The head coach was Gary Hindley, who had led the Cleveland Crunch to the NPSL championship in 1993–94.[6] When the NPSL disbanded in the summer of 2001 and reorganized as the MISL, the ThunderHawks were admitted to the new league under the condition that they would suspend operations for the 2001–2002 season to work on the business side of the franchise and return to active competition for the 2002–2003 season.[7] However, the team never returned from this temporary suspension of operations.