Amy Kiah enters her 11th season as the head women’s soccer coach at Wofford in 2008. Her tenure is the second longest among the Terrier head coaches, following only football’s Mike Ayers. This year marks Kiah’s 12th total campaign on the Wofford sidelines.
She became the first Wofford women’s soccer coach to eclipse the 50-win plateau when the Terriers earned a 1-0 home victory against eventual Southern Conference Tournament champion Western Carolina Oct. 2, 2005.
With the Terriers’ 4-0 win over Canisius Sept. 5, 2003, she became the program’s all-time winningest head coach and enters this season with a career tally of 59, eclipsing the mark of 35 by Josef Lorenz (1995-98). Wofford’s first-ever coach was Dr. Jhon Akers, who compiled 10 wins after starting the team in 1994.
Kiah arrived in Spartanburg in 1997 as an assistant coach for Lorenz. She took over the reigns of the program in the fall of 1999 and led the Terriers to a school-record 13 victories in her first year. Under her direction, Wofford has remained competitive in the Southern Conference, advancing to the league tournament on numerous occasions.
She coached another All-Southern Conference honoree in graduated senior Jessica Connett following the 2006 campaign. Connett, also a Phi Beta Kappa inductee, became the seventh all-league choice under Kiah out of the nine total Wofford has produced since joining the league in 1997.
The Terriers were also one of four Wofford athletic teams in 2006 to receive initial Academic Progress Report (APR) recognition from the NCAA for outstanding academic achievement.
This past season, Wofford reached the Southern Conference Tournament for the seventh time in nine seasons under her watch.
Kiah also had the honor of being on the sidelines for the Terriers’ double-overtime 2-1 triumph at The Citadel Oct. 6, 2006, which marked the 100th overall victory in the history of the program.
A native of Atlanta, Ga., she attended North Carolina and played for legendary head coach Anson Dorrance. While in Chapel Hill, the squad captured the national championship three consecutive years from 1992-94. On the 1992 and ’93 teams, she was a key reserve at forward and was teammates with U.S. National Team and future World Cup and Olympic champions Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly and Tisha Venturini.
After redshirting the 1994 campaign, Kiah transferred to the College of Charleston and garnered 1995 first-team All-Trans America Athletic Conference honors.
Kiah also has seen time on the semi-pro level by playing with the Charlotte Speed of the W-League. As a member of the Speed, she topped the team in goals and was among the squad’s leaders in assists as well.
She sent the 2003 top Terrier point producer, Jaime Cutts, to the W-League where Cutts was a member of the Carolina Dynamo.
While still living in Atlanta, Kiah was a member of the Blackburn United U-19 club team which captured the 1992 Georgia state championship.
She is also a mainstay at a variety of summer camps throughout the Southeast, including the North Carolina Girls’ Soccer Camp and the Ralph Lundy Soccer Academy in Charleston, S.C.
A 1999 graduate of Converse College, she is married to Wofford director of athletic facilities Andy Kiah. The couple has a daughter, Kayleigh (4 1/2), born in February 2004 and live in Spartanburg with their labrador retriever Champ.