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2 days ago
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The Houston Dash have hired Fabrice Gautrat as the team’s new head coach, multiple sources confirmed to The Equalizer.
Gautrat previously served as assistant coach for the North Carolina Courage and Chicago Red Stars. He will become the sixth full-time head coach in Dash history but the seventh person in charge of the team, including interim coaches, since the start of the 2022 season.
The 37-year-old Gautrat is the husband of Morgan Gautrat (née Brian), a two-time World Cup winner and currently a midfielder for National Women’s Soccer League champions Orlando Pride.
A spokesperson for the Dash declined to comment.
Houston also hired former Angel City FC general manager Angela Hucles Mangano in early December as the team’s new president of women’s soccer.
Gautrat was an assistant coach in Chicago in 2022 before becoming an assistant with the Courage ahead of the 2023 season. He was on North Carolina’s staff for back-to-back playoff appearances and a 2023 Challenge Cup triumph.
Gautrat had a brief professional playing career before shifting into coaching.
Houston has been without a full-time head coach since the disappearance of Fran Alonso in late June. The club eventually parted with Alonso in September after the club said he failed to return from personal leave. Neither Houston nor Alonso detailed the reason for his absence from the sidelines in the summer, but Alonso recently said upon taking a new job that it “was not a health issue,” and that he could not say more due to a confidentiality agreement.
Houston originally planned to hire a general manager — following the late June firing of Alex Singer from the position — by October and a coach soon after, but that timeline was reset after the Dash had to restart the search in late November.
Hucles Mangano was announced as president of women’s soccer — effectively replacing the GM role — on Dec. 9, four days after Angel City FC announced her departure.
This will be Gautrat’s first time as head coach of a professional team.
