LAURA HARVEY was named the head coach of Seattle Reign FC on July 15, 2021, after previously serving as the club’s first-ever head coach for five consecutive seasons (2013-17). 

Harvey, the winningest head coach in NWSL history, enters her ninth season with the Reign, having led the club to three NWSL Shields, which is also an all-time record among NWSL head coaches, and three NWSL Championship appearances (2014, 2015, 2023). Harvey holds an all-time NWSL regular season record of 97 wins, 64 losses and 52 draws. 

Another addition to her list of records, Harvey has the most NWSL Coach of the Year selections as a three-time winner (2014, 2015, 2021). Harvey is also the first NWSL head coach to win the title on back-to-back occasions. The ninth-year Reign head coach has led the club to five appearances in the playoffs (2014- 15, 2021-23), including an active streak of three consecutive appearances. 

In 2023, Harvey became the first coach in NWSL history to reach 200 regular season games coached. Despite sending the most players in the NWSL to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, she was able to lead the Reign to the No. 1 overall seed of the Challenge Cup. The club also remained in the playoff picture (top- 6 in the league) throughout the entirety of the season following Week 2. Following the season, Harvey was named 2023 Seattle Sports Leader of the Year, presented by the Seattle Sports Commission Foundation. 

The 2022 regular season ended with a seven-game unbeaten streak for Seattle, including three consecutive games on the road that all resulted in wins to help the Reign finish the season with a league-best 40 points and secure its third NWSL Shield. 

Harvey was named a finalist for NWSL Coach of the Year, her second-consecutive nomination. Throughout the 22-game regular season, Harvey listed 21 different starting XIs as she balanced a busy and challenging schedule that featured up to a league-high nine players being called up for international duty on several occasions and an appearance in The Women’s Cup. On August 20, 2022, the Reign claimed the second-ever Women’s Cup title after defeating Club América in the semifinals and Racing Louisville FC, the defending champions of the tournament, in the final, thanks to Harvey strategically utilizing the club’s depth throughout the tournament. 

Joining Seattle midway through the 2021 season, Harvey managed the club to an eight-game unbeaten streak spanning from August 21 to October 16, allowing the Reign to host a playoff match for the first time since 2015. For all her work throughout the 2021 season, Harvey was named the 2021 NWSL Coach of the Year.

Prior to re-joining the Reign and the NWSL, Harvey signed with U.S. Soccer as the Under-20 Women’s National Team head coach in January 2020, where she led the U-20s through a seven-game unbeaten run at the 2020 Concacaf Women’s U-20 Championship in the Dominican Republic to capture the title. Harvey also served as an assistant coach for the U.S. Women’s National Team during the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

On November 17, 2017, the Utah Royals, in their first run as an expansion club, announced Harvey as the club’s first-ever head coach, where she took on a new challenge and fulfilled the role for the inaugural season in 2018 and the following season in 2019. Harvey worked closely in Utah with Scott Parkinson, the Reign’s Head Assistant Coach, where he served as an assistant coach under Harvey.

Before making the move to Utah, the three-time NWSL Coach of the Year was the Reign’s first-ever head coach and led the club for five consecutive seasons (2013-17). From 2013 to 2017, Harvey finished with a regular season record of 51 wins, 33 losses and 26 draws, a .464 winning percentage over 110 regular-season games with the Reign. She led the club to consecutive NWSL Shields and NWSL Championship appearances in 2014 and 2015. Harvey was the first head coach in the league to reach milestones of 200 matches coached and 100 matches coached, as well as the first to notch 50 wins. 

Despite a difficult first season in 2013 for the club on the field, Harvey was building a culture of leadership, hard work, and positivity, which quickly began to show and translate to on-field success. In 2014, the Reign finished with a league-high 54 points, which is currently the second-most points recorded in a single season and the biggest turnaround between seasons in NWSL history, as the club finished with 36 more points than they tallied in 2013. The immediate turnaround helped the club reach its first-ever NWSL Championship appearance and earned Harvey her first selection as NWSL Coach of the Year. The following season (2015), the club continued to excel by recording a league-high 43 points, winning back-to-back NWSL Shields and appearing in back-to-back NWSL Championships. Despite not making the NWSL playoffs in 2016 and 2017, the club finished fifth in the league in both seasons, falling short of the playoffs by one position. 

Under Harvey’s leadership, she helped her players earn a combined 32 NWSL Best XI First Team and Second Team selections among 15 different players. The winningest head coach in league history also helped two players earn the title of NWSL Most Valuable Player: midfielder Kim Little (2014) and midfielder Jess Fishlock (2021). Harvey also coached defender Lu Barnes when she earned NWSL Defender of the Year in 2016.

Born on May 15, 1980, Harvey is originally from Bulkington, a village in Warwickshire, England. She attended George Eliot School in Nuneaton and played football for the Coventry City L.F.C. At the age of 22, she began her coaching career after tearing her ACL while playing for Birmingham City L.F.C. Harvey holds a USSF A Coaching License and a UEFA A Coaching License. She earned her BA in Sports Studies at the University of Wolverhampton in 2001 and her BTEC (Business and Technology Education Council)