Jay Harris joined the women's soccer program in the spring of 2024 after spending six seasons leading the South Carolina-Beaufort Sand Sharks. He enters the 2025 season with a 70-51-8 mark in seven years as a head coach.
In his first season in The Shores, Harris led the Bucs to an 8-7-2 record, 3-5-2 in the Sunshine State Conference. The Bucs finished eighth in the SSC, advancing to the conference tournament, where they took top-seeded Florida Tech to double overtime in the quarterfinals. Senior forward Alia Jaidi, who led the conference in goals, wasn named First-Team All-SSC, while freshman keeper Fernanda Mayrink was named Third-Team. Jaidi went on to receive Second-Team All-Region honors and she, fellow seniors Ashley Finn and Madeline Willenborg along with sophomore Katelyn Billoch were named Academic All-District.
Harris led the Sand Sharks to a 62-44-6 record as they transitioned from the NAIA Sun Conference into the NCAA Division II Peachbelt Conference. The Sharks posted program-best records in three of his last four years, with four straight 10+ win seasons. In 2023, Harris led the women's soccer team to its best record in program history going 13-4-2, including a perfect 10-0 at home.
Jay Harris' Career Coaching Record
| Years |
School |
W-L-T |
Pct. |
| 2018 |
USC-Beaufort |
8-9-1 |
.463 |
| 2019 |
USC-Beaufort |
9-8-0 |
.529 |
| 2020-21 |
USC-Beaufort |
11-8-1 |
.567 |
| 2021 |
USC-Beaufort |
10-8-1 |
.544 |
| 2022 |
USC-Beaufort |
11-7-1 |
.596 |
| 2023 |
USC-Beaufort |
13-4-2 |
.719 |
| 2024 |
Barry |
8-7-2 |
.529 |
Harris is a former professional soccer player in Europe, Asia and United States. Along with his playing career, he coached semi-professional soccer in California, where he recently won the United Women's Soccer League in 2016 with the Santa Clarita Blue Heat. While coaching with the Blue Heat, he led them to back-to-back Western Conference titles and the national runner-up in 2017.
United Women’s Soccer (UWS) is a national pro-am league composed of professionally operated clubs within the United States and Canada. UWS provides high level competition for college players, aspiring and former professionals, and international stars. UWS is the second-highest league for women's soccer in the US.
Harris has made stops at several top colleges as an assistant coach, including Catawba and Webber International. He also spent several years working overseas in Thailand, Norway and Hungary.
He holds his United Soccer Coaches' Premiere diploma, United States Soccer Federation C License and is studying for his CSCS to become a certified strength and conditioning specialist.
Harris earned his bachelor's from Tusculum in business management in 2005 and his master’s in exercise science from Concordia-Irvine in 2018.
