Striker Khano Smith will not be the only person with Bermuda connections on the New England Revolution staff next season.

Former Mount Saint Agnes PE teacher and highly-rated football coach Gwynne Williams has been employed by this year?s Major League Soccer championship runners-up to be their new goalkeeping coach next season ? an appointment which will surprise few of those who benefited from the Brit?s expertise during his eight years on the Island.

Williams arrived in Bermuda in 1979 to take up a job at MSA and went on to play for Hotels and Vasco ? teams he was to later coach ? while he also worked with the national side after hanging up his boots.

Since successfully obtaining US residency through the green card lottery system in 1987, Williams has been living in Florida where he continues to coach extensively and at a high level.

For the past 11 seasons he has been the assistant coach at Lynn University in Boca Raton ? one of the country?s top collegiate outfits ? and a member of the United States Soccer Federation?s national coaching staff.

Assistant Bermuda coach Paul Scope counts Williams among his good friends and has brought the goalkeeping expert back to the Island on numerous occasions to take charge of specially arranged coaching clinics.

And Kyle Lightbourne?s right-hand man has absolutely no doubts that the Revs have selected a first-class candidate.

?I played with Gwynne when I first started with Vasco and we have kept in close contact since he left to live in Florida,? said Scope, who was approached by Revs manager Steve Nicol a few months ago for his opinion on Williams.

?I?m absolutely delighted for him. I am a big fan of Gwynne?s coaching abilities and to get a big job at New England is a great move for him.

?Ironically, one of his first assignments will be to fly down to Bermuda with the team for their annual pre-season tour next year, so it will be good to see him again and potentially get him involved coaching some local ?keepers.

?He really is an excellent coach ? enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. It?s a specialist position a goalkeeping coach and I think the Revolution have picked the right man for the job. I wish him the best of luck, and I?m sure everybody who came across him on the Island will want to do the same.?

Another local player who remembers Williams well is Somerset Trojans and national team goalkeeper Timmy Figureido, who was coached by him when his goalkeeping career was very much in its infancy.

?I was around 14 or 15 when I first met him and just starting out as a ?keeper really,? said the man favoured to start for Bermuda in their opening Digicel Cup clash against the Dominican Republic on January 7 in Trinidad.

?I worked with him at Vasco for quite a while and he was a very nice guy ? a true gentleman.

?He really had an understanding of how to get the best out of players and to this day I?d say I regard him as one of the best coaches I?ve come across.?