LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — In just her second season as a head coach, Bev Yanez gave Racing Louisville Football Club some things it had never had: A playoff berth, a winning identity, and now, a Coach of the Year.
Yanez, 37, was named the 2025 National Women’s Soccer League Coach of the Year on Wednesday night in San Jose, California, becoming the first American — and the first former league player — to earn the league’s top coaching honor.
"I'm shocked. I'm so grateful," Yanez said in her acceptance speech, broadcast on ESPN2. “I couldn't be up here without the team believing in me, trusting in me … and the staff that’s invested so much time and belief in the vision we had this season.”
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It was a vision born of grit, growth, and a group of players who responded to a coach who had once stood where they stand. Yanez led Racing to its highest-ever league finish — seventh — and into the postseason for the first time. The club set franchise records for wins (10), points (37), goals scored (36) and road victories (5).
She also made history as the first person to reach the NWSL Playoffs as both a player and head coach, and the first American woman to coach a playoff team since 2013.
Bev Yanez, Head Coach of Racing Louisville FC, receives the Coach of the Year during the 2025 NWSL Awards Presented by AT&T at Montgomery Theater on November 19, 2025 in San Jose, California.
Yanez edged out Kansas City’s Vlatko Andonovski and Washington’s Adrián González for the award, winning both the preliminary and final rounds of voting, which included players, coaches, executives, media, and fans.
Beyond the results, her leadership has been tested in ways that don’t show up on a stat sheet.
When midfielder Savannah DeMelo collapsed on the field during a September match in Seattle, Yanez steadied the team while keeping her focus on DeMelo’s health and well-being. When Yanez suffered two miscarriages — one last year, one earlier this summer — she didn’t hide. She spoke out.
“I felt so alone,” she told CBS’s Attacking Third in October. “Through speaking out … I realized how many people have actually been through this. If we can come together and support each other, I think that is ultimately the most important thing.”
Her transparency earned deep respect from players and fans alike. Racing captain Arin Wright said Yanez had created a family atmosphere within the club, one that inspired players to “have her back and her family's back all the way through this.”
Yanez’s journey from world-traveling striker to trailblazing head coach is still unfolding. But after taking a team that had never reached the postseason and turning it into a playoff presence — and a place players want to be — she’s already left a lasting mark.
Yanez is not just the face of Racing’s future, she’s increasingly a model for what leadership in women’s sports can look like. She’s resilient, relatable and effective.
And she’s just getting started.
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