Mary Baldwin University proudly announces the addition of Lionel Karyea as head coach of the women’s soccer team. Karyea joins the Fighting Squirrels with more than a decade of collegiate and scholastic coaching experience.
Karyea, a two-sport athlete while earning his bachelor’s degree in Sports Management at Dakota Wesleyan University, inherits a women’s soccer program that posted an 11-6-1 overall record in 2025, including a berth in the USA South Athletic Conference playoff semifinals. It was the fifth-straight year the Fighting Squirrels advanced to the USA South playoffs.
In four seasons for Dakota Wesleyan, he started 53 of 61 games, he was a two-time all-conference honoree and two-time a two-time defensive player of the year. He followed that with three seasons playing semi-professionally for the La Crosse (WI) Aris FC of the NPSL.
He turned to teaching following the 2018 season until 2024, during which he was the head coach for the La Crosse Aris FC squad, several youth programs and began a stretch of seven seasons as a girls varsity head coach at Salem High School. Simultaneously, Karyea contributed as an assistant coach on the collegiate level from 2020-through 2025 at Luther College and Viterbo University.
