Laban DeFriese is a Chattanooga, Tennessee native, an attorney by profession, and a USSF nationally licensed soccer coach, who has over 30 years playing and coaching experience.

He was a 1st team all-state forward for Notre Dame high school where he led the state of Tennessee in goals and total scoring his Jr. year. He played club soccer with the Redoubt association and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.








Team Operations Director and Coaching Duties:

In 2004, Laban partnered with Jon Sneider of Impact - Knoxville to bring the Impact club to middle Tennessee and create the "statewide soccer club concept"- the first of its kind in TN (now Impact U.S.A.- Nike). In addition to club responsibilities, Laban currently coaches/trains the following Impact teams for 2007-2008 season:

U5-U8 Impact Jr. Academy
U9       Impact USA - Nike  Girls 
U10     Impact USA - Elite  Girls 
U12     Impact USA - Nike  Girls

Franklin High School:  2006-2007

Laban currently is an assistant coach for the Franklin High Lady Rebels for the Fall 2006-2008.

State Championships Teams Travel: 13 State Championships

Over the last decade alone he has put together and/or coached seven (7) different top level girls youth teams that have won Thirteen (13) top division Snickers Cup Tennessee State Championships between them and three (3) top level division Finalist finishes between them. ('81 HFC, '83 MV Magic, '84 MV Blaze, '85 TNFC, 88 Impact Premier, '91 SRFC Lady Strikers and '96 Impact USA - Nike).

State Championship Teams High School: Two (2) High School State Championships

As a coach with Scott Snyder on the boys program at Notre Dame High School, the boys team won back-to-back TSSAA High School State Championships in 1995 and 1996.

Region III Tournament Success: ( '88 Impact Nike girls and '91 Lady Strikers girls)

Besides State Cup success, two teams competed successfully at the Regional/National level as well.

'88 Impact girls reached the Region III Finals in 2002 losing 2-1 to GA (Peachtree City Lazers).

'88 Impact girls advanced to the Quarter-final game in 2004 after tying the defending Region III champions in pool play(Dallas Sting). Again losing to nationally top ranked GA (Peachtree City Lazers) 2-1.

'88 Impact girls won their Pool play bracket in 2005 beating the defending Region III champions (Florida Renegades) and advanced to the Quarter-final round losing again to nationally top ranked GA( Peachtree City Lazers) in Double overtime.

'91 Lady Strikers girls team reached the Region III Semi-Finals in 2005, after winning their bracket and quarter-final game, losing only to eventual National Finalist OK 2-0 in the semi-final game.

These Region III tournament accomplishments puts both teams in a small elite class of Tennessee girls teams to ever reach the Semi-Final and/or Championship game level of the prestigious Region III tournament.

Most Recent State Champions and Nationally Ranked Teams: 

Impact 88 Premier:

This current u18 Impact girls teams has won 7 seven consecutive state championships (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006) and a trip to the Region III finals in 2002, and quarter-finals 2004 and 2005. Only 1 other team in girls Tennessee history has made the Region III finals(Cindy Parlow's 1996 Memphis FC side).

The team has had top ten and top twenty national ranking each of the last 4 years. (#7; 2002, to #15; 2005) 17 of the 18 Players on this team have already signed College Scholarships.

Stones River Lady Strikers:

Laban head coached the super successful '91 Stones River Lady Strikers from 2002-2005. During that time the team won 3 consecutive state championships,WON an amazing TWENTY-FOUR (24) Tournaments overall, and maintained a national top ten ranking. In 2005, the team reached the Semi-Finals at the Region III tournament losing to eventual national Runner up OK 2-0.

The tournament wins include, the Prestigious Raleigh Inviational top Champions "A' Flight in both 2003 and 2004. In 2004 the team beat the Region I and Region II Champions to win the Raliegh title. For the 2005-2006 season, Laban transitioned this team over to current Nike Impact Coach and Lady Strikers assistant coach of 2004 Chris Vanantta.

Olympic Development Players:

Laban has developed the following Olympic Development Region III players. These are players that ranked as the top 30 players in Region III the year they made the Olympic Develpment team for Region III.

Paige Leford '84 Blaze (Clemson Unviersity)
Natalie Dunham '85 Blaze (Alabama Birmingham University
Meagen Forrester '88 Nike Impact (Vanderbilt University)
Monica Dunham '88 Nike Impact (Austin Peay )
Ariel Cohen '91 Lady Strikers   (Ole Miss Signee)
Brittany Wynn '91 Lady Strikers (UT signee)
Dylan Jerdan '91 Lady Strikers   (SMU signee)
Dana Swartz '91 Lady Strikers   (Vanderbilt signee)

St. Cecilia Academy (All Girls School in Nashville)

Laban took over as head coach of St. Cecilia in Fall 2005. He inherited a 5-10-0 team that lost 5 senior starters. With as many as 8 underclassmen starting on the field at one time, he guided the 2005 team to its first winning season in 9 years, with a very competitive
9-5-5 record. The team also reached the Finals of the Katie Hunter Tournament in Oak Ridge, TN, losing in Double Overtime Penalty Kicks to Maryville High (AAA) power.

After that weekend, the team broke into the top 10 state rankings for DII schools and stayed there until the end of the season. All 5 losses came to bigger schools with State and/or National rankings.