Amy Griffin

Hometown: Federal Way, Wash. High School: Decatur Last College: Central Florida (1987)

Position: Associate Head Coach Experience: 16th Year

Amy Griffin Photo Gallery

A former goalkeeper with the United States National Team, Amy Griffin enters her 16th season on the Washington women's soccer coaching staff in 2011. She was promoted to associate head coach in August of 2005.

Griffin has also spent the last three years as the goalkeeper coach for the U-17 United States Women's National Team, leading the team to a silver medal in the inaugural Women's U-17 World Cup in New Zealand in 2008.

The former Amy Allmann was hired as an assistant coach at UW on March 26, 1996 after serving as the head coach at the University of New Mexico the previous three seasons.

A native of Federal Way, Wash., Griffin was reunited with Husky head coach Lesle Gallimore who she served with as an assistant at San Diego State in 1991 and 1992.

During four seasons from 1999-2002, Griffin mentored Hope Solo, who was the U.S. National Team's goalkeeper for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2007 World Cup and is training for the 2011 World Cup. Solo was the 2001 Pac-10 Player of the Year as well as a two-time finalist for the Hermann Trophy and Missouri Athletic Club Award. She also is UW's all-time leader in saves (325), shutouts (18) and goals against average (1.02).

Solo played in 2003 with the Philadelphia Charge of the WUSA. She was the fourth overall selection in the WUSA Draft on Feb. 2, 2003. She now plays in the Women's Pro Soccer league for the St. Louis Athletica where she was named to the inaugural WPS All-Star Team after earning the most fan votes of any player in the league. She was also named the league's Goalkeeper of the Year and recently earned U.S. Soccer's Female Athlete of the Year honor.

Griffin's mentoring of Solo was critical during the Huskies run to the 2000 Pac-10 title as eight of nine conference clashes were decided by one goal, including four 1-0 decisions.

Who better to coach such quality talent than Griffin, a former world-class competitor.

Griffin's lengthy list of playing credentials is impressive. She was a member of the U.S. National Team from 1987 to 1991, playing on the team that won the first women's World Cup in 1991.

She played four years with the U.S. National Team, collecting 24 caps. In 23 career national team starts she posted a 12-8-3 record with a 0.99 goals against average.

Griffin helped UW reach the 1996 NCAA Tournament in her first season, tutoring Tina Thompson who finished her career as UW's leader in nearly every goalkeeping statistic.

In 2004, Griffin mentored goalkeeper Kelsey Rasmussen who played every minute of every game. She helped Rasmussen register a school-record 10 shutouts in 2004. That stellar goalkeeping helped the Huskies advance to the Elite Eight.

The Huskies returned to the NCAA Tournament in 1998 despite injuries that attacked the goalkeeping depth. Griffin worked with three different goalkeepers en route to the playoff berth.

Prior to her San Diego State stint, Griffin was an assistant coach at Santa Clara from 1989-91. She was also an assistant at her alma mater, Central Florida, after graduating in 1987 with a B.A. in organizational communications and a minor in health.

Her coaching career began as an assistant coach in 1987 at Lyman High School in Orlando, Fla. Griffin was one of the first nine women to obtain a United States Soccer Federation (USSF) level "A" coaching license. She is active in the Olympic Development program and coached at the 1995 U.S. Olympic Sports Festival.

Griffin spent three years at New Mexico where she started the program in 1993. The Lobos posted a 27-24-1 record under Griffin, including a 10-7-3 mark in 1995 en route to a second-place finish in the Western Athletic Conference.

Griffin's coaching ability has not gone unnoticed on the national level. In 1998, she became a staff coach for both the NSCAA and the U.S. Soccer Federation.

She spent much of the summer of 2007 serving as an assistant coach with the U.S. Under-16 and U-17 women's national teams and working on the U-14 national team identification staff.

A graduate of Decatur (Wash.) High School and member of the F.C. Royals club program, Griffin played at the University of Central Florida where she was named the adidas Goalkeeper of the Year in 1987. Central Florida earned NCAA Tournament invitations three times during Griffin's collegiate career.

Griffin was inducted into the Central Florida Hall of Fame in 1999, the school's second women's soccer honoree. The first was her teammate at UCF and former U.S. National Team standout Michelle Akers.

During her playing career, Griffin earned five gold medals and one silver as a participant at the Olympic Sports Festival.

She played on the 1998 and 1999 USASA national over-30 club champions.

Griffin has served broadcast commentating stints with NBC, ESPN and Fox Network's coverage of soccer. She provided analysis for ESPN2 during the 1995 and 1999 women's soccer World Cups and was the color analyst for NBC's 2000 Sydney Olympic coverage.

Amy and her husband, Jack Griffin, have two sons. Nicholas was born Sept. 30, 2001 and Benjamin was born Aug. 11, 2003.