Barry Pryor has coached soccer for the last 32 years at many different levels in Southern California. He started as a Junior Varsity soccer coach at Upland High School in the late 70s. In the early 80s he was named Upland’s Varsity Coach and was able to steer the school’s team to its first ever successful CIF seasons. Barry then moved on to the NCAA Division III level when he was chosen to lead the Pomona-Pitzer soccer squad in the SCIAC conference. In the mid-1980s, the pressures and responsibilities of being a high school educator, college coach and a new parent caused him to step down at Pomona-Pitzer. In 1986, he took over the Varsity Soccer job at Don Lugo High School in Chino, where he has taught for the last 29 years. The team achieved significant success and was soon challenging for CIF championships and seeing his players recruited to numerous colleges. In the spring of 1988 Barry was offered the Head Assistant Soccer Coach’s job at Cal State Fullerton, a NCAA Division I soccer school, and has ever since been very thankful for the opportunity he was given. During his tenure as an assistant, CSUF rose to national prominence, reaching the Final Four in 1993 and the Quarterfinals in 1994.

 

While at Fullerton, Barry had the pleasure of coaching and hopefully leaving an imprint on some of our nations better players who went on to promising professional careers; New England Revolution captain Joey Franchino, Olympic captain Brian Dunseth, Kansas City Wizards goalkeeper Mike Ammann, Colorado Rapids midfielder Joey Digiamarino, LA Galaxy midfielder Brad Wilson and defender Peter Lak. He’s also quite proud of the many past Fullerton players whom have themselves become successful coaches at the college and high school levels, Ali Khosroshahin (CSUF/USC), Demian Brown (CSUF), Mauricio Ingracia (CSULB), Harold Warren (University of Arizona/USC), Eddie Soto (UCLA), Noah Kooiman (CSUSB), Ray Ramirez (Mt. Sac) and David Condino (Upland HS).

 

 With his children entering both Junior High and High school in the mid-90s, Barry decided that it was more important to be at home watching over the adolescent years of his children with his wife Nancy, than pursuing further his coaching career at the collegiate level. In 1996, he was enticed out of retirement by a Celtic U-17 team. Barry guided this club side to numerous successes including a Surf Cup championship, a Nomads Cup Championship, a Dallas Cup Semi-Final appearance, a League Cup championship and a National Cup Final appearance. Simultaneously, Barry began coaching his daughter Erica’s Alta Loma Aztec U-12 team. The team started as a lower level Bronze team in the Coast Soccer League and advanced to the Premier level by the time they were U-17. One of the things he is very proud of is the fact that most of that team’s roster ended up playing at the collegiate level, with most seeing significant playing time at the Division I level. When his daughter accepted a soccer scholarship to attend Cal State Fullerton in 2002, Barry ‘retired’ from coaching so that he and his wife could follow and enjoy their daughter’s successful career at CSUF.

 

He was again encouraged to come out of retirement by former player and USC coach Ali Khosroshahin. His current Boy’s U-15 FC Man United (formally DBWV Xtreme) team has continually improved and has experienced some noteworthy successes. Last year, his Boy’s U-14 team won State Cup and this year advanced to Cal South’s National Cup Boy’s U-15 Round of 16. He is looking forward to continuing to guiding this group of young American soccer athletes toward successful soccer playing and coaching careers in the future.