Lesle Gallimore hasn't strayed far from her roots.

One of the best players in the history of California women's soccer, Gallimore has remained invested in the beautiful game as a college head coach, spending most of her career at the University of Washington. Now in her 22nd year as head coach of the Huskies, she is the longest-tenured head coach in the Pac-12 Conference.

A member of Cal's first team in 1982, Gallimore graduated in 1986 after a celebrated playing career as a defender that included four All-America honors and a run to the pre-Women's College Cup in 1984. Named Cal's Athlete of the Decade for 1976-1986 and inducted into the Cal Hall of Fame in 1995, Gallimore was one of nine former players inducted into the women's soccer program's inaugural Lair of Legends class in May. More recently, she earned selection to the Starting XI of the Pac-12 All-Century Women's Soccer Team.

The erstwhile Golden Bear comes back to Berkeley every year for the alumnae game – which last spring included the Legends induction – and she is back in the East Bay every other fall to lead her Huskies against Cal. This season, and specifically this Friday at 4 p.m., the Bears battle the Huskies in Seattle in a match broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks.

“I have some of my best friends in the Bay Area still, so I visit as often as I can,” Gallimore said. “I love going back to Cal. Every time I'm in Berkeley I am overwhelmed by so many different emotions; I get really nostalgic when I'm there. I don't think I'm alone in that. It's a special place for sure.”

Gallimore enjoyed many of the experiences she garnered in Berkeley back in the 1980s, from playing for the Bears, to eating at Top Dog and Blondie's, to coaching at Cal.

As a student-athlete, the South Torrance, California, product says her most memorable moment was “losing in overtime to UNC, 2-1, at UNC in the national semifinal in 1984. It was just a game for the ages. We'd lost to them 5-2 in the quarterfinals during the previous season, and back then nobody beat or came close to Carolina. We just fought so hard together and had worked our tails off to put Cal on the women's soccer map.”

Gallimore was a biology major for two and a half years at Cal and was hoping to “explore” dental school. Gallimore later majored in psychology and applied to law school. While she worked as an assistant coach at her alma mater, Gallimore also attended Golden Gate Law School in San Francisco for a year.

'Natural Leader'

The prospect of becoming a lawyer didn't take, but coaching did. She's been coaching for three decades, but – unlike her other career pursuits – Gallimore never made a conscious decision to move into coaching.

“I never really did decide, to be perfectly honest,” she said. “It just kind of happened. Bill Merrell, my coach for three of my four seasons at Cal, put a lot of faith in me – as a leader, a captain – and gave me a lot of responsibility. One thing just led to another, and now 30 years later, here I am. “

“She was a natural leader, for sure,” former teammate and U.S. national team goalkeeper Mary Harvey said of Gallimore the player. “Being a gravitational pull for others, which she always seemed to be, was not surprising at all. She was a leader on the team, and her personality is such that it engenders that.”

She had worked some summer camps in Southern California, but the Cal gig was Gallimore's first coaching job. She worked as a Cal assistant coach from 1986-89, alongside Cal's 1986 head coach Peter Reynaud, 1987-88 head coach J.P. Verhees and Merrell, her head coach, in 1989. The Bears reached the NCAA Final Four in 1987 and 1988.

After leaving the Cal coaching staff, Gallimore became the head coach at San Diego State, coaching the Aztecs from 1990-93. She joined the Washington staff – as the second head coach in the Huskies' program – in 1994.

Gallimore – who led UW to the NCAA quarterfinals in 2004 and 2010 – has collected plenty of accolades as a coach. She claimed the Pac-10 Coach of the Year Award and the NSCAA West Region Coach of the Year Award in 2000, when she led the Huskies to the Pac-10 championship and the NCAA round of 16. She also claimed the NSCAA's regional award in her first season in 1994, when the Huskies reached the NCAA second round.

The veteran coach has also served as the head coach of the Region IV ODP staff and worked with the U.S. national team and U.S. Under-23 national team. At UW, she's coached a bevy of talented players, including U.S. World Cup and Olympic champion Hope Solo, former U.S. player Tina Frimpong, Mexican international Veronica Perez, and former professional Kate Deines.

“Lesle is one of the iconic figures in women's college soccer and deservedly so,” Cal head coach Neil McGuire said. “On top of her successes at Washington, she has given back to the game in so many ways. Her work as an instructor, coach and leader in U.S. Soccer and Region IV's Olympic Development has helped inspire so many people, and there are legions of people who love her. I was fortunate enough to be given my start in ODP by Lesle, so I know firsthand of her genuineness and quality as a coach and person.”

Gallimore is in her third decade as a college coach and still going strong. Besides being the longest-serving Pac-12 head coach, Gallimore – who celebrated her 52nd birthday on Oct. 17 – is among the most veteran of female college Division I head coaches in the United States.

“I didn't think it was that big of a deal until we started counting coaches who've been around this long,” said UW associate head coach Amy Griffin, who also worked with Gallimore at SDSU. “The job is especially hard when raising kids. There are very, very few female head coaches in Division I soccer, and not many are doing it while raising kids. She raised her son, Zack, and he's in the Marines now. To be successful for this many years – it sounds like a cliché, but she's just doing it the right way.”

Gallimore is part of a group of Cal legends – including World Cup and Olympic champions Joy Fawcett and Harvey – who've played major roles in the development of women's soccer. While Harvey and Gallimore were teammates, Fawcett – the former longtime anchor of the U.S. backline – played under Gallimore from 1986-89, and her daughter, Katey Fawcett, now plays for Gallimore at Washington.

“It's wonderful to be part of a generation of players who have made an impact and are continuing to make an impact on the game, and not particularly on just the sport but on the people,” added Harvey, who is also a former FIFA Director of Development and the one-time COO of Women's Professional Soccer. “For Lesle to have an impact on those young women over a long period of time – from when they play at UW to life afterwards – is incredible and a testament of the quality of what she's doing.”