Carolina RailHawks fans may have a new coach to be thankful for - but they'll have to wait till after the November holiday to find out exactly who that will be.

RailHawks president Curt Johnson said he's talked with more than 20 candidates and estimated that a new coach would be chosen some time after Thanksgiving.

Johnson said the team has not reached a decision yet and would not want to make an announcement during the holiday weekend.

"We've made a lot of progress and interviewed a lot of very qualified candidates," Johnson said. "I feel pretty sure we'll have somebody in place by then."

The RailHawks have yet to replace Martin Rennie, who accepted the head coaching job with the Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer just after the midway point of last season.

Vancouver also announced recently that former RailHawks assistant Paul Ritchie would follow Rennie to Vancouver to serve the same role.

That leaves assistants Dewan Bader and Ziggy Zigante as the only holdovers from last year's staff. Bader, who also coaches the U-23 RailHawks team, could be a candidate for the head coaching job.

But if an internal hire is not made, Johnson said he would be instrumental in helping that coach learn about the existing assistants as well as current players.

"The new coach and I will make that decision together," Johnson said. "If it's someone from the outside, that person would need to meet a lot of these guys and find a comfort level."