The offer to return to Red Bull Arena as one of the 20 best players in club history came months ago, but Mike Petke wasn’t ready. He had yet to put the anger of his firing aside and was not comfortable returning to the club he loved.
Saturday night, he felt the time was right, so on a damp and chilly night prior to the Red Bulls’ 2-1 victory over the Columbus Crew, a crowd of 21,715 roared its appreciation for his service as a player and as the coach who brought the club its first piece of meaningful silverware in history.
“At this moment right now, over the last three or four months, I am absolutely fine. I am over everything. I am at ease,” Petke said. “But it’s not like I got fired from a team in Kalamazoo, Michigan, that I had no connection to. So it was obviously a little more difficult. The process was a little longer and all the things that went on initially with the supporters and everything, it was uncomfortable for me and I appreciated it, respected it and I love it that people I respect and respected me enough to quote-unquote, ‘had my back,’ but it was uncomfortable for me.
“So, yeah, I didn’t want to come back here. I didn’t want to go sit with the South Ward yet and be a distraction to the product on the field. The time now, they reached out to me a lot earlier than I am right here, five or six months ago, and I didn’t respond back because I wasn’t ready. Now I’m absolutely ready. I’m not here to be a distraction. That’s why I made sure there were certain things that were going to go down today that weren’t going to be a distraction, (be) a little bit in the background aside from the on-the-field ceremony, and then I’m just going to watch the game and enjoy it. That’s it.”
Petke served as an assistant coach under Hans Backe, spent time as interim coach then was elevated to head coach for the 2013 season. He skillfully managed to blend the egos of star players within a team structure as the Red Bulls, after a slow start, won the Supporters’ Shield.
The following year the record wasn’t as good, but the Red Bulls advanced to the Eastern Conference Final and came within a goal of reaching MLS Cup.
But changes were on the horizon. Sporting Director Andy Roxburgh stepped down and was replaced by Ali Curtis, who brought in his own coach in Jesse Marsch, and the club is once again in the race for the Supporters’ Shield with a team of hard-working players with no ego who are committed to one goal.
“They’re doing very well. They’re very organized. They’re a team that has its destiny in its own hands, for the lack of a better cliché,” Petke said. “They have a phenomenal schedule ahead of them that’s going to put them in a prime position for accomplishing some things, but they have to take care of business. Aside from the real big blip in May or April (when the Red Bulls lost four in a row), they’ve been steady and doing very well.”
Petke said he still has the desire to coach and has taken steps to make that happen. In the meantime, he’s enjoying the benefits of having time off with his family.
“Over the last five, six months, I’ve immersed myself in bettering myself as a coach as far as talking to the right people, going out and doing some coaching things here and there,” he said. “I spent a lot of time with the youth club in my area. Aside from that, doing the (television) commentating, just to be around the game, and give me a chance to keep me sharp and analyze things, and doing things the last 15 years that I haven’t been able to do, such as spending quality time with my wife, and the last 11 years spending quality time with my kids.
“I’ve enjoyed my time broadcasting, but when I look down on the field and on the bench, I want to be there.”
He also knows what that means, likely uprooting his family and moving to another state. He says that’s not a problem.
“My first son was born in D.C., my second son was born in Colorado,” Petke said about the two other teams he played for before returning to the Red Bulls in 2009. “My wife has followed me around unselfishly since we’ve been together, so it doesn’t bother me. As far as one role, I can’t just jerk-reaction say what I want to do or can’t. I’d be willing to hear anything, to be honest with you. What I end up doing, I don’t know.”
Though things with the Red Bulls ended abruptly in January, Petke fondly recalled his time with the club. He remains the team’s all-time leader in games played in the regular season and in all competitions.
“It was surreal. I couldn’t have scripted anything differently,” he said. “It couldn’t be anything more perfect. I got drafted by my hometown club. Got traded away, won a championship (with D.C. United), made my way back to my hometown club, worked my way up through the coaching ranks and became head coach. We can’t write a script like this.
“It started off in 1998 when (GM) Charlie Stillitano and (coach) Alfonso Mondelo drafted me and it’s been the best ride. Hopefully it’s not over, my coaching career, but it’s been the best ride and I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
As a coach, Petke is proud of turning around the culture of an underachieving and disjointed franchise.
“I know for a fact that I accomplished that,” he said. “Even leading up to the Supporters’ Shield in 2013, having conversations with the coaching staff and looking around and realizing that we’ve seen so much that we haven’t seen over the previous decade in this franchise. People are buying into things. People are respecting the supporters and being proud to play for each other, play next to each other.
“That was something big for me. I told the guys when I got the job. My main goal is to get you guys to believe. I can’t snap my fingers and say ‘I love the Red Bulls. You have to love the Red Bulls.’ That was never going to happen. They had to buy into what we were doing, my staff and everything. Yes, I think we did something to the culture of this team and Jesse and his staff are definitely continuing that for sure.”
