FC Tucson defender Kaelon Fox hadn’t worn the captain’s armband before this season. Still, coach Jon Pearlman said giving him the honor was a pretty easy decision.
Fox impressed last season on the pitch and with his exit interview. Pearlman, FC Tucson’s coach and technical director, determined that Fox has “captain blood in him.”
Fox and FC Tucson (8-14-7) close out their season Saturday at home against Forward Madison FC (7-11-11). The game starts at 7 p.m. at Kino Stadium.
It’s been an up-and-down season for FC Tucson, which spent most of the season at the bottom of the USL League One standings before making a late playoff push. The club was eliminated from postseason contention last week with a 2-0 loss to the Central Valley Fuego.
Forward Madison FC (7-11-11) sits in ninth place in the 11-team USL League One standings. FC Tucson (8-14-7) is 10th. The top six teams make the playoffs.
“He’s been a great captain through thick and thin, through positional changes he’s always done what’s best for the team,” Pearlman said. “He’s been a great leader, he’s involved at the league level; he’s just a guy who cares about the team and is very thoughtful about all the things that go on within a team on the field and off the field and I was lucky to have him as wearing the band this year.”
Last season Fox joined FC Tucson after a stint at Þór Akureyri in Iceland. The Louisville native played college soccer at Kentucky and Saint Francis.
Fox “sort of took on the band last year towards the end of the year,” Pearlman said. The club made it official at the start of the 2022 season.
“Being captain, there’s a lot of pressure, I would say,” Fox said. “Obviously, last year, making (the USL League One) playoffs — that was the goal this year. It’s not gonna happen, but personally I’ve grown a lot as a player. This is my first real captaincy for a team, so it’s a learning curve but I think I did the best that I could.”
Corner kicks
Pearlman won September’s USL League One Coach of the Month award. FC Tucson led the league in wins, points, clean sheets and fewest goals conceded and scored the second-most goals during September. Pearlman credited assistant coach Mark Biagi, director of goalkeeping Vito Higgins and pro academy coach Sebastian Pineda. “Obviously, the award belongs to the players,” Pearlman said. “The players were successful on the field, won games, battled through a difficult situation. They could’ve thrown it in; instead, they fought us all the way back into playoff contention and I’m just so proud of them.”
FC Tucson defenders Jacob Crull and Luca Mastrantonio were selected to the USL League One team of the week.
