Keri Sanchez comes with a glowing resume – a standout playing career intertwined
with, then followed by, a number of high profile, successful coaching roles.

Sanchez’s first step into coaching came in 1996 with a call from the former goalkeeper
coach of her college team, the North Carolina Tar Heels: Bill Steffen.

Steffen was going to restart the University of Oregon’s women’s soccer program, as
head coach, and he invited Sanchez to be his assistant.

Having just graduated from the University of North Carolina with a BA in health and
physical education, Sanchez put aside thoughts of potentially training to be a doctor, and followed Steffen to Oregon, where she spent almost seven years.

As I caught up with Sanchez, she was looking to hire an assistant of her own, after recently taking on her first NCAA Division I head coach role at Colorado College.