Louise Kristina Lieberman (born May 6, 1977) is an American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

coach and former player. She is the former head coach of the San Diego Toreros women's team. Lieberman played for the

Washington Freedom Washington Freedom may refer to: * Washington Freedom (cricket) * Washington Freedom (soccer) {{dab ...

of the

Women's United Soccer Association The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) was the world's first women's soccer league in which all the players were paid as professionals. Founded in February 2000, the league began its first season in April 2001 with eight teams in the Uni ...

(WUSA) and collegiate soccer for the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Big Ten Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF ...

Personal life

Lieberman's hometown is Los Angeles, California, and she is one of six children. Her mother Angelita is from Brazil, and her father Anthony, a travel agent, was from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Playing career

Lieberman played soccer at

Beverly Hills High School Beverly Hills High School (shortly as BHHS or Beverly) is a public high school in Beverly Hills, California. The other public high school in Beverly Hills is Moreno High School, a small alternative school located on Beverly Hills High School's c ...

from 1991 to 1995, earning a number of MVP, all-league, and All- CIF honors. She also led her club team, the Fountain Valley Spirit, to a national championship in 1994. She was named one of ''

Soccer America ''Soccer America'', the oldest soccer-specific media publisher in the United States, was founded in 1971 by Clay Berling in Albany, California. The magazine is headquartered in Oakland, California. History The magazine was founded by Clay Ber ...

s Elite 11 Recruits as a senior in 1995. Lieberman played for the UCLA Bruins women's soccer team as a center midfielder, and was a second-team All-

Pac-10 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level for all sports, and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl ...

selection in 1995. She played in 78 games during her four-year career, with 31 points on seven goals and 17 assists. A two-year winner of the team's Most Inspirational Award, she helped the team win its first two Pac-10 Championships in 1997 and 1998. Lieberman graduated from UCLA in 2000 with a degree in Sociology. She next played one year for the

Washington Freedom Washington Freedom may refer to: * Washington Freedom (cricket) * Washington Freedom (soccer) {{dab ...

, during the league's inaugural season of

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

. She was able to

translate Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

for

Lusophone The Portuguese-speaking world, also known as the Lusophone world () or the Lusophony (''Lusofonia''), comprises the countries and territories in which the Portuguese language is an official, administrative, cultural, or secondary language. This ...

team-mates

Roseli de Belo Roseli de Belo (born 7 September 1969), commonly known as Roseli, is a Brazilian footballer who played as a forward for the Brazil women's national football team. She represented Brazil at the FIFA Women's World Cup in 1991 and 1995; as well ...

and

Pretinha Delma Gonçalves (born 19 May 1975), commonly known as Pretinha,In a June 199with Grant Wahl, Pretinha said her nickname means "little black girl" and that the reference to skin color is not considered problematic in Brazil. is a Brazilian prof ...

. Lieberman made one 27-minute substitute appearance, in a 1–0 defeat by

New York Power The New York Power was an American professional soccer team that played in the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), the first professional soccer league for women in the United States. The team played at Mitchel Athletic Complex in Uniondale ...

on August 11, 2001.

Coaching career

Lieberman was Paul Caligiuri's assistant for the men's and women's soccer teams at

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona California State Polytechnic University Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) is a Public university, public Institute of Technology (United States)#Polytechnic universities, polytechnic research university in Pomona, California, United States. It is the l ...

in 2002. She was hired by the Los Angeles Rampage to be the Director of Women's Coaching in 2005, and became the Director of Coaching the following year and served for three years. From 2009 to 2016, Lieberman was Assistant Coach of the UCLA Bruins women's soccer team. During that time, the team won the 2013 NCAA National Women's Soccer Championship, the first in team history. Lieberman was the San Diego Toreros' head coach starting in 2017, when she was hired as the fourth coach in team history. She left the program in November of 2023. Lieberman was an assistant coach for the

United States women's national under-23 soccer team The U-23 Women’s Youth National Team, operated under the auspices of U.S. Soccer, plays a pivotal role in bridging the significant gap between college soccer and the development of players for the full Women’s National Team. It functions as ...

from 2017 to 2020. She also worked with the

United States women's national under-18 soccer team The United States U-18 women's national soccer team is a youth soccer team operated under the auspices of U.S. Soccer. Its primary role is the development of players in preparation for the senior women's national team, as well as bridging the ...

at their training camps.

Honors

In 2010, she was inducted into the

Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, in Beverly Hills, California, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring American Jews, American Jewish athletes, other sports personalities, and teams from Southern California who have distingui ...

. In 2016 Lieberman was honored with the Cal South Excellence in Coaching Award.

References

External links

University of San Diego soccer head coach profile

(archived) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lieberman, Louise Washington Freedom (soccer) players Ajax America Women players Women's United Soccer Association players Soccer players from Santa Monica, California American women's soccer players 1977 births Living people American sportspeople of Brazilian descent Soccer players from Los Angeles Beverly Hills High School alumni UCLA Bruins women's soccer players UCLA Bruins women's soccer coaches Women's association football midfielders California State Polytechnic University, Pomona faculty San Diego Toreros women's soccer coaches Sports coaches from California