Nevada soccer head coach Erin Otagaki enters her seventh season as the head coach of the Nevada soccer program.
In the 2021 season, the Pack had their strongest performance in conference play since joining the Mountain West in 2012. Nevada accumulated four wins and two draws for 14 points in the Mountain West standings under Otagaki's leadership. During that season, Otagaki guided Emily Rich to the Mountain West's All-Newcomer team.
Heading into the 2022 season, Otagaki has led at least one player to All-Mountain West Newcomer honors in three of the last four seasons. She also has helped goalkeeper Kendal Stovall climb to second in career goalkeeper saves in Nevada women's soccer history.
During the 2019 season, freshman Gabby Brown shattered the Nevada single-season shots record with 75 under Otagaki's watch. She eventually received All-Mountain West Newcomer accolades.
In her second year at the helm, Otagaki led Nevada to its second best start in program history with a 3-0-1 record. One of her players, Payton Lieb, earned the first Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week award since 2012, and two of her freshmen in Kylie Minamishin and Kendal Stovall were named to the MW All-Newcomer team. Stovall was named the Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week after posting a double-overtime shutout at Weber St. and helping the Pack to a 2-1 victory at Southern Utah. It is only the second time in Nevada history that two players won MW weekly awards in the same season.
Off the field, Otagaki's programs have been active in community service and have excelled in the classroom. To date, Otagaki's teams have collected 86 Academic All-Mountain West honors and earned the United Soccer Coaches Team Academic Award twice.
Leading the Pack since 2015-16, Otagaki has brought a wealth of coaching experience in the college game after spending 11 years between Purdue and Washington State's women’s soccer programs.
Prior to Nevada she completed seven seasons with the Boilermakers as an assistant coach. One of her main duties during her second stint at Purdue was to serve as the program’s recruiting coordinator. Her first go-around with the Boilermakers came in the 2004 and 2005 seasons as an assistant, helping Purude to two NCAA Tournament appearances.
In between stints at Purdue, Otagaki spent two years as an assistant coach at Washington State from 2006 to 2008, also seeing a majority of her time as the recruiting coordinator.
She began her collegiate coaching career as a volunteer assistant at her alma mater, the University of Washington. In addition to her college coaching background, Otagaki has worked numerous soccer camps, development programs and has coached at the club level.
As a player, Otagaki was instrumental in helping Washington to the 2000 Pac-10 championship and three NCAA Tournament appearances during her career.
She graduated from Washington in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in English, and followed that up with a master’s degree in secondary education in 2004 from the same institution.
