PORTLAND, Maine – Ray Saari, Portland Hearts of Pine’s new sporting director, sounded like someone keeping his options open while also making it clear he is excited about the prospects of bringing back incumbent coach Bobby Murphy.
“I think Bobby is a good coach – I mean, look at what he did last year,” Saari said. “Expansion years are one of the hardest things to manage, and taking this team to the playoffs in an expansion year is very, very impressive.”
During a recent wide-ranging interview with The Hearts’ Beat, Saari discussed Murphy and touched on the importance of youth soccer while detailing what he looks for in a young player. Last Monday, Portland announced the hiring of Ray Saari from the El Paso Locomotive. Saari is known as an innovative thinker with a real eye for talent.
Murphy’s contract is up after this season. He was hired for the Hearts’ inaugural season last year because he was known for being a strong coach who excelled at player development. He has been in the coaching business for three decades, including a stint as an interim Major League Soccer coach. Murphy is also from New England, having played there in college.
“Part of the reason that drew me here was the chance to work with Bobby,” Saari said. “It’s certainly something that we as a club have had a lot of conversations about, and I’m definitely excited about having the chance to work with him.”
Saari noted how seasoned Murphy is, saying, “I really do like experienced coaches, coaches that have been in different environments, that have been around. I’m excited about the opportunity to work with Bobby, and I do think that’s a strong possibility for sure.”
For Murphy’s part, he has repeatedly spoken positively about working with Saari, particularly given his ability to identify and recruit talent.
While saying he needs more time to assess Maine’s soccer pipeline, Saari made it clear that he is eager to explore having a youth academy here.
Club officials have not talked publicly about whether their new sporting director’s hiring will lead to a new youth academy. But Saari was credited for building an effective youth system by specifically integrating individual tracking and bridging youth academies to first-team squads.
“It’s something that the ownership and I have talked about,” Saari said. “It’s something that you know we all will continue to build on because you’ve seen the connection and the pride that the club takes in connecting with the community.”
Saari pointed to the club’s first youth soccer camp that the Hearts held last month. Players participated in a five-day camp held at the Waynflete Athletic Complex run by the Hearts’ coaching staff.
Asked if this area had enough soccer players to create a successful youth program, Saari pointed to a player that might have gotten away from Portland recently.
“You see success stories like Taig Healy, right?” Saari said, mentioning the player from South Hampton, New Hampshire, who torched the Hearts for a pair of goals late last month. “(He’s from) around in this area. Yeah, there’s good players in the USL that come from everywhere.”
Saari proved to be good at identifying talented young players during his time in El Paso.
After initially being hired as the club’s first Individual Development Plan coach in 2023, Saari became El Paso’s technical director a year later, where he has turned a last place team into its current leader of the USL Championship League’s Western Conference. The Locomotive’s position of technical director fills the same role as the Hearts’ sporting director post.
“I think first and foremost in evaluating a player for me is point blank: is this player effective in that position?” Saari said. “Does this attacking player score goals and offer us some sort of attacking threat. Maybe he’s a guy that gets a lot of assists, and threatens the back line. Does your defender point blank defend? Does he win the ball back for us? Does he keep the ball out of the net? Goalkeepers the same way. Is he a good shot stopper?”
Midfield is a more complex position, Saari explained, because there are multiple duties within that role. He added that the most important answers he seeks are: “Why is this player effective at what he does? Can he also do this? Can he play in this formation?”
Saari will also be assessing the current roster, where as many as 18 players will have their contracts expire at the end of the season.
“We’re already starting to make calls about what the team looks like next year, in terms of players that are available, players that fit Bobby’s system in the way that he wants to play,” Saari said. “The next four months is a critical time of roster building, roster decisions, and working towards next year – planning, preparation, and execution on the roster side.”
At this point, Saari (now an undefeated 1-0-0 in his Hearts’ career after Portland’s thrilling win Sunday night) is getting acclimated to Maine. His fiancée is a veterinarian and they have a dog and a cat, although he said “if it was up to her, we’d probably have a farm in our apartment.”
While El Paso doesn’t experience the seasonal variation Maine does, he has seen ample winters as a native of Kansas City. But he is ready to learn about Maine’s unique environment.
“From the outside looking in, you just see the beauty of the peninsula,” he said. “You see the water. You see all of the greenery. It’s something very different from where I was. I thought the move would be exciting but also refreshing.”
With Saari being someone who likes to dig deep for talent, it’s quite possible fans will see him exploring all parts of Maine. So keep your eyes open on the sidelines, folks. You never know who might be there.