For the love of the game

Southern Utah University women’s soccer head coach Kai Edwards has spent many years of his coaching career as a volunteer, viewing no opportunity as too small or unimportant. Whether it’s coaching a U8 team or traveling across the world to learn from the best coaches, Edwards is all about one thing: saying yes.

His path to a successful season started with a canceled practice and an expensive bus ticket home.

When Edwards was in junior college, he essentially stumbled upon an opportunity to coach. His team was scheduled to train at a sports complex, but when he showed up, he found out that his training had been canceled. Instead of taking the bus back home, he stuck around and helped with the training of a girls’ club that was on a field next to his. He returned the next week to continue helping, and the head coach asked if he would like to assist them at a tournament the following weekend. Edwards said yes and ended up helping coach the girls to a championship.

After graduating, he followed his thengirlfriend to her hometown of Bellingham, Washington. Before he moved there, he called the Division II school in town, Western Washington University, and asked if he could help coach their soccer team. They told him they didn’t have any money to pay him, but he was welcome to volunteer. This is where he fully immersed himself in soccer.

“I was volunteering for Western, playing semipro in Canada, coached a middle school girls team, coached for Blaine High School boys team, helped coach two club teams and was training a team in Seattle,” said Edwards.

Edwards had set a goal for himself: he was going to be a Division I head soccer coach by the time he was 30. In the spring of 2009, he accomplished that goal; at just 28 years old, he took over as the head coach of the women’s soccer team at Saint Mary’s College of California. While there, he led his team to multiple winning seasons and seven top 25 wins.

Over time, Edwards formed a relationship with Franz Hoek, a previous assistant coach for FC Barcelona and many Dutch national teams. Hoek would set up tours with 15 or so coaches, and they would travel overseas to experience things that they had never thought possible.

“Franz could get you in rooms that you should have never been in,” said Edwards. “I sat in a room with the director of methodology for FC Barcelona, and he gave us the ‘why’ of everything at Barcelona for four plus hours.”

He has taken multiple trips to Europe and slept on friends’ couches while learning from some of the most experienced minds in all of soccer.

“A couple years ago, I went to Croatia. I had a buddy who was the youth director at Dinamo Zagreb, the top club in all of Croatia,” said Edwards. “I slept on his couch. I took their U11 and U18 coaches out for drinks and picked their brains about everything having to do with soccer.”

After a few different volunteer jobs and traveling overseas, Edwards got a call from the head coach at the University of California, Berkeley. He informed Edwards that his volunteer was leaving, and he would love Edwards’ help. “I want you to do well here, and then move on” is what the head coach told Edwards. So, when it came time to interview for the position at SUU, Edwards knew it was what he wanted.

Edwards took the job at SUU and was initially just grateful for the opportunity.

“At the time, I was only the third or fourth Black coach on the women’s side to ever have two Division I coaching jobs,” said Edwards.

Now that he has been on campus for three years, he has his sights set on breaking records and winning championships.

In the 2022 season, Edwards did just that. The Southern Utah women’s soccer team set nine team school records, including most wins in a season with nine, most goals scored in a season with 31 and most consecutive wins in a season with five.

“I love to win. I love the process it takes to win,” Edwards said. “I am preparing my troops, you are preparing your troops — let’s see who did it better. It is the ultimate mano a mano for me.”

Few men can say that they have done everything in their power to achieve their dreams, but Edwards can. He has truly dedicated his life to soccer, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Written by Parker

Haynie