Lexington Sporting Club’s professional men’s team will be changing its head coach again.

On Sunday morning, LSC announced that Darren Powell — who managed the team for the entirety of the 2024 USL League One season — will be moving to a “technical leadership role” within the club.

LSC missed out on the League One playoffs for a second straight season in 2024, finishing with a record of 5-11-6 (W-L-D) and a haul of 21 points in League One play. The club ultimately finished ninth in the 12-team League One standings, three points below the playoff cut line.

The club also failed to advance from group play in the new USL Jagermeister Cup.

“At Lexington Sporting Club, we are dedicated to competing at the highest level,” LSC CEO Kim Shelton said in a news release announcing the coaching change. “Darren embodies the values of our club with his character and approach to the game. Moving him into a technical role across the club enables us to reassess our first team’s performance while giving our youth players the opportunity to learn from his professional standards.”

LSC has begun a “worldwide search” for the club’s next head coach.

LSC also missed the League One playoffs in 2023, its debut professional season. In that season, current men’s sporting director Sam Stockley was the head coach for most of LSC’s games, before Nacho Novo took over as the interim head coach near the end of the season.

Lexington is moving to a higher level of professional soccer in 2025, jumping up a division to the USL Championship. Nearby rival Louisville City also plays in the Championship, and LouCity won that division’s regular-season title this year.

LSC now fields both a professional men’s and women’s team.

The professional women’s team is nine matches into its debut season in the USL Super League, and it is 2-5-2 with eight points collected so far. LSC’s women’s team is seventh in the eight-team Super League standings.

Both the professional men’s and women’s teams play at the recently opened Lexington SC Stadium, a soccer-specific venue which has 7,500 seats and is located along Athens Boonesboro Road near Interstate 75.

Lexington’s men’s team previously played at Toyota Stadium on the campus of Georgetown College in Georgetown.

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