Chattanooga Football Club today announced head coach Chris Nugent’s full coaching staff for the 2025 season. Second Assistant Coach Liam Davies and Goalkeeping Coach Chris Barocas have joined First Assistant Coach Adam Reekie and Strength and Conditioning Assistant Coach Richard Dixon.
"Liam is hungry and driven and has a lot of diverse coaching experience," said Chattanooga Football Club Technical Director Sebastian Giraldo. "He brings a different perspective that complements and strengthens our staff. Chris Barocas raises the level for all of us. We wanted a goalkeeper expert who could help us win and raise the level of goalkeeping development from MLS NEXT Pro to the academy level. They will help us improve the performance environment every day, and we look forward to learning from both of them."
Liam Davies
Davies was most recently the Head Coach for the ECNL Boys U-15 and U-16 programs at North Carolina Fusion, where Reekie most recently worked as well. Davies also served as the college recruiting coordinator for Fusion. He was also most recently an assistant coach for Salem City FC, which competes in USL League Two. During his time with Salem City, the club were national finalists in 2021, made the national final four in 2022 and Sweet 16 in 2023 and 2024 and were South Atlantic Conference winners for four consecutive seasons. Before that, he was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Tiffin University, an NCAA Division II school in Tiffin, Ohio, where he helped lead the Dragons to a GMAC Championship in 2019 and the national tournament. He began his coaching journey in the United States as an assistant coach at Coker University, an NCAA Division II school in Hartsville, South Carolina.
During his playing career, Davies was an NAIA All-American at the University of Northwestern Ohio. He played for the New Orleans Jesters in the NPSL in 2015 and 2016. Before that, he played for Prescot Cables FC in the Evostik League in England in 2011 and 2012 and Macclesfield Town in League Two in England where he was a two-year starter as an apprentice. He also played in the Wigan Athletic FC academy from 2003 to 2007.
Chris Barocas
Barocas brings over 20 years of coaching experience to Chattanooga FC. At the professional level, he most recently served as director of goalkeeping and assistant coach at Lexington SC in USL League One. Before that, he was director of MLS NEXT goalkeeping and the MLS NEXT Pro goalkeeping coach at Inter Miami CF, where he helped develop the likes of current Inter Miami CF goalkeeper Drake Callender, among others. Barocas has also served as head of academy goalkeeping at both New York Red Bulls (2018) and Orlando City (2016 and 2017), while he was also the goalkeeping coach with Orlando City B in 2017. He has proven success at the youth level as well. As director of goalkeeping at Orlando City Youth Soccer, he helped develop three goalkeepers onto US youth national teams. Barocas was the U.S. Soccer national goalkeeping coach at the U-16 and U-17 levels in 2015 and 2016 as well. He spent three years as director of goalkeeping at Jacksonville FC, where he helped lead two goalkeepers to US youth national teams and helped the club win a national championship in 2011.
