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Family-driven Pierce honored for being a loving mom, passionate coach & intense competitor

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The large gathering Saturday at Salpointe’s Kalil Gymnasium that attended the memorial service for legendary Salpointe girls soccer coach Kelly Pierce included her three sons Tyler, Brady and Camden, family members, many of her former players with the Lancers and the Women’s Premier Soccer League teams, and a throng of friends.

The stands were full, and those who sat in chairs that covered three-quarters of the gymnasium court, included her family, and her current and former players who were wearing “EQUALITY,” on their shirts. Many of the parents and family members of the players wore shirts that had this saying:

All Heart

All Hustle

All Pierce

#KP14

After Juliann Nagore sung the opening hymns of “Amazing Grace” and “Here I Am Lord,” Salpointe athletic director Phil Gruensfelder opened the speaking part of the ceremony by saying Pierce, who passed away last week at only 43 years old, embodied passion, an endearing love for her family and players, and a strong sense of pride for being an intense competitor.

She was a two-time state championship soccer player at Salpointe in 1998 and 1999 and coached the Lancers to six state titles.

She became an All-Arizona Community College Athletic Conference selection with Pima who continued to play 15 years after her graduation from Salpointe. Although 32 years old, she outplayed younger players to earn All-WSPL honors. She coached at her alma mater the last eight years after leading Mountain View’s program. She also coached FC Tucson Women to the Desert Conference championship in 2021.

The following are comments made by those who spoke at Pierce’s ceremony and the full speech by AllSportsTucson.com’s Andy Morales.

SALPOINTE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR PHIL GRUENSFELDER

“Kelly Pierce — intense. We have a mantra here at Salpointe, kind of stealing it from Dick Tomey from the U of A: ‘We want to coach our kids hard, but we want to love them harder.’ And Kelly did that. She loved every kid that she coached. There were some that frustrated her, and I would hear about it, but she loved you nonetheless. Thank you for having such an impact and leaving such an incredible legacy on Salpointe Catholic High School.”

CLOSE FRIEND DEV SETHI

“(Pierce) was no nonsense. She was excellent, and she demanded the work required to be excellent. She prepared relentlessly and pushed everyone around her to be their best, no matter how high her expectations. No matter how hard she pushed, or with such intensity, it was all rooted in love and in her ability to see the very best potential in everyone around her, especially her girls. She believed in your limitless potential. She never missed a trick. When it came to motivating her girls, she never missed a trick. She pulled out everything to inspire them. You’ve seen the shirts, ‘Salpointe vs. Everybody.’ Other places sell them, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland … And if you said that’s where those shirts came from, maybe. If you told me, Kelly Pierce came up with that idea, I wouldn’t just agree with you. I would bet everything on it. She had this amazing capacity to do two things at once. She could bring together a community. She could get people to buy into her dream. She could get people to buy into what she was doing, and she had this remarkable talent at creating a little beef. She loved a nemesis. Here’s the problem — she knew she needed a nemesis to galvanize her teams. But the truth is her teams played with such sportsmanship and grace, positivity and honor, that you couldn’t find somebody who really disrespected (them). But boy, she was the master of the ‘US vs. Them’ mindset.

“When (his daughter) Sophia came home as a freshman from tryouts, the football team was still practicing. They were headed to the state playoffs. One of the older girls got into it with a football player about who was going to practice on the stadium field. Kelly was right there. The girls had their tryouts on the stadium field. That’s how your ‘EQUALITY’ shirts were born. Soon after, that became your team’s mantra. It became your calling card. Kelly showed her players that it’s okay to stand up for what’s right, that it’s okay to take your space, and it’s okay to make your voices heard.”

FORMER SALPOINTE PLAYER TRINITY MORALES

“She would always check up on me through college. She was there to celebrate my successes as a person, as a soccer player. She helped me with the process when I committed to Oregon, and then later, when I transferred to UCI. When I started my first collegiate game, she was the first to know. When I scored my first collegiate goal, she was the first text I looked for. I was excited to tell her when I became an aunt and a Godmother and when I graduated a year early from college. Kelly knew how to celebrate the highs in my life, but she also knew what to say when it came to the lows. She lifted me up through homesickness, school problems, injury, team drama, losses, personal problems, and much more. She’s helped me get to the place I wanted to be. I know she’s helped and touched many of your hearts. Let’s keep Kelly’s legacy alive and give back to the community, just like she has. If Kelly was able to help this many people, imagine what all of us can do together.”

