And for a franchise that has a two-season record of 24-24-24, that track record of winning was too impressive for the Carolina Railhawks to pass up as they named the 33-year old Rennie head coach on Thursday.

Rennie comes from the USL-D2 league, where he coached the expansion Cleveland City Stars. In Rennie's first year in Cleveland, he was named the USL-D2 Coach of the Year for 2007.

In his second, he led Cleveland to the USL-D2 championship. And that was with only five players remaining from the '07 season.

"In three years of coaching at the highest levels in the U.S., the winning is consistent, the goals against average are very consistent, the goals for is consistent and that's what we're looking for in our team," owner Brian Wellman said.

It was only a few years ago that Rennie was working for a computer software company in Scotland after retiring from professional soccer. He was soon approached with an opportunity to coach in the U.S. for the Cascade Surge, a PDL team in Oregon.

"I went in to my boss at the time and asked him based on the work I had done for the company and the results I had had for the company would he let me go for three months to try being a soccer coach," Rennie said. "[The boss] said 'if you want to be a soccer coach, if that's what you're passionate about, then you need to give up what you are doing, you need to take a very big risk and you need to go become a soccer coach.' So three and a half years ago I did that and today, I'm here starting the next stage for what I hope can be an outstanding opportunity here in Carolina."

The time spent in the software gave Rennie perspective on something most coaches don't - the part of coaching that can't be drawn up on a clipboard.

"What I learned in business is of more value to me than what I learned in my coaching licenses and what I learned as a player," Rennie said. "As a coach it's totally different than being a player, it's about leading people, it's about communication effectively, it's about setting goals and having everybody buy into a vision and a goal, and all those are things that I learned in business."

Whereas "Field of Dreams" said "if you build it, they will come," Rennie said his philosophy is "if you win, people will come to watch you play." The Railhawks' attendance dipped slightly last year, due perhaps in part to a lack of competitiveness that Rennie's teams have exemplified.

After roaring out of the gates last season to a 3-0-3 record under then-coach Scott Sweitzer, the Railhawks hit two separate winless streaks of five and nine games respectively, going 1-9-4 over the next 14 games.

"We're looking for more conistency, we're looking for a winning attitude, we're looking to dominate home games, and we're looking to win championships every year," Wellman said. "We're not here just to play, we're not here just to be an entity that maybe makes a little money and has a franchise and everything is OK. We are here to win matches and to win championships."

That coupled with the team's inability to win a game after allowing the game's first goal made the Railhawks a tough sell for those wanting to see a positive outcome for the home team.

"It will be a new team in a lot of ways and a new start in a lot of ways. Judge this team on what it does and not what's happened in the past," Rennie said. "The fans, hopefully they'll be a part of something successful. I believe they will. If I didn't believe we could do that, I wouldn't have come down here."

During the presser, Rennie joked that he knew just two languages, "Scottish and English." In honor of his Scottish heritage, the sound of bagpipes greeted all in attendance just before the press conference started.

Coming to Cary won't be Rennie's first experience in North Carolina. Twelve years ago, he met his wife Amy in Charlotte.

"I love it here, I loved it when I was in Charlotte. I love it in North Carolina and the chance to come back here is great. I've got two young girls and with a young family it seems like this is a great place to bring them up."

The dreary, rainy day that greeted Rennie's arrival to the area reminded him more of his homeland than it did of his previous time in the Carolinas.

"One of the main reasons I came here was for the weather, and this is what I arrive to," Rennie joked. "If I had known there was [going to be] a bagpipe player and rain I might have worn my kilt."

At the time of the press conference, Rennie said he had not yet spoken with any of the current players - understandable considering no one outside of Railhawks personnel and Rennie knew who the coach would be until just before the presser began. He also said he would be naming the rest of his coaching staff sometime in the future.

Rennie's connections from his playing days and from coaching in different parts of the world like the Carribean, Europe and Africa allow him to complete his dream of stockpiling the Railhawks with talent from around the globe.

"That's going to be the difference of how we're going to run our franchise and our team and our players. You see teams partnering with England and other countries and really opening this up to a developmental type of franchise," Wellman said. "That's what you see all around the world now. All the big clubs are opening their borders, bringing in players from other countries, developing them, moving along and keeping things moving. That'll be one of our long-term goals that we'll be working on starting now."

With only three years of coaching under his belt, Rennie's proven penchant for winning is something he hopes can get Railhawk fans excited about next season.

"We have to win, but we also have to win with style, we have to be entertaining, we have to be exciting, and then you can get people to come back," Rennie said. "There's a lot of work to do here to achieve that, but I'm absolutely committed to achieve that."

To listen to audio of bagpipes, parts of the press conference, and J. Mike Blake's one-on-one interview with Rennie, click the option to the right, under "Related Content"