Glendale, Colo. – On a whiteboard in Curt Johnson’s office, the number never changed. Fifty-one.

When Denver Summit was nothing more than a name, a crest and an ambitious ownership group, the club’s General Manager reduced the enormity of building a professional franchise to a simple equation: 26 players, 25 staff.

“We need 51 great people,” Johnson said. “Talent. Leaders. Builders.”

Whenever the process felt overwhelming – and there were days when it did – he returned to that number. Not formations. Not contracts. Not headlines about ticket sales. Just people.

What he didn’t know then was how closely that philosophy would align with the man he would hire to lead the team on the field.
Launching a club from scratch invites a thousand questions, and the first is deceptively simple: where do you begin?

With a head coach? With a marquee...