.png&width=100&height=100&type=webp)
Staff Directory
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
On July 2, 2008, Jessica Celi was named the sixth head women’s soccer coach in the 21-year history of the Liberty Lady Flames’ soccer program.
“We are thrilled to have Jessica Celi join the Liberty University athletics program,” stated Liberty Director of Athletics Jeff Barber. “She has proven herself to be an outstanding coach and recruiter and will be a tremendous leader for our women’s soccer program.”
Celi comes to Liberty after three seasons with the Charlotte Lady Eagles of the United States (USL) W-League, the premier women’s soccer league in the United States, as an assistant to head coach Lee Horton. With the club, Celi was responsible for recruiting players for the team, implementing training sessions, running camps and clinics and coaching, training and teaching sports ministry, both in the United States and in Brazil.
This past season, Celi helped the Lady Eagles to a second-place finish in the Atlantic Division standings and into the Eastern Conference playoffs with an 11-2-1 mark. The squad’s roster included former Liberty standout goalkeeper Sonia Rodriguez, who was a Lady Flame from 2001-05, and Celi’s new assistant coach Abby Crumpton.
“Jessica has a great vision for the Liberty Women’s Soccer Program,” stated Rodriguez, the 2005 Rock Royer/Mac Rivera Award winner, Liberty’s highest athletics honor. “I’m excited to see where she is going to take them. She will be a great role model and mentor for the student-athletes.”
During her three years with Charlotte, she helped guide the Lady Eagles to a 32-8-2 record. During her first season with the Lady Eagles, Charlotte fell one game short of playing for the league title, losing in the 2006 W-League semifinals.
The year prior, Celi was the head coach of the W-League’s Carolina Dynamo. She was the youngest and only female coach in the Atlantic Division.
Celi also has coached internationally. While serving as a missionary in Brazil, she was the co-head coach of the Cotia Women’s Professional Soccer team based in Sao Paulo in 2007. The team played both outdoors and futsal, five-a-side soccer played indoors.
From 2004-06, Celi was an assistant coach under Todd Bramble at Clemson. Each of her three seasons with the Lady Tigers, Clemson received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, reaching the quarterfinals in her final season in 2006. In her three seasons at Clemson, the Lady Tigers recorded a 40-25-9 mark.
Celi began her coaching career at Delaware in 2001, serving as an assistant until 2003, when she became an assistant at Creighton for one season.
She has been both a staff coach and state coach in the Olympic Development Program (ODP). Celi was a coach with the New Jersey ODP Under-17 Girls State team from 2002-03 and was both a staff and state coach with the Nebraska state program from 2003-04.
During her time with the Nebraska program, she was a staff coach with the Region II ODP, identifying top youth players from within a 12-state region, and coached the Nebraska ODP U-17 Girls state team.
Celi graduated cum laude from N.C. State with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1999. She also received a master’s degree in educational leadership at Delaware in 2003.
A four-year letterwinner in the collegiate ranks, Celi played two years in the midfield at Ohio State (1995-96) and two seasons at N.C. State (1997-98). She was a three-time National Soccer Coaches Association (NSCAA) of America Scholar-Athlete from 1995-97 and earned Academic All-ACC honors in 1998.
She competed at the semi-professional level in the W-League from 1996-2002 for the Charlotte Speed, Raleigh Wings and New Jersey Wildcats.
A native of High Point, N.C., Celi resides in Lynchburg.
