Before she could even read a book, Lauren Glancy was gliding across the fresh-cut grass at her local rec soccer field, falling in love with the game. It all started in Alpharetta, Georgia where her 4-year-old team, the Tom River Crush, was coached by her mother Sheila.
“Ever since I was four years old, all I ever wanted to do was play soccer,” Lauren says, looking back with a smile. “I just loved soccer so much.”
She soon realized her childhood love was going to be a lifelong passion. During her free time, she would walk with a bag of balls to the local park and train on her own, shooting targets, kicking against a wall or playing in the street. She would also spend Sundays with her father watching the highlights from the English Premier League. That passion led to travel teams and eventually a scholarship at the University of Georgia, where she appeared in three NCAA tournaments.
As her college career came to a close, her passion shifted to sharing her passion with others and growing the game at the youth level. She earned a master’s degree in sport pedagogy, the art of teaching sports, before taking several roles around the metro Atlanta area as a teacher and coach, all paving a path to her coaching dream.
Then she met a man named Jason Longshore, a name familiar to any Atlanta United fan. The nonprofit he worked for, the grassroots program Soccer in the Streets, was teaming up with the Arthur Blank Foundation to help grow the game in Atlanta. Lauren stepped in and helped build after-school soccer programs for a dozen schools in the Atlanta Public school system, giving her a new purpose in her love of the beautiful game.
“When I started working for Soccer in the Streets, I finally realized I wanted to grow the game to everyone and anybody,” Lauren says. “I want them to have access. No one should be limited. It changed my course and changed my trajectory in life.”
Lauren’s passion to bring quality coaching to young people put her in the middle of a male-dominated technical side of the game. Sometimes, she was the only female coach on her courses. But that hasn’t stopped her from getting her United Soccer Coaches National Diploma, USSF C License, United Soccer Coaches DOC Diploma and her National Youth License in the past three years.
Just as she was finishing up her certifications, she was contacted by Dean Atkins, who was just starting to build Atlanta United’s camps and clinics programs. It was a new club initiative focused on growing the youth game, identifying and developing players local to the Atlanta metro area in their pre-Academy years. And importantly, the Regional Development School was the club’s first real step into coaching female athletes.
“It became very clear, very early we wanted her as a leader in our programs and to have a strong female lead in the RDS program,” Atkins says. “Finding the right person to lead that up on the girls side is huge, and I think we’ve found the right person for that.”
Since joining Atlanta United, Lauren has felt right at home. It’s a culmination of all the years teaching P.E. classes, mentoring athletes and organizing at the grassroots level in Atlanta. It all comes from a passion she found at 4 years old. Now, she’s able to help young girls just like she once was, fall in love with the sport.
“The game has done so much for me in my life,” Lauren says. “I am just grateful it’s something I can still be a part of.”
© 2026 Atlanta United FC
.png){kind=logo}
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)