JOE PAYNE | BOYS ASSISTANT COACH
Coach Payne began his soccer coaching career while student teaching in college as the girls’ varsity and JV soccer coach for two years at Davenport HS in Davenport, Iowa. From there, he went on to coach a boy’s club team for three years in Moline, Illinois. In 1994, he and his wife moved to Dallas, where he was the boy’s club coach for the Arlington Strikers U12 and U19 teams from 1994-98. His final club coaching stint was for the ‘84 Texas Spirit from 1999-2003. In their last year, the team finished first place in their division with half the team moving on to play collegiately.
In 2006, Coach Payne became the Girls’ Assistant Coach at Centennial HS, where he taught from 2004 to 2018 and coached from 2006-2015. Coach Payne has his USSF National “D” coaching license and played club soccer in his youth in Illinois and Nebraska. In high school, he was named all state his senior year and played collegiately for four years at Marycrest College, an NAIA Division I school. In college, he was a four year starter and captained the team his junior and senior years. He teaches AP English, is married, has two children who have graduated from Heritage HS in Frisco, and continues to live the dream by playing soccer on an over-40 competitive team.