After interesting road to El Paso, Brockbank breaks in for Locomotive
Harry Brockbank's path to the El Paso Locomotive was strange even by the standards of the USL.
There was a time when the 23-year-old Englishman fullback thought he could spend his career with the Bolton Wanderers, the club he grew up with, played for in the English second division and later captained when it was in lower divisions.
More: USL Championship standings
One of the siren songs of professional soccer, though, is there are so many options, so many places to go and see, and this winter (summer in the Southern Hemisphere) Brockbank decided he needed a change.
He wanted a big change, to go to the other end of the world, so how about Australia?
Brockbank's agent, former Bolton player Kevin Davies, called the manager of the A-League's Central Coast Mariners, Nick Montgomery. At that moment Montgomery happened to be having coffee at John Hutchinson's home in Victoria, Australia. Hutchinson had just taken the job with the El Paso Locomotive, he and Montgomery were bouncing ideas off each other and by the way, Hutchinson needed a right back.
"I stole his player," Hutchinson explained. "Instead of Harry going to Australia, Harry came to El Paso. There are the connections you need — Nick Montgomery. Nick's a legend of Sheffield (of English football), he was captain there, he played in the Premier League, I played with him for three years in Australia working with him as a coach and a player. Fantastic guy.
"He gave me Harry's details, his agent, and from there, we brought Harry in. Harry was the exact player we were looking for."
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So in sort of a reversal of Bugs Bunny taking a wrong turn in Albuquerque and ending up in Tasmania, Brockbank's plan to journey to Australia ended up in the American Southwest.
"It was a great opportunity," said Brockbank, who is with his team in San Antonio for Saturday's USL Championship game. "I was looking to go to Australia, then I got in touch with the (El Paso Locomotive) manager, he's Australian. He said he's got a job out here in El Paso and what did I think? I'm thinking it's the right time for me I think to leave England and have a new start, a new challenge out here.
"I was there so long, 23 years, I felt like I needed a completely new change, experience new things, see the world."
As for El Paso, "It's good," he said. "Hot, very hot, hotter than England. But I've enjoyed it, everyone has been friendly. I don't have a bad thing to say about El Paso."
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That was a big statement at the time, as a 25-mile-per-hour April wind was whipping through the Locomotive's training complex.
Brockbank arrived here on March 2, making him the last addition on the current 22-player roster. While El Paso is off to a 1-4 start, what he has found with the Locomotive is some stability.
Bolton was a Premier League team when Brockbank joined its youth system in 2005 at age 7, then in the League Championship (second division) and on its way down to the third division when Brockbank debuted for them at the end of the 2018-19 season.
By then the club was in financial turmoil, and when a number of senior players didn't play in a fixture early in the 2019-20 season, Brockbank became captain of a team with an average age of 19. Those Wanderers were relegated to the fourth division, but Brockbank was a key player last season when Bolton won its way back to the third division.
By then, Brockbank was ready to see the world.
"This was where the opportunity was and I didn't want to turn it down," he said.
When Brockbank gets completely up to speed with his new team in El Paso he should be a difference maker. Huchinson said that's three to four weeks away for his newest player, Brockbank said he thinks a week or two. Nonetheless, though his primary focus is defending, he's scored two goals in two games played.
"First and foremost I'm there to defend, keep clean sheets, keep them from scoring," Brockbank said. "If I can help out on the other end that's great for me and great for the team. I'm fortunate I've gotten two goals and helped out going forward. The other night we got a clean sheet and our first win. Let's hope we can build off it."
Hutchinson said in a few weeks Brockbank could be a special player.
"The difficult part is he's had no preseason, so we've finally chucked him in the deep end," Hutchinson said. "I know he needs another three, four weeks of training to be ready. Unfortunately we don't have three or four weeks, we have now, today.
"Literally, when he turned up in the country, we played him four or five days later, we played him 45 minutes. It's not ideal, but he brings a great energy, great character. ... He brings leadership, he brings great ability to be a good footballer."
Brockbank echoes that.
"It's still taking a bit of time, there are things to get used to," he said. "The travel is a little different. But I'm enjoying it out on the pitch, learning a new system and new teammates.
"There's a good spirit around the team. Hopefully I can become a leader, I was a captain at Bolton. This team is a bit older, I'm one of the youngest here and that's a nice change, really.
"Everything felt a lot more comfortable last game. We tweaked a few things on the training field and it helped, it showed. Hopefully we can build on that and get better throughout the season."
That should happen as Brockbank blends in with a new team on a new continent.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at 915-546-6359; bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.
El Paso Locomotive at San Antonio FC
What, when, where: A USL Championship game, 6:30 p.m. Mountain time, Toyota Field, San Antonio
TV: ESPN+
Records: El Paso is 1-4, 3 points, 10th in USL Western Division; San Antonio is 4-1, 12 points, 3rd
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Brockbank breaks in for Locomotive after interesting road to El Paso