RECENT SALPOINTE PLAYER EMMA VELIZ, DAUGHTER OF LONGTIME PIMA COACH KENDRA VELIZ

“We are a team that others love to doubt, and she fed off of that. When we were labeled spoon-fed, privileged white girls, it was meant as an insult, but Coach Kelly didn’t ignore it, and she knew it didn’t define us. Instead, she handed us golden spoons and used it to teach us to rise above stereotypes, to prove people wrong, not just with our talent, but with our character. ‘They hate us because they ain’t us.’ It’s funny, yes, but it’s also real. It’s Salpointe versus everybody. But Kelly never tolerated entitlement. She demanded self-awareness, integrity, and responsibility. She challenged us to look beyond ourselves, to understand our privilege and to use it with purpose. She believed in growth, the kind that matters on and off the field. Kelly also didn’t just believe in equality. She lived it. Every player, regardless of where they came from or what they looked like, received the same respect, the same expectations, and the same unwavering belief in their potential. She made everyone feel valued, not because we were perfect, but because we were ourselves. We have been and will always be enough for her. Because of Coach Kelly, we didn’t just learn how to win games. We learned how to show up in life with courage, with compassion and with no regrets. She taught us to leave everything on the field, because we never know when it could be our last day, and while none of us were ready for this to be hers, we know one thing for certain. She left it all out there, every ounce of her passion, her love, her strength. She gave it to us. So today, as you remember Coach Kelly, let us carry forward what she taught us, not just how to play, but how to live with heart, with humor, with grit, and with love. Because Kelly didn’t just build a team, she built a family, and this family won’t end. We’ll live on in the way we show up for each other, the way we lead, the way we live.”

COUSIN DWIGHT JACKSON

“Kelly made every one of us in this room feel special at one point in time in our lives, if not more, and that’s why we’re all here to honor her. There’s people in here who met Kelly once, twice, for other people dozens more, and they could all sit here and argue about who was better friends with her. That’s so amazing. This happened because Kelly took the time when she had the time to make everyone feel special in that moment. Kelly was the poster child for, ‘What are you going to do with your time while you’re here?’ She always found a way to manage the things she needed to do. She was always on the run, and she truly impacted the lives of others. Thank you for all your memories, cousin. We’ll see you again soon. May God bless you and peace be the journey.”

COUSIN COLLEEN NAGORE

“Kelly would not want us to be sad. She would want us to find peace and carry on her legacy. Most importantly, she’d want her family to be taken care of. I think Kelly came into this earth to do a job, and looking around this room, I’d say she did the job that she was supposed to do. I truly believe that Kelly flew through the stairway to heaven and busted down the gates to get to all the family and friends that were waiting for her. Our world will never be the same without her, but our lives will always be so much brighter because of her. Kelly Pierce, thank you for being here to change our lives. I’ll see you again one day, my beautiful cousin.”

COUSIN ANTOINETTE NAGORE

“On Friday, late at night, while we waited to say our goodbyes at the hospital, I looked over to see Brady sitting in the chair with (cousin) Parker by his side, and (cousin) Kylie holding his hand. They were all three just huddled together, just sitting there and waiting. And I was reminded what a blessing family is. Times like these will never make sense. The little lights are the people who show up. Kelly’s light will always shine on through her three boys; they made her so proud, and she was so vocal about what a privilege it was to be their mom. While soccer was a part of her, her boys are the legacy that will live on forever. Lastly, Kelly shared a poem with Tyler the day she passed away. I’m going to read it for the boys: ‘Maybe one day, my kids will say mom was a little much. She asked too many questions. Double checked everything. Hugged us 10 times before bed. Text, ‘Are you okay?’ even when she already knew the answer. But I hope they also say she never left us wondering if we were loved. Because what they see as too much now, will one day feel like my mom just loved the hell out of me. And she did.”

