What are the responsibilities of the CASL Management Team? Who is Michael Milazzo?

      The CASL Management Team is composed of 4 positions. Those positions are CEO, Chief Executive Officer, which I, Charlie Slagle, charlies@caslemail.com, am the CEO (see blog on Thursday 2/24/11 for information on me). Working with the CEO are the Business Manager, the COO, Chief Operating Officer, and the DOC, Director of Coaching. Each of these positions has staff that work with them to fulfill the various needs of CASL.

The CASL Business Manager is Lisa Stevenson, lisas@caslemail.com. The Business Manager is responsible for all financial matters that concern CASL. She assembles information for the staff to help the CEO create the budget yearly and is in charge of Human Resources, as well as other financial duties. The COO is Michael Milazzo, mikem@caslemail.com. The COO is responsible for all the business operations of the organization. This includes the administrators of the various playing levels, the numerous CASL events including tournaments, CASL communications, CASL IT, field maintenance and the marketing of CASL. The DOC is Rusty Scarborough, rustys@caslemail.com. The DOC is responsible for all soccer aspects of CASL. The DOC oversees the directors of each of CASL’s levels and is responsible for the soccer direction of the club and league.

The Management Team meets at least weekly to determine the direction of the league. The positive interaction of this group and the sharing of ideas that are garnered from CASL staff and outside sources help decide that direction.

Let’s meet the members of the Management Team:

Who is Michael Milazzo?

            CASL COO, Michael Milazzo has worked 12 years for CASL. He also is CASL’s Marketing director and is the GM of the CASL Chelsea FC Academy. Michael grew up in Connecticut where he played for Oakwood Soccer Club and then played collegiately at Old Dominion and UNC Chapel Hill. Michael played goalkeeper and, as we all know, the goalkeeper is the smartest player on the field (it should be noted that this blogger also played goalkeeper).

            Michael is a soccer purist and is driven to “turn soccer into a professionalized, main stream sport in the US.” His influences growing up included the TV show, “Soccer Made in Germany” (back then that was one of the only soccer TV shows that one could see) and the 1986 World Cup which was played in Mexico. He was also influenced by the Dutch style of play and is still an avid follower of the UEFA Champions League (Michael acts as my Saturday morning soccer show’s, The Back of the Net, Champions League expert).

            Michael’s most enjoyable part of working in the sport is “to watch players realize their potential through self expression and creativity on the field during training and games.” His biggest challenge is “changing the culture of the game in the US to mirror the passion it brings to others in the world, as it is a global sport and it needs to be embraced by more Americans.”

            Michael has been coaching his son for three years, now in the U7 Futures program and thoroughly enjoys coaching at this grass roots level again.

            Michael does his COO job well due to his passion for the sport of soccer and CASL. As members see improvements to the WRAL Soccer Center in the near and on into the not so near future, they should know that Michael has had quite an influence on that development. Michael stays current with the doings and goings on of all the major clubs in the US and the world.

                                                                        Charlie Slagle