Idaho State Soccer Camps
Allison Gibson enters her seventh season as the head coach at Idaho State University. Gibson was honored with her second coach of the year award during the 2009 season after leading Idaho State to a third-place tie for the regular season and a second-place finish in the Big Sky Tournament championship. Over her career she has made Davis Field a huge home field advantage for the Bengals. Since 2006, Gibson has led the Bengals to an overall 41-56-14 record and an impressive 25-13-8 record at Davis Field. During the 2011 season, Gibson had four athletes earn all-conference honors and freshman Amanda Ellsworth was named co-Newcomer of the year as well as all-conference honorable mention. Ellsworth became Gibson’s second athlete to be named Newcomer of the Year after Ashley Jones earned the honor in 2009. Jones was named All-Conference Second Team while freshman Mikaela Carrillo and junior Rachel Strawn were named All-Conference Honorable Mention. In 2010, Gibson led the Bengals to a 6-11-2 overall record. During the 2009 season she led the Bengals to a 10-8-0 season record, her best overall record at Idaho State, as well as ISU’s first ever season without a tie. Idaho State posted a 4-3-0 Big Sky record capturing a perfect 4-0-0 record in league play at home at Davis Field. The Bengals held its opponents to eight shots on goal at home and scored 13 goals at Davis Field including a 4-2 victory over Northern Arizona and a 4-0 victory over Weber State. Gibson made her second Big Sky Tournament appearance in 2009, Idaho State’s sixth appearance in history, where three Bengals were named to the All-Tournament Team: Annamarie Hofstetter, Kacey Ball and Karissa Henage-Fisher. In 2009, Idaho State had three players named to All-Conference teams, including freshman Ashley Jones who was named Big Sky Newcomer of the Year. Senior Hofstetter and junior Henage-Fisher earned first team honors while Jones earned second team. Four Bengals earned honorable mentions. In her first season with the Bengals in 2006, Gibson reestablished the soccer tradition at Idaho State, leading the Bengals to both a Big Sky Conference regular season title and a tournament championship. The tournament title earned the Bengals an automatic bid to the NCAA College Cup, where the team nearly upset 11th-ranked Utah on its home field, falling 3-2 in double overtime. Gibson earned her first Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year for her accomplishments during the 2006 season and had one of her players, Lyndsay Gensler, earn Big Sky Tournament MVP. Under Gibson’s direction, 16 Bengals have landed spots on the Big Sky All-Conference First and Second teams in addition to 18 earning honorable mention accolades. Eight Bengals have earned places on the Big Sky All-Tournament team. She places emphasis on academic achievement and on her watch, 45 Bengals also received Big Sky All-Academic honors with a program record 12 athletes earning all-academic honors during the 2010 season. During the 2007 season Gibson posted a 7-5-6 record. Gibson tied the record for the fewest losses in a season. Unfortunately a string of ties, that set the record for most tied games in a season, kept the Bengals from the Big Sky Conference tournament by one point. Gibson is the only coach in Idaho State history to have an undefeated home season in 2007 and posts the longest home undefeated streak in ISU history with 13 games from 2006-08.
Gibson came to Idaho State after a five-year stint as the top assistant at the University of San Francisco of the West Coast Conference, considered one of the nation’s best soccer conferences. While serving as an assistant for the Dons, Gibson also served as a head coach in the Region IV Olympic Development Program, for seven years. At USF, Gibson handled all matters of coaching, including practice planning, travel, scouting, recruiting and USF summer camps. She also developed a leadership workshop for student-athletes. USF’s best season was the 2004 campaign, where the Dons went 10-7-3 despite a schedule that included regional and national powerhouses such as the University of Portland and Utah. Gibson has definitely seen the best the nation has to offer, as in her last year San Francisco her team played the nation’s toughest schedule, facing 10 teams that qualified for the NCAA College Cup in 2005, including national champion Portland and North Carolina. Gibson is highly decorated as a player, leading Sonoma State University to a pair of NCAA College Cup appearances, including the Final Four in 1992 and a Final Eight appearance in 1993. She led the Cossacks to a pair of Northern California Athletic Conference championships, earning NCAC Player of the Year both in 1992 and 1993, while leading SSU to a 31-9 composite record. She also earned All-America honors both years from the National Soccer Coaches Association of American. In 2000, Gibson was inducted into Sonoma State’s Hall of Fame. Gibson then became an assistant coach at SSU, helping the Cossacks to a 29-6-1 record over the next two seasons and two more postseason trips. Ironically, SSU’s volunteer coach for the 1995 season was Gordon Henderson, who served as Idaho State’s very first head coach from 1998-2003. Gibson later went on to play professionally in Japan for three seasons with the Fujita Mercury before returning to the United States, where she worked as the Director of Coaching of the Youth Girls for the Colorado Rush Soccer Club in Denver. Gibson graduated from Sonoma State in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology, and she earned her master’s in 2004 from the University of San Francisco in organization and leadership. She holds a United States Soccer Federation “A” coaching license.
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Allison Gibson
Gibson also serves the soccer community in numerous roles outside of college athletics. She served as the head coach of the U-17 Olympic Development Program team marking the seventh year that the coach has been involved in the program.