Nathan Thackeray‘s first message to Dallas Trinity FC was simple: evolution, not revolution.
The 37-year-old England native, fresh from eight seasons as assistant coach with NWSL powerhouse North Carolina Courage, was introduced to media Thursday morning at The Hockaday School in Dallas as Trinity’s new head coach—the permanent replacement for Chris Petrucelli, who served as interim head coach through the fall while maintaining his role as general manager.
During his tenure with the Courage, Thackeray helped build a championship dynasty: two NWSL titles (2018, 2019), three NWSL Shields, and two Challenge Cup championships. But he doesn’t arrive in Dallas looking to tear down what Petrucelli has built.
“I’m not here to change everything—we’re here to evolve and adapt and try and make things better,” Thackeray said during his introductory press conference. “So the foundation has been set and will continue to be the foundation.”
It’s a measured approach for a coach inheriting a playoff team sitting in fourth place (6-5-2, 20 points) as the spring schedule approaches. But Thackeray’s vision extends beyond simply maintaining the status quo. His mission is clear: take what Petrucelli built and refine it into something more consistent, more aligned, more ready for a championship run.
“My job is to try and make the piece on the field maybe a little bit better, a little bit more aligned, a little bit more consistent so that we can be really competitive at the end of the season,” he explained.
And he doesn’t need world superstars to do it. He needs players who won’t back down.
The Grit Factor
Thackeray’s assessment of Trinity’s roster reveals what he values most in his players. It’s not about star power or individual accolades—it’s about the collective spine of the team.
“The biggest thing that I’ve noticed is how competitive it is,” Thackeray said of the current squad. “There’s loads of talent here, but more importantly, the team has grit. As long as there’s 25 competitive players that are training hard and wanting to learn, I’m happy. They don’t need to be world superstars, but players that won’t back down.”
That mentality aligns perfectly with the reinforcements Trinity added this week. The club announced three new signings alongside Thackeray’s appointment: goalkeeper Tyler McCamey, defender Lauren Flynn, and midfielder Heather Stainbrook—additions designed to address specific needs while maintaining the team’s competitive edge.
McCamey, who also just arrived in Dallas, brings exactly that kind of fearless competitiveness.
“I don’t typically shy away from that kind of stuff,” McCamey said when asked about competing for the starting goalkeeper position. “I’m excited to really see how it goes.”
McCamey’s addition addresses a critical need, and her conversations with both Petrucelli and Thackeray revealed a program aligned in its ambitions.
“He wants to win, you know? I think he wants to win the league,” McCamey said of her discussions with Petrucelli. “The team is in a good position. They ended well in the fall. And I think now it’s really, you know, put it down and let’s get going.”
Thackeray’s extensive goalkeeper background—he spent eight years as the Courage’s goalkeeper coach while simultaneously developing hundreds of youth goalkeepers in North Carolina’s academy system—gives McCamey additional confidence in the technical development side of the equation.
“I know he has my back. I know he has a great view of what goalkeeping is like and how to get the most out of that position,” she said. “So I have a lot of trust in the things that he’s implementing here and I think it’s going to be a great improvement.”
Building on the Foundation
McCamey isn’t the only one embracing Thackeray’s vision.
Striker Allie Thornton echoed the excitement around Thackeray’s arrival.
“I heard really positive things about him,” Thornton said. “We found out early this week that he’s official. He’s hit the ground running.”
That rapid integration has focused on structural improvements rather than tactical overhauls. Thornton described training sessions centered on “team structure, in terms of keeping our positioning in the game, seeking the ball in motion, looking for different options in the attack, and improving our consistency.”
Consistency. That word keeps appearing in Thackeray’s vocabulary, and it’s clearly the cornerstone of his philosophy.
“To be consistent, you have to have conviction in what you’re doing,” Thackeray explained. “So for me, the clarity in which I see the game and how I want the game to be played has to be transferred to them. And if I can do that with conviction, then we’ll find some consistency there.”
It’s a pragmatic approach given the compressed timeline. With only seven or eight training sessions before Trinity’s spring opener, Thackeray acknowledged the challenge.
“Honestly, not ideal. I would like to have gotten in a little bit earlier,” he said. “But it’s not about changing and making massive changes, it’s making small adaptations to what’s already very good there.”
His immediate priority reflects that reality: “Continued clarity and understanding of what I want in regards to how I think the game should be played. If they can show that in training and they show that in the game next week, that’s successful.”
The Right Fit
Thackeray’s arrival represents the culmination of a deliberate search by Petrucelli, who served as interim head coach this fall while maintaining his general manager duties. The organization always intended to find the right permanent coach—someone who embodied the club’s values and could connect with the players.
“We needed someone that embodied what the club is all about, which is hard work,” Petrucelli said. “Someone who was really willing to embrace the community, and they needed somebody that could connect with the players. It’s probably the most important thing.”
The due diligence went beyond coaching credentials. Petrucelli spoke with players who had worked with Thackeray previously, and the feedback was unanimous.
“They talk a lot about the energy that he would bring into his training sessions and relationships that they’ve formed with him over time,” Petrucelli said. “Those two pieces are really important.”
The search was focused from the start. “He was our number one candidate—he was really the only candidate that we focused on from the beginning,” Petrucelli revealed.
For Thackeray, the decision to join Trinity came down to more than just soccer. When he visited Dallas and met the organization, he found something that resonated on a deeper level.
“The biggest piece of why this club felt like the right call was when I came to visit, and I got to meet everyone. For me, it was family,” Thackeray said, referring to the Neil family. “The people that we spoke about, they all had a connection—it came back to family and having a mission to build this club together. That was huge for me. My family is the most important thing in my life, and that was theirs. You could see it. And it runs straight through the organization.”
That family atmosphere extends to his working relationship with Petrucelli, who will remain as GM while transitioning head coaching duties.
“I wouldn’t come here if I didn’t think I could have a relationship with the GM. Chris is a big part of why I’m here,” Thackeray said. “From the first discussions that we’ve had, I think our thoughts on where we want this club to go have been very aligned. It’ll be a collaboration throughout.”
Process Over Results
As Trinity prepares for the spring season, Thackeray is focused on the journey rather than the destination—at least in the immediate term.
“Obviously, there’s always a pursuit to try and win, but the process of getting better is more important,” he said. “So just improvement.”
Thornton, for her part, believes the team is ready to build on last season’s playoff berth.
“I think we have a lot of good things going, and if we can keep building on what we created the first half of the season, that would be key,” she said. “We put ourselves in a good position, earning a playoff spot for now, and I think we’ve filled the gaps that we needed to, and the intensity has been high.”
Thackeray sees room for continued roster development—”I always want to improve, whether it be through coaching or player acquisition”—but he likes what he’s inherited.
For a coach who values evolution over revolution, grit over stardom, and process over immediate results, Dallas Trinity FC appears to be exactly the right canvas. The foundation is solid. Now comes the refinement.
The first test comes quickly. Trinity hosts Brooklyn FC at the Cotton Bowl on January 31 at 4:00 PM CT, kicking off a spring schedule that will determine whether Thackeray’s message of clarity and conviction can translate to results. With only a handful of training sessions to implement his vision before that opener, the margin for error is thin.
But if Thackeray can transfer his vision with the conviction he demands, Trinity might just find the consistency that turns playoff contenders into champions.