Mimi Nartey

Coach Mimi has lived the life of a scholar athlete to the fullest. As a teenager, Coach Mimi earned a spot on the Ghana National Women’s Soccer Team and earned a silver medal in the 2002 FIFA African Cup of Nations and competed in the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup. She was a top recruit at dozens of NCAA Division I programs and earned an “All-Ivy” distinction as a player at Columbia University, where she did her undergraduate and graduate education. She also played for the Portland Rain in the W-League that preceded the NWSL.

With a heart dedicated to nurturing young talents, Mimi embarked on a coaching journey spanning over 25 years, focusing on youth soccer. Coach Mimi’s leadership has guided numerous youth teams to victory, capturing the Cal South State Cup championship and securing a spot in the finals of the same esteemed tournament in consecutive years. In 2022, Coach Mimi led a youth girls’ team to the playoffs of the Gothia World Youth Cup in Sweden. Several of the players she has trained and mentored have gone on to play at competitive college soccer programs and have represented multiple nations in youth and senior FIFA Women’s World Cups, and she was named Honorary Head Coach at LMU.

Her impact extends far beyond the field, shaping the lives of countless individuals through the beautiful game of soccer and academic mentorship. Coach Mimi transitioned seamlessly from the soccer field to the classroom, becoming an award-winning college professor of environmental sciences and public health at prestigious institutions such as UCLA, LMU, and Occidental. She taught a course entitled “Women’s Sports and Empowerment” at Occidental College, and she has a TEDx talk on that subject. Coach Mimi currently coaches a girls’ team at Beach FC and is a parent educator in the Connect Program.

Head Coach, Varsity Boys Volleyball, Wiseburn Da Vinci Schools