From stand-in to head coach
The Orlando Pride ended their coaching search on Thursday by looking inside the building. Yolanda Thomas, who had run the team on an interim basis since the end of August, signed a multi-year contract to become the club’s permanent head coach.
Thomas, 42, took over on Aug. 31 when Seb Hines was fired with eight games left in the regular season. She had arrived in Orlando as an assistant before the 2023 campaign, one year before the Pride won both the NWSL Shield and the championship.
The appointment also carries weight beyond Orlando. Thomas becomes the first Black female head coach in league history.
no renewal
Free for 2 weeks.
A season to forget, a coach to build on
The results under her interim watch did not rescue the year. Orlando finished 11th with an 11-16-3 record and 36 points, missing the playoffs one season after standing on top of the league.
Thomas framed the move as unfinished business, saying the group had laid a foundation and a championship standard and that the club’s ceiling sits well above what it has already won. Owner and chairman Mark Wilf said her leadership, experience and character made her the strongest choice to lead the club forward.
The résumé
Her coaching path runs through college soccer. Thomas was an assistant at Tulsa and at Oklahoma State, her alma mater, and a head coach at Rogers State University in Oklahoma and in the Women’s Premier Soccer League. In 2025 she led two U.S. women’s U-23 camps.
Before that she played seven seasons in Sweden’s Damallsvenskan. Her first task now is getting a talented roster back into the postseason.
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