Loyalty is a rare thing in football. As the women’s game grows, one of the only constants is the increasing rate at which players and coaches change teams.
In this regard, Laura Harvey is extraordinary—a unicorn, so to speak.
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Harvey signed a three-year contract extension with the Seattle Reign this week through the 2028 season. The 45-year-old British woman is now entering her 11th season leading the Reign. This long-term stretch spans two periods, from 2013 to 2017 and from 2021 to the present.
“I’m very loyal, generally speaking. And, you know, this club has given me a lot. I feel like I owe it a lot,” Xavi told Competitor.
“The stability has been a big positive for us over the last 12 months in particular. I think that’s what’s made it so nice to be here a little longer. (As someone who’s been at the club for so long, it kind of ties into that era of stability that we’re looking for.”
In June 2024, the Reign was acquired by The Carlyle Group, which owns Seattle’s Major League Soccer team the Sounders, for $58 million.
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The deal ends an 18-month period of uncertainty in which the Reign had to free themselves from French OL Groupe, which bought the club from founding owners Bill and Teresa Predmore in 2020. OL Groupe sold its majority stake in Lyon women’s team to Michele Kang, owner of NWSL club Washington Spirit, in 2023, resulting in a conflict of interest and demand for a sale.
“The coming of ownership gave me life. I was like, ‘Oh, this is what I’ve wanted for a long time.'” Stability, financial backing, long-term vision. I feel like, we’ve been on a treadmill for a long time,” Harvey said.
Harvey was the Reign’s first head coach in the NWSL’s first season, holds the league record for regular season wins (113), is the longest-tenured head coach in league history, and was named NWSL Coach of the Year a record three times (2014, 2015, 2021). After brief spells with the Utah Royals in 2018 and 2019, she spent two more seasons in the NWSL.
But with the ownership change in turmoil, it’s no surprise that 2024 is Harvey’s worst season as head coach since 2013, with the Reign finishing 13th out of 14 teams and conceding the most goals in the NWSL (44).
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Still, majority owner Adrian Hanauer and general manager Lesle Gallimore stood by Harvey, and in 2025, that faith paid off as the Reign bounced back into the playoffs, finishing fifth and tied for the league’s fourth-best defensive record (29 goals allowed).
Negotiations for a new contract began in September and were finalized a week after the Reign bowed out of the playoffs in November with a 2-0 victory over the Orlando Pride in the quarterfinals. Most of the Reign’s players were informed of the deal last week before the preseason began.
“There was never a moment where I felt really stressed about (signing a new contract). To be honest, I was really happy. I spoke to Adrian in August. He said, ‘Do you want to stay? I want you to stay.’ Yeah, it was easy,” Xavi said.
One of the reasons it took so long for the new contract to become public is that Harvey spent the offseason in Los Angeles, where she and her partner own a home, and she hoped to return to Seattle and tell the players in person. Harvey said after 11 years of living in the city, she was finally close to having the right home available to her in the area.
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While Seattle may be investing in continuity and loyalty, no one remains the same.
“I’m getting older, I’m getting more wrinkles, I’m getting more gray hair,” Harvey said with a smile. “I just feel like I’m happy with who I am. I am who I am, but that doesn’t mean I can’t evolve and develop.”
After two decades of coaching and a “humiliating” 2024 season, Harvey said she’s committed to starting investing more in herself off the court. That means starting leadership courses and executive coaching programs, and holding meetings with any experts who want to impart their wisdom.
On the pitch, Xavi’s latest development is investing in the next generation.
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For a decade, the Reign’s core has been centered around veteran players such as captain Lauren Barnes, Megan Rapinoe and Jesse Fishlock. That culture is shifting in Seattle, with Harvey now being credited with developing individual players rather than just leading a group of established professionals.
She went all-in on building a young core of players, most of whom were signed for 2024 and then began to emerge last season.
Teenagers Emeri Adames and Jordyn Bugg and recent college graduates Maddie Dahlien, Sally Menti and Sam Meza have all signed their first professional contracts with the club in the past 18 months and are developing into standout players in 2025. All but 19-year-old Adams were called up to the U.S. Women’s National Team’s senior training camp.
Claudia Dickey, 26, is another star with a lot of potential. She was drafted by Harvey in 2022 and became the Reign’s starting goalkeeper two years later. She also made her debut with the U.S. Women’s National Team in 2025 and is competing for a starting spot behind Fallon Tullis-Joyce, who played under Harvey at Reign until his move to Manchester United in the summer of 2023.
While Harvey is no stranger to working with young players, having worked with England’s youth national teams in the 2000s before leading the USWNT U-20 team from 2020 to 2021, she believes the NWSL’s increased resources allow the league to better develop young players.
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“The situation in the early days of the NWSL didn’t really favor developing them right away. You’re always looking to be the best, and sometimes that means you have to find someone right away who can give it to you, as opposed to spending 18 months developing someone,” Harvey said.
“It’s hard to imagine players staying at a club like Jesse (Fishlock) and (Megan Rapinoe). But why not? With the talent that we have, we have some really good, promising young people, and as long as they want to stay here, I want the club to have them.”
As was the case for Harvey and the Reign last season, the coach is facing public scrutiny for comments she made during a podcast interview in October in which she said she uses ChatGPT to talk about tactics. “It’s crazy, it went viral. I don’t want to do it anymore, to be honest,” Harvey said.
Harvey believes the intensity of the coverage is partly because she is a woman. “Would it have had the same appeal if a male coach had said that? I’m not sure. It’s very disappointing,” she said. “Honestly, a lot of the British media in particular have contacted me or said something.”
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Harvey said if this kind of media attention happened in 2024, it would be even more unbearable. The hardest part of the media firestorm her comments sparked was how it affected those closest to her. Especially the reaction from her father, brother and assistant coach Scott Parkinson.
“That’s probably the hardest part, they want to speak up on my behalf,” Harvey said. “My dad wanted to write something on social media. I was like, ‘I’m fine. It’s okay. I know who I am’.”
Harvey is 23 years into her coaching career and has played 13 seasons in the NWSL, but she’s still hungry. Maybe hungrier than ever.
When asked about his future outside of Seattle, Harvey didn’t discuss future career aspirations. She had one clear goal in mind: to win her and the Reign’s first NWSL championship.
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“Until we do that, I’m not sure I’m going to be satisfied,” Harvey said. “I’d be lying if it didn’t stick with me.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
U.S. Women’s National Team, OL Reign, NWSL, Women’s Soccer
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