John Ellinger walked across the street and landed himself a new job.

Ellinger, a Laurel native and longtime soccer coach, was working for U.S. Youth Soccer after he was let go as the head coach of Real Salt Lake early in the 2007 season in Major League Soccer.

U.S. Youth Soccer, the largest youth sports organization in the world, is located in suburban Dallas. Ellinger began working there in October 2007.

"After the coaching change (in Utah) I felt like I needed a different challenge," said Ellinger, a former Howard County resident who graduated from Frostburg State University. "I wanted to get out on my own again. It was a great job. I was working with player development and working with state directors of coaching."

But when FC Dallas head coach Schellas Hyndman needed an assistant early this season, he did not have to look far. U.S. Youth Soccer shares a parking lot with FC Dallas, the local entry in MLS.

So Ellinger made the short trip to FC Dallas, where he became the top assistant under Hyndman in June.

During the season FC Dallas acquired high-scoring striker Jeff Cunningham, whom Ellinger had coached at Real Salt Lake. Cunningham formed a strong duo with Kenny Cooper.

"We felt we needed someone who was more of a consistent striker and could take some of the pressure off Kenny," Ellinger said.

Ellinger began his coaching career at Montgomery College in 1979 and then was the coach at Maryland-Baltimore County from 1981 to 1990. He was then the director of coaching for the Columbia Soccer Association from 1990 to 1998.

He was named the U-17 head coach for U.S. Soccer in 1997 and two years later the U-17 residency program for top players began in Bradenton, Fla. Among the graduates of the program are Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley and Bobby Convey.

Ellinger than became the head coach of Real Salt Lake in Utah in 2004. "That was a learning experience. It was certainly a great experience," Ellinger said.

Although he has lived in Utah and now Texas, Ellinger still has Laurel roots. Both sets of his grandparents lived in Laurel, his in-laws live nearby in Howard County and one of his daughters has attended Howard Community College.

Notes: FC Dallas was 8-10-12 this season. The roster included defender Michael Dello-Russo, who is from Columbia and played at Wilde Lake High and at the University of Maryland. He played in eight games with one start. ... Columbus won the MLS title with a win over New York on Nov. 23 in California.

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