Kiki_Lara
Kiki Lara
American soccer player and coach
Ricardo "Kiki" Lara (born July 24, 1981, in Las Cruces, New Mexico) is an American former soccer player who last played for the USL First Division side Portland Timbers and currently works as head coach of the Incarnate Word Cardinals.[1]
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Ricardo Lara | ||
| Date of birth | (1981-07-24) July 24, 1981 (age 42) | ||
| Place of birth | Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States | ||
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) | ||
| Position(s) | Midfielder | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Incarnate Word Cardinals (Head coach) | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1997–2000 | Bollettieri Soccer Academy | ||
| College career | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 2000–2004 | Incarnate Word Cardinals | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 2004–2006 | Minnesota Thunder | 38 | (1) |
| 2007–2008 | Portland Timbers | 25 | (0) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 2005 | Washington State Cougars (women's asst.) | ||
| 2009–2014 | Dayton Flyers (men's asst.) | ||
| 2015–2019 | Eastern Illinois Panthers (men's) | ||
| 2016–2017 | Eastern Illinois Panthers (women's) | ||
| 2019– | Incarnate Word Cardinals (men's) | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Lara played college soccer in San Antonio, Texas at the University of the Incarnate Word. He captained the team from 2001 to 2003 and was also named a Division II All-American in each of those 3 seasons. In 2004, he joined the Minnesota Thunder and played 26 games in his inaugural season.[2] He then played 19 times and scored one goal the following campaign.[3]
He started his coaching career in 1995 as coach of the Las Cruces Strikers,[4] a youth soccer club founded by his mother Linda Lara.[5]
In 2005 while still a player with the Minnesota Thunder, he also worked as an assistant coach of the Washington State University women's soccer program.[6]
On June 8, 2009, he was named as an assistant coach for the Dayton Flyers men's soccer team.[7]
He was named the head coach of the Eastern Illinois Panthers men's soccer team on March 10, 2015.[8] Lara was the Eastern Illinois women's soccer head coach for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.[9]
- "UIW Athletics welcomes home Kiki Lara as men's soccer head coach" (Press release). Incarnate Word Cardinals/CBS Sports Digital. December 20, 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
- "USL First Division 2005 Season". a-leaguearchive.tripod.com.
- "USL First Division 2006 Season". a-leaguearchive.tripod.com.
- Thank You Linda Lara(SFC Founder). Archived 2016-02-23 at the Wayback Machine
- "KIKI LARA NAMED DAYTON MEN'S SOCCER ASSISTANT COACH". Archived from the original on 2013-07-04. Retrieved 2012-11-12.
- "Men's Soccer introduces new coach". Daily Eastern News. March 10, 2015. Retrieved June 17, 2015.
- "Eastern Illinois University Panthers". eiupanthers.com.
- Kiki Lara profile at Player History