NWSL’s winningest coach embraces stability, determined to bring championship to Seattle Reign

Loyalty in soccer is a rare thing. As the women’s game evolves, one of the only constants is the increasing speed at which players and managers change teams.

In that respect, Laura Harvey is remarkable — a unicorn of sorts.

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Harvey signed a three-year contract extension with the Seattle Reign, through the 2028 season, this week. The 45-year-old Englishwoman is now entering her 11th season leading the Reign. That long-standing stretch comes across two stints, 2013 to 2017 and 2021 to now.

“I’m quite loyal, just generally. And, y’know, this club’s given me a lot. I feel like I owe it a lot,” Harvey told The Athletic.

“Stability has been a big positive for us over the last 12 months, especially. I think that’s what staying and being here for a little bit longer, it provides as well. (As) someone that’s been at the club for so long, it sort of links into that era of stability we’re looking for.”

In June 2024, the Reign were purchased by the Carlyle Group, who own Seattle’s MLS franchise, the Sounders, for $58 million.

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That transaction ended an 18-month period of uncertainty where the Reign had to untangle themselves from the France-based OL Groupe, who had bought the club from founding owners Bill and Teresa Predmore in 2020. OL Groupe sold their majority stake in Lyon’s women’s team to NWSL club Washington Spirit’s owner Michele Kang in 2023, which caused a conflict of interest and a requirement to sell.

“The ownership coming in just gave me life. I was like, ‘Oh, this is what I’ve wanted for so long.’ Stability, financial backing, long-term vision. I felt like, for a long time, we were just constantly on this treadmill all the time,” Harvey said.

Harvey, who was the Reign’s first head coach in the NWSL’s inaugural season, holds the league record for regular-season wins (113), is the longest-tenured head coach in league history and has won NWSL Coach of the Year a record three times (2014, 2015, 2021). She has another two NWSL seasons under her belt from a short stint with the Utah Royals in 2018 and 2019.

But with the tumult of ownership changes, it was unsurprising that 2024 was Harvey’s worst season as a head coach since 2013, the Reign finishing 13th out of 14 teams and conceding the most goals (44) in the NWSL.

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Still, majority owner Adrian Hanauer and general manager Lesle Gallimore stuck by Harvey, and in 2025, the faith paid off — the Reign bounced back to make the playoffs, finishing fifth, and tied for the fourth-best defensive record in the league (29 goals conceded).

Negotiations over a new contract began in September, and were finalized a week after the Reign exited the playoffs at the quarterfinal stage with a 2-0 defeat at the Orlando Pride in November. The majority of the Reign squad were informed of the deal last week, before the start of their preseason.

“There was never a point where I was really stressed about (signing a new contract). To be honest, I was really happy. I spoke to Adrian in August. And he was like, ‘Do you want to stay? I would love you to stay.’ It was very easy, yes,” Harvey said.

One of the reasons it took so long for the new contract to be made public is that Harvey spends her offseasons in Los Angeles, where she owns a home with her partner, and she wanted to be able to return to Seattle and tell the players in person. After accumulating 11 years in the city, Harvey said she is finally closing in on putting an offer on the right house for her in the area.

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While Seattle may be investing in continuity and loyalty, nobody stays the same.

“I’ve got older, got more wrinkles, more gray hair,” Harvey says with a smile. “I just think that I’m very comfortable in who I am. I am who I am, but along with that, that doesn’t mean I can’t evolve and develop.”

Twenty years into her coaching career, after the “humbling” of that 2024 season, Harvey says she made a promise to start investing in herself off the pitch more. That meant embarking on leadership courses and executive coaching programs, and taking meetings with any experts who wanted to impart wisdom.

On the pitch, Harvey’s latest evolution has been investing in the next generation.

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For a decade, the Reign’s nucleus had revolved around experienced players, like captain Lauren Barnes, Megan Rapinoe and Jess Fishlock. That culture is shifting in Seattle, and Harvey is now the person getting the credit for developing individual players rather than just leading a collective of established professionals.

She has gone all-in on a young core of players, the majority of which were signed in 2024 then all started to blossom last season.

Teenagers Emeri Adames and Jordyn Bugg and recent college graduates Maddie Dahlien, Sally Menti and Sam Meza all signed their first professional contracts with the club over the past 18 months and evolved into standouts in 2025. All but 19-year-old Adames have been called into a senior U.S. women’s national team camp.

Claudia Dickey, 26, is another prospect turned star. She was drafted by Harvey in 2022 and became the Reign’s starting goalkeeper two years later. In 2025, she too made her USWNT debut and is competing for the starting position behind Phallon Tullis-Joyce, who played under Harvey at the Reign until transferring to Manchester United in summer 2023.

While Harvey is no stranger to working with young players, having worked in England’s youth national team setup in the 2000s and then leading the USWNT U-20s between 2020 and 2021, she believes the increased resources in the NWSL has allowed the league to be better placed to develop young players.

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“Circumstances in the early days of the NWSL didn’t really lean towards developing them in the moment. You were always chasing to be the best, and sometimes that meant you had to get someone that could give it to you right now, instead of spending 18 months developing somebody,” Harvey said.

“It’s tough to envisage players staying at a club like Jess (Fishlock) and (Megan Rapinoe) did. But why not? With the talent that we’ve got, we’ve got some really good, promising youngsters that I would love for this club to have for as long as they’re willing to stay here.”

As positive as last season was for Harvey and the Reign, the coach also faced public scrutiny when she went viral for a comment during a podcast interview in October, where she said she used ChatGPT to talk tactics. “It was insane, going viral. I don’t particularly want to again, to be honest,” Harvey said.

The intensity of the coverage, Harvey believes, was partially because she is a woman. “If a male coach had said it, would it have got the same traction? I’m not sure. And that was quite disappointing,” she said. “Especially, honestly, the amount of British media that either contacted me or said something.”

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Harvey says if that sort of media attention had happened in 2024, it would’ve been a lot harder to stomach. The hardest part of the media storm whipped by her comments was how it affected the people closest to her. In particular, the responses of her father, brother, and assistant coach Scott Parkinson.

“That was probably the hardest part, them wanting to speak out on my behalf,” Harvey said. “My dad was wanting to jump on social media and write whatever. And I’m like, ‘I’m fine. It’s okay. I know who I am’.”

Twenty-three years into her coaching career and 13 NWSL seasons later, Harvey is still hungry. Maybe hungrier than ever.

When pressed on her future beyond Seattle, Harvey doesn’t talk about future career ambitions. There is a clear target in mind: winning her, and the Reign’s, first NWSL championship.

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“I’m not sure I’ll ever be satisfied until we do it,” Harvey said. “I would be lying if it didn’t sit in the back of my mind constantly.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

US Women’s national team, OL Reign, NWSL, Women’s Soccer

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