The HFX Wanderers announced the Canadian Premier League team is parting ways with head coach Stephen Hart after a disappointing season.
The Wanderers will finish the regular season seventh out of eight teams and will miss the playoffs for the second-straight season. They currently sit 20 points behind Atletico Ottawa for first place.
In a Thursday release, the team’s founder and president Derek Martin said he had met with Hart on Wednesday to tell him “it was time for new leadership at our football club.”
“Stephen handled this conversation with the same class and dignity he has displayed while representing our club for the past five years, and I am forever grateful to him for helping our club get off the ground and for his immense contributions to the sport in Atlantic Canada,” Martin said.
Hart was the team’s first head coach starting back in 2018, when the Wanderers played their inaugural Canadian Premier League season.
In 2020 Hart was named the CPL Coach of the Year, after Halifax made it to the league final during what was dubbed “The Island Games” during a shortened season due to COVID-19.
Martin said in the release the search for a new head coach begins immediately, and he expects impressive candidates to come forward.
“With our passionate fans, natural grass pitch, roster flexibility and our exciting vision for the future of the Wanderers Grounds, I believe Halifax is the best job in Canadian soccer,” he said in the release.
The team welcomes Canadian and international candidates to apply, “to lead our club into the future.”