Hartford Athletic Manager Brendan Burke Named USL Championship Coach of the Week
Kyle Edwards and Sebastian Anderson were also named in the Team of the Week
Hartford Athletic manager Brendan Burke was named USL Championship Coach of the Week on Tuesday. Forward Kyle Edwards and fullback Sebastian Anderson were also named to the Team of the Week.
It’s the second time this season that Burke has been named Coach of the Week, in addition to being named Coach of the Month for August. He’s the only Hartford manager to ever receive any kind of individual recognition from the league, and he’s now been honored three times in less than a month.
The individual plaudits are in part a recognition of the form Burke’s side are in. Since a 1-0 loss to Tampa Bay Rowdies on July 16 that left them mired at the bottom of the table in the Eastern Conference with only 12 points from their first 14 games, the Latics have totally turned things around. In 10 league games since that point, they’ve picked up 23 points (10-2-1), moving all the way up to fifth in the standings, and within shouting distance of a home playoff game.
It’s not part of the consideration for the Coach of the Week awards, which are solely focused on league play, but Burke also has his team into the final of the USL Jägermeister Cup, following a 3-1 victory over Greenville Triumph last Wednesday. With the final to be contested on October 4 in Sacramento, Burke’s men are in contention to bring home the first silverware in club history.
As for the game this week that did count for Coach of the Week consideration, Burke’s men used a late surge to blast Monterey Bay 4-0 in the biggest road win in club history. It was the fourth time this season that Hartford have scored four goals, the most times the club has managed that in a single season in club history, and the third time they’ve done it on the road in 2025.
Between the two games, Burke started 19 different players. Many managers talk about needing more than an eleven to get through a season and make deep cup runs, but in the past two weeks, Burke has demonstrated that with everyone healthy — and with the resources to strengthen his squad — he can turn words into action. In fact, over the five games his side played in 15 days, the only full professional not to see the pitch was reserve goalkeeper John Berner, an indication of how well-developed the squad is at this point in the season.
And those players are earning individual plaudits as well, with Edwards and Anderson only the latest Latics to get TOTW nods over the team’s recent hot spell. Edwards, who scored two goals off the bench against Monterey Bay, was named to the Team of the Week for the third time this season. He’s the sixth player in club history to receive the honor three times in one season. It’s also the fourth time in his career that he’s been named to the Team of the Week while playing for Hartford, level with Mamadou Dieng for the second-most times in club history. Only Danny Barrera, with six TOTW awards, has more.
The two goals gave Edwards seven off the bench this season, equaling the single-season USL Championship record set by Matt Fondy in 2013. Since joining Hartford ahead of the 2023 season, Edwards has scored 12 goals as a substitute, three more than any other player over the same span. It’s also enough to move him into a tie for the seventh-most goals by a substitute in the history of the league. The league record is 18, held by Lucky Mkosana and Heviel Cordovés.
For Anderson, it was his first TOTW since joining the Latics. He was previously named to the TOTW twice during the 2021 season, while playing for Colorado Springs Switchbacks.
The assist was Anderson’s seventh on the season in all competitions, the most a player has recorded in a single season for the Latics since 2022, when Prince Saydee. It’s also tied for the third-most in a single season in club history; only the 12 recorded by Danny Barrera in 2021 is greater (Barrera also recorded 7 in 2020 and 2022).
Hartford Athletic are back in action on Saturday night, as it hosts Pittsburgh Riverhounds at Trinity Health Stadium in USL Championship action.