Soccer America caught up with 2025 NWSL Coach of the Year Bev Yanez at Racing Louisville’s training facility hours before the team jetted off to Florida for preseason training.

Racing Louisville is coming off a banner 2025 season in which the team qualified for the postseason for the first time in its five-year history.

“There is still a lot of excitement about what we were able to accomplish in 2025,” Yanez shared. “We stayed bought into the process the whole time. We never looked to hit certain check marks, or to what the end outcome would be. I don’t think I ever foresaw it. We got the ninth place curse off of our backs.”

The 37-year-old was appointed head coach of Racing Louisville in November 2023 after serving as an assistant coach with the club. Despite scoring a then-club record 33 goals in 2024, the team finished in ninth place — the very same position it had finished every season prior.

Yanez was reflective about the shifts she made as head coach after yet another disappointing campaign.

“I changed a lot of things from 2024 to 2025 and the group was very receptive to those cultural changes.”

In 2025, Racing Louisville played with a clear style and identity: relentless pressing, highly transitional, a lethal counterattack, and a dogged spirit until the closing whistle.

“We feel we’re a team that when people see our logo and our badge, they know what to expect. Being a high pressing team meant that we [go] after players that enjoy not having the ball,” Yanez commented.

The recruitment strategy has paid dividends. Winger Emma Sears led all Americans in goals scored in the NWSL last year with 10 goals. She also set a club record for most goals in a season. Defensive midfielder Taylor Flint led the league in interceptions. Goalkeeper Jordyn Bloomer assumed netminding responsibilities in May 2025 and proved to be a stabilizing force. She was a nominee for 2025 Goalkeeper of the Year.

Racing Louisville’s adoption of Yanez’s conviction and ethos powered them to the playoffs. They would go on to lose to eventual NWSL finalist the Washington Spirit in penalty kicks in the quarterfinal. True to form, Racing Louisville’s Kayla Fischer scored a stoppage-time equalizer at a sold out and raucous Audi Field to force overtime and penalties.

Navigating trials and tribulations