years to come with Spain Park.

This was a daughter whose father was put out of work less than two months before her high school graduation, and while it hasn’t affected her ability to finish out her senior year at SPHS, it still throws an entire family into uncertainty.

This was also the same man who I saw firsthand as a member of the Magic City Brigade, the Legion’s English-language supporters’ group, swing by our tailgates before matches with a fresh rack of Coors Light and come past the midfield line afterwards and applaud us for coming.

So often in sports, we dehumanize athletes and coaches as nothing more than the product of their results. That’s not to excuse them for their job performance, the same way that none of us should be excused for poor results in the workplace or classroom. However, it’s harder to call for someone to lose their job when you know them and their family personally.

It’s the reason why I refrained from piling on for so long on social media when multiple friends who I respect openly called for his head.

I’m pretty guilty of treating coaches as disposable in the past. I grew up a Charlotte sports fan who also rooted for the Braves and Iowa State. I’m much more used to losing than winning, and losing teams tend to cycle through some pretty bad coaches.

However, this firing started changing my tune. I’ve seen the personal side of coaching decisions, and I don’t like it.

Soehn will land on his feet somewhere. A coach with his track record tends to find work quickly. The Legion are already improving after winning their first match of the season under a new interim coach Eric Avila.

So what’s my point? I interact with coaches on a daily basis. I’m confident in saying Shelby County has the best coaches from top to bottom across all sports of anywhere in the state.

These coaches are not only tactical geniuses, but they pour into the lives of young men and women and strengthen their character alongside their skillset to prepare them for life beyond sports.

It doesn’t sit right with me when I see fans so quick to pull the trigger on social media with an angrily worded post. It sits less right with me when those fans won’t even give a coach a fair chance and embark on systematic hate campaigns that can venture into smearing and slandering if unchecked.

Please, before you post or say something in-person, think before you say it. There is such a thing as good and bad coaches, but no matter their competence, each one of them is human. Show a little empathy and leave the decisions in the hands of principals and athletic directors.

About a week after the firing, one of my friends in the Magic City Brigade came home from work emotionally drained. He had to fire someone underneath him and only wanted to hug his kid and have a beer.

Despite feeling bad, he was grateful that he felt bad. In his words, he “never wants it to come easily” to put someone out of a job, no matter how much they deserve it.

May we carry the same level of human decency in our day-to-day lives.