The story below is from our May/June 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
The former standout player from Salem now coaches Glenvar High to state championships while instilling family, discipline and dedication.
Kyleigh Drew knows soccer. An avid player since she was a small child, the 25-year-old Salem native got her start playing rec soccer, moving on to the Andrew Lewis Middle School and Glenvar High School teams where she played center midfield, eventually becoming the team captain before graduating in 2018.
Post-high school, Drew hasn’t slowed down at all: she has transitioned from a standout player to a winning coach. She started volunteering as a coach with the Glenvar Youth Boosters in 2019, and in the 2021-2022 season became the Glenvar High School girls soccer team’s head coach. She was just 22 years old at the time, and the returning girls were a little skeptical about her abilities; according to 2024 graduate Megan Pomerleau, who played for Drew at Glenvar in 2022-2024, “We were all nervous about getting such a young coach…We thought there would be issues with authority with Kyleigh only being a few years older than us. [But] after meeting her, we loved her.”
Drew was able to connect with returning players and new players by treating them as family, one of the catchwords for the team and what they use as their rallying call at the start of every game. She states, “My dad instilled…into me as a young player that you always fight for your teammates and support them…like family. I’ve loved being able to share this with my players.” The girls are on board, as well, says Drew: “Each year I ask the girls what our [team] word is, and they say ‘family’, because they support each other. [The] special bond they share really translates to the field and plays a huge part in our success so far.”
Soccer tryouts are generally at the end of January, with the time between making the team and the first scrimmage reserved for practice and conditioning. Drew, however, encourages her girls to start conditioning in the fall. Both returning players and potential new team members are motivated to start hitting the gym early with goals to get stronger and faster to prepare for the upcoming season.
The team also participates in an array of off-field activities: they plan several outings per season to have meals together, from dinner at Waffle House to a homemade meal at Drew’s house. They meet to hold a yearly “Hour-a-thon” fundraiser where they text family and friends requesting donations for gear and supplies. In previous seasons, Drew and her players have hosted soccer clinics where the girls get to show off their skills and help younger athletes hone theirs. (This year, a schedule conflict interfered with plans to host the clinics.) In 2024, the team prepared bouquets of flowers and presented them to their moms before the start of the home game closest to Mother’s Day.
Drew makes it clear that she has high expectations for the team, from T-shirts emblazoned with the mantra “No Excuses” to penalty laps for infractions like arriving late to practice, not having the necessary gear or missing a practice without an excuse.
Drew was named the state Coach of The Year in Class 2 after leading the Highlanders to the state championship in 2022, and again in 2024. Junior Sophie Childers claims “what helped lead us to our success in winning the [2024] state championship was that Kyleigh set high expectations for us, always believed in us and helped us reach our goals.”
In addition to coaching high school soccer, Drew coaches a Salem Sabres travel team, has a full-time job, is mom to a toddler and is a newlywed. How does she manage it all? The answer, again, is family. Her father, Rich Drew, was an assistant coach her first season at Glenvar, and starting last year, her sister Brooke Layman has acted as assistant coach. “I have the best support system,” Drew says. “My family always shows up for me and … I have an awesome job that … makes it work. I truly can say I’m blessed with this life.”
The story above is from our May/June 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
