Kelly Pierce is an assistant coach with FC Tucson. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365.com)

 

Salpointe won the 4A girl’s state soccer championship last year under the leadership of Becky Freeman (59-10-3).  Freeman resigned from her position last month to spend more time with her young family and the program turned to former Lancer standout Kelly Pierce.

Pierce was part of Salpointe’s back-to-back state championships as a defender in 1998 and 1999 and she went on to play for Pima and the Sonoran Thunder of the Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL) before starting a family of her own.

She came back to the sport and played for the Tucson Soccer Academy FC (now FC Tucson Women) where she earned All-WPSL honors as a defender in 2014. Pierce was also named to the All-West Team and was named a Pacific South All-Star.

“I'm very excited, I'm so honored and humbled to have this opportunity!” Pierce said.

“It's the ‘dream job’ I guess you could say, returning to the place I have such good memories of, especially regarding soccer, and there's so much family history there for me. It's coming full circle, and I'm eager to get started!”

Pierce spent the last four years coaching at Mountain View Marana while playing for FC Tucson and she is listed an assistant coach with the WPSL team this summer.