OL Reign GM Lesle Gallimore on her new role and transition to the NWSL

OL Reign have found their new general manager in a familiar and local face: Lesle Gallimore, who was head coach at the University of Washington from 1994 to 2019 before moving on to serve as commissioner of the Girls Academy, a youth league started in 2020. 

Gallimore’s been around OL Reign since their beginnings as Seattle Reign FC in 2013 as a fan and supporter (plus sometimes an opposing coach during preseason friendlies, and a color commentator during the league’s YouTube stream days). 

She’s starting at a time of great transition for the club, which is currently on the market with no clear-cut timeline on when a sale might be completed. In better news on the field, the team bounced back from consecutive losses at the hands of the Courage and Gotham FC with a 4-1 win at home over Angel City this past weekend. The Reign are one of four teams currently sitting on 16 points, good enough for third place in the NWSL table thanks to their +6 goal differential.

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Starting as the Reign’s general manager a couple of months into the 2023 season, with the World Cup on the horizon and plenty up in the air is a challenge Gallimore is clearly excited about, though. She spoke exclusively to The Athletic ahead of Wednesday’s announcement of her new role.

This interview has been slightly abbreviated and edited for clarity.

Why this role and why now?

This has been my club since the beginning, as far as fandom and just as a person in soccer in Seattle. When the Sounders came here, it was just a really, really exciting time for all of us at our men’s and women’s programs at the University of Washington, for the football faithful that have been here since the ‘60s and ‘70s. So when the NWSL awarded the Reign to