FRIEND ANDY MORALES OF ALLSPORTSTUCSON.COM

“Kelly’s heart may have been broken on the inside and imperfect on the inside, but the heart that we all saw on the outside was pure. It was passionate. It was strong, and it beat for her kids, her boys, Tyler, Camden, Brady, and Joey and Macy, and her whole family and all of her daughters that are wearing those ‘EQUALITY’ shirts, and the older daughters who played in WPSL. That’s when I first found out how passionate Kelly was.

“When I met her in 2013, I believe I went to watch a WPSL game or practice. Actually, I believe it was a practice. I saw this woman destroying 17, 18, and 19-year-old young women, and they weren’t happy about it. She was outmaneuvering them. They couldn’t score on her. She was a great defender, and at the age of 32, she was named All-WPSL, and had several awards. Who does that at the age of 32 in any sport, male or female? So that passion was incredible. When we began a reporter, coach, player relationship, she would text me all the time. Typically, in the beginning it was more for about her players for stats at Mountain View and with WPSL and then coming to Salpointe. But sometime around 2016, she asked me, ‘If I can text you some personal stuff?’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s, yeah, that’s fine.’ I have three daughters. I understand that. And so then that went on, and a lot of times I would have to talk her up and talk her down. And if you knew Kelly, if you didn’t answer her text, another text would come and another text would come. So I had to pull off the freeway at least a couple of times to respond to her phone calls or text messages. And then it dawned on me, it hit me that she was looking for something. One day, I was in my living room, and one of my daughters, they’re older, said, ‘You know, don’t ask dad for advice, because he’ll just tell you that he trusts you. He knows you know what you’re doing. He’ll back you up.’ And then my older daughter said, ‘Well, it’s good to hear, though.’ So then it dawned on me that Kelly was looking for a little bit more. And so I think around 2021 when she won both a high school state championship and a WPSL conference championship, I pulled her aside because if you know Kelly, she didn’t like to be interviewed. She didn’t like to be filmed. The TV stations were there with their cameras, and she didn’t like to be filmed, even though she looked like a movie star. And I said, ‘Kelly, I don’t want this to sound patronizing or weird. I just want to tell you that I’m proud of you.’ And she looked at me and she said, ‘I know.’ So I think that’s what she was looking for. And I tell it to my daughters all the time, even though my dad never told me that, but I know he did.

“And then fast forward to the spring. You know, this went on back and forth, text message, text message. It was frustrating because she was becoming like one of my daughters. And this spring, her friend passed away, Mareya, and she’s in that photo. Kelly asked me if I had any photos of her because people were photoshopping photos and making up photos. And I said, ‘Yeah, I have a few, and I think you’re in a couple of them.’ And I know that brought her some comfort. She told me. So then I said, ‘Kelly, you know, I treat you like one of my own kids, one of my own daughters.’ And she said, ‘I know.’

“If I would have known then, what I know now, I should have told her that I loved her like one of my daughters. I know there’s probably a couple dozen people in here who probably love other people in this room, but they don’t know — coach, mentor, family member. It’s never too late until it’s too late. I loved Kelly like a daughter from my heart, but I know that there are people who love Kelly because she was their daughter, their granddaughter, their cousin, their sibling. My sister lost her son, and I look at her in awe. This is how I describe it … I may be wrong … but if you ever stood on the shore by the ocean where the sand is weak, and you’re knee deep, and the sand is weak, and the waves pull you out, and it wants to pull you out, but your legs are strong enough to begin to stop it. And then the waves come back in, and they may tumble you to the ground, to the shore, but your legs are still strong enough to stop yourself … The waves go out, the waves come in. The sand gets weaker, and your legs get weaker. I only wish that when the waves get too strong, someone close, like family, is there to reach out and be their legs and pull them back, let them tumble towards the shore, because they wouldn’t be human if they didn’t, but then lift them up.

“I know I’ve gone on too long, but we’re not promised friendship. We’re not promised love. We’re not promised life. Kelly brought me all three of those, and it’s a gift I know I can never repay. Thank you.”

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