Reports: Assistant Coaches Leave Houston for San Jose

According to Jeffrey Carlisle of ESPN, the Houston Dynamo's goalkeeping coach Tim Hanley will join former head coach Dominic Kinnear at San Jose Earthquakes. In addition, Carlisle understands that assistant Steve Ralston could follow but Houston is putting forth an effort to retain his services headed into 2015.

Hanley, 54, has served as a goalkeeper coach in the MLS over the past 17 years. Following a short spell in Houston in 2006 and an even briefer one with the LA Galaxy in 2007, Hanley has served as a Dynamo assistant coach since 2009. During that time, he has helped train Dynamo legend Pat Onstad, Tally Hall, and, more recently, Tyler Deric. Prior to Houston's inaugural season, Hanley served as an assistant coach from 2001 through 2005 with the San Jose Earthquakes - alongside Dominic Kinnear during that time. All told, Hanley and Kinnear have shared a decade's worth of coaching experience.

Ralston, 40, began working as an assistant coach for Houston in 2010 following his MLS retirement as a member of the New England Revolution. The one-time career assist leader in MLS (until Landon Donovan's 2014 season), Ralston joined Wade Barrett to serve assistant coaching duties under Dominic Kinnear, who at one time played with Ralston as members of the Tampa Bay Mutiny.

With Kinnear departing in October for San Jose, it comes as little surprise that he has made an effort to recruit his very loyal and effective coaching staff to retool the Earthquakes. While Hanley's move seems certain, the Dynamo continue to make an effort to lock in Ralston for the upcoming year.

The reported moves would clear space for Owen Coyle ahead of his inaugural season as head coach and place doubts on fans' expectations who presumed the coaching trifecta of Barrett-Ralston-Hanley would ensure a smooth transition to the unique MLS game. Coyle, too, emphasized their importance in his official unveiling in which he had promised not to remove the assistants and touted their usefulness to his adjusting in a new league. With the vacancies, however, Coyle now will have the opportunity to bring in familiar faces or work with the Front Office on identifying replacements.

We will continue to provide updates here as this story develops.

UPDATE (3:20PM): According to Darrell Lovell, Tim Hanley and Steve Ralston have indeed resigned their positions with the Dynamo. Front Office is expected to announce new additions to the technical staff this week.