Crimson Legend Returns From Left Coast

With the uncertainty surrounding the hiring of Arizona State’s Ray Leone as the new head coach of women’s soccer, a new development has unfolded that will bring a familiar face back to Ohiri Field. Last Monday, Leone announced former Harvard goalkeeper Katie Shields ’06 as assistant coach of the soccer team effective as of this weekend.

Prior to taking the assistant coaching job, Shields served as the goalkeeper coach at UC Irvine and more recently as an assistant for Leone with the Sun Devils, who went 8-8-3 last year against a tough Pac-10 schedule.

“I wanted Katie not just because she is an alum, but because she is an exceptional person and coach,” Leone said in an email. “She has an awesome work ethic, loves the game and really is thrilled to be back in Cambridge.”

Shields is definitely a breath of fresh air for the program after going through three head coaches in one year. After Stephanie Erickson left to take the head-coaching job at Northwestern last July and Erica Walsh left for Penn State in February, Leone took the reins and made sure to bring Shields with him.

“It’s definitely great to have a person who’s been through the Harvard experience, even more broadly, the Ivy League experience,” said sophomore co-captain Nikki Rhodes, who first knew Shields as a teammate. “Especially with a coach who hasn’t coached in the Ivy League before, it will be essential to have Katie to help out with the rules. And she knows the way of the league so that’ll be extremely helpful for our team.”

Many on the team, like Rhodes, remember playing with Shields. Her impact on the Crimson squad ran deep, as she started in goal all four years. She recorded 18 career shutouts—capped off by a record setting 11 shutouts in her senior season. Her 4145 minutes played rank second in Harvard women’s soccer, while her 272 career saves rank third, and .863 save percentage ranks fifth. In her final year at Harvard, she put up a .908 save percentage, third-best in all of NCAA Division 1 women’s soccer.

In addition to her Harvard records, she was a four-time member of the All-Ivy League team. Her senior year, having allowed only eight goals all season—second-lowest in Harvard history—she was selected to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America’s First Team All-Northeast Region. In 2004, Shields led the Crimson to the NCAA tournament.

Needless to say, she is experienced in all things Ivy League soccer, not to mention Harvard soccer. Especially for a team that is so young and inexperienced—13 of the returning players were freshmen this past year—Katie’s experience will be greatly appreciated.

Freshman keeper Lauren Mann is definitely hoping to learn a few tricks from Shields. Mann, who had Shields as her host for her recruitment trip, heard good things about Shields’ coaching abilities from a friend of hers at Irvine.

“She’ll help everyone,” Mann said. “Because we do have a young team, it’ll be good to have another person who’s like an upperclassman, to give us more advice.”

Leone is excited to have Shields join his coaching staff, where she will deal with all aspects of the program, from training Mann and the goalkeepers to recruiting and everything in between.

When asked if it took much coaxing to get Shields to come back, Leone responded, “It took her two seconds to say yes to coming with me to her alma mater. She loves Harvard and wants to help me make the soccer program as successful as possible.”

If nothing else, Shields can hopefully destroy the painful memory of last season.