CARY - There isn't much in Colin Clarke's office besides a coat of beige paint on the cinderblocks. A calendar hangs on the wall; a laptop sits on his desk; a space heater warms the room.

These are fitting surroundings for the new Carolina RailHawks coach, whose roster is just as bare as he takes over at WakeMed Soccer Park. Martin Rennie built a perennial contender before leaving for MLS, but four of his former players already have joined him with the Vancouver Whitecaps - including record-setting goal-scorer Etienne Barbara, midfield general Matt Watson and goalie Brad Knighton - and the RailHawks at this point have only four players from last year's team under contract.

"Obviously from last year when they had a very good team and made a good run the last two years, the team was pretty much gone when I got here," Clarke said. "You lose the likes of Watson; Barbara; (Pablo) Campos probably, we'll wait and see; (Jonny) Steele; Knighton; Brad Rusin went during the season; (John) Krause is off doing his own thing.

"That's a big part of the team - a lot of goals, a lot of experienced pros. The challenge has been trying to replace them, or trying to persuade them to re-sign if we can, but most of them have gone elsewhere."

For everything he accomplished, though, Rennie never won a championship. Clarke did, on this very field. Two years ago, Clarke's Puerto Rico Islanders won the title with a win against the RailHawks in the finals.

Last year, the RailHawks were far and away the league's best team but sputtered to the finish after Rennie accepted the Vancouver job in August (and captain Rusin was sold to a team in Denmark in July) and lost in the semifinals.

Enter Clarke, who coached in MLS, had a long professional career in England and scored for Northern Ireland during the 1986 World Cup. He knows how to win at this level, and when Rennie left, Clarke was an easy choice to replace him.

"He was certainly at the top of the list from the beginning," said team president Curt Johnson, who worked with Clarke in Richmond, Va., years ago. "There's no doubt about it."

Clarke inherits a top-class facility and the organizational backbone of the RailHawks front office, which was rebuilt after Traffic Sports purchased the bankrupt team last winter, but very few players - defender Kupono Low, who has been on the roster for all six seasons of the team's existence; midfielder Nick Zimmerman; goalie Akira Fitzgerald and defender Cory Miller.

Another handful of players from last year, including forward Campos, midfielders Floyd Franks and Chris Nurse and defender Krause, are in talks to return, Johnson said, but with no guarantees.

Clarke has added to that group, bringing in MLS forward Jason Garey and midfielders Ty Shipalane and Mike Palacio. Gale Agbossoumonde could be next, a 20-year-old U.S. under-23 defender who has been on a 28-month odyssey across Europe thanks to Traffic Sports, which owns his rights through the end of this season.

Johnson said the team will focus on players with roots in the area. And Clarke has been around; like Rennie, he knows a lot of people.

"We want to entertain the crowd and have them be excited about the team," Clarke said. "But at the end of the day, we want to win a championship. For different reasons, that hasn't happened in the last two years. They've had good regular seasons, but to take that next step is never easy."

Clarke may be starting from scratch when it comes to building the team, but the expectations are already established. The players may change. The goal hasn't.