Kelly Pierce and Amy Garelick are two of the more prominent soccer coaches in the state, let alone Southern Arizona.
Both have coached FC Tucson Women and they have experienced success coaching at the high school level in Southern Arizona over the last decade.
Garelick, in her eighth season at Pusch Ridge and 11th overall as a high school head coach, was awarded a trophy in June by FC Tucson for her work for the growth of women’s soccer in Tucson.
Garelick is a former FC Tucson Women coach who was named the Western Region Pac South Conference Coach of the Year in 2018, the same year the organization earned the right to be called “Franchise of the Year” after winning the Pac South championship and finishing second place in the Western Conference.
It was the second honor for Garelick after she was named Big Sky-North Division Coach of the Year in 2013 and WPSL Honorable Mention Coach of the Year for the whole league after taking the first squad to represent Tucson to a third place finish in the Western Conference.
Head coach @coach_kel14 Kelly Pierce third state championship as a coach to go along with the two she won as a player for Salpointe. Also head coach of FC Tucson Women where she was named to several @WPSL conference all star teams as a player under @Amygarelick_10 https://t.co/Mdl49aCU1r
— Andy Morales (@AndyMorales8) March 21, 2021
Pierce is the current FC Tucson Women coach who was named First-Team All-West as a defender for Garelick in the organization’s first season in 2013. Pierce and Garelick also coached together at Mountain View in 2014.
FC Tucson Women finished with a 7-0-1 record last seasonm and was an undisputed championship in the Desert Conference of the Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL) in July. Due to COVID-19 protocol, a regional tournament was not scheduled.
Pierce is in her fifth season at Salpointe after a four-year stint at Mountain View and her career record is 88-42-12.
A former Salpointe standout who was part of the Lancers’ 1998 and 1999 state championship teams, has coached her alma mater to state titles in three of the last four years (2018, 2019 and 2021).
Garelick coached Pusch Ridge to a 3A South regional championship last year. She is 59-46-9 in eight seasons with the Lions.
In the informative podcast, Pierce and Garelick discuss their backgrounds, coaching philosophies, thoughts on the evolution of women’s soccer in Southern Arizona and where the sport stands now.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator five years ago and is presently a special education teacher at Gallego Fine Arts Intermediate in the Sunnyside Unified School District
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