Abby Minihan was announced March 25 as head coach of the Greenville Liberty women’s soccer team.
Minihan has 14 years of collegiate coaching experience and was head coach of the USC Upstate women’s team from 2012 to ’16. After stepping away from coaching, she earned a masters degree in human resource development. She has worked as an athletic consultant and is a certified CoreClarity facilitator.
The Liberty were founded in 2021. The club is owned by Greenville Pro Soccer along with the Greenville Triumph, a men’s professional team which plays in USL League One.
The team will play at the under-construction GE Vernova Park at BridgeWay Station in Mauldin. The stadium is expected to open in June.
“When I think about the history of this team, the past few years have been spent building a team. … There is this wonderful foundation to launch from,” Minihan said.
“I want to win but also want to play well, and I want to develop these young ladies to be outstanding human beings and great citizens.”
The Liberty have competed for the past four seasons in the pre-professional USL W League, but this season will play a six-game, under-20 schedule in June and July. Future league plans for the Liberty have not been announced.
As a player, Minihan was a four-year starter at Michigan from 1999 to 2003 and was named to the all-Big Ten conference first team three times. She was drafted by Atlanta in the now-defunct WUSA and went on to play professionally in Charlotte and Boston.
Minihan, a Greenville County resident, returned to youth coaching in 2022.
“I stepped away in 2016 from coaching collegiately after having my kids, and just really spent a lot of time away from the game but was developing in other areas,” Minihan said.
“But everything I was working on kept coming back to coaching.”
