Herriman • Utah Royals head coach Jimmy Coenraets knows Utah’s roads as well as anyone.
On one particular stretch of the Jordan River trail, during his daily double-digit-mile bike ride to work from his home in a Salt Lake suburb to the Royals’ training facility in Herriman, Coenraets sees the trail run straight — with a steep incline — for about four miles.
At this point, he usually smiles.
“I like to suffer,” he says with a dry sense of humor that has become his trademark. “People who know me know that.
“The more I suffer, the better it gets,” he later adds. “When the hardest parts show up, that’s when I like it. I think that’s why I also love the playoffs. This is the hardest piece of the season, so let’s do it.”
Coenraets first hopped on his bike for his morning commute last spring, around the time the Royals went on a club-record 10-match unbeaten run of seven wins and three draws circling the FIFA men’s World Cup break that helped transform a team that had never made the playoffs into a threat in the National Women’s Soccer League.
It was supposed to be a stress reliever before work, a way to get in a morning workout — he also runs 10 to 12 kilometers before each match day — and take his mind off the pressures of managing a team in a top women’s league.
“My dad used to always say: If you’re mentally suffering, you’ve got to make sure something else suffers more,” Coenraets said. “When I’m mentally suffering, I go for runs.
“If my body hurts more, I stop doubting myself — about football, about life, and I just start stressing more about my body. I just get away from the mental stress. That’s just one of the smart things my dad said to me, and I try to follow him.”
Utah Royals head coach Jimmy Coenraets looks on from the sideline during the second half of an NWSL soccer match, Sunday, April 26, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Somewhere between the long rides — he recently went on a 33-mile haul up the canyon by the University of Utah on his day off — and the hours of training, film reviews, travel and match prep, the Royals started winning like they never had before.
When the dust settled, Utah had notched 14 wins, 11 losses and five draws, good for a club-record 47 points and seventh place in the league table.
Friday will mark the first NWSL playoff appearance for the Royals, both the version that was sold to an ownership group in Kansas City following the 2020 campaign and the one reborn through expansion in 2024. The new franchise hired Coenraets as an assistant coach not long after he underwent his sixth heart surgery before his 30th birthday.
But like that stretch of the Jordan River trail, where the straightaway becomes a continuous incline, Coenraets and his club are preparing for the next difficult step.
Utah’s opponent Friday will be the second-seeded San Diego Wave — a team the Royals have never beaten or even earned a draw against.
If the Royals feel like an underdog in their win-or-go-home quarterfinal, they probably are. But they don’t see themselves that way, either.
“I love a chip on my shoulder. I love people thinking we can’t do it,” Utah goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn said. “Our motto this year is, why not us?
“Everybody loves to root for the underdog,” she added. “But we say we’re big dogs here.”
McGlynn is one of a handful of players who has experienced the playoffs, when she helped Gotham FC to the 2023 NWSL championship match before being sent off with a red card in the 97th minute against Seattle for handling the ball outside the penalty area.
Gotham held on to claim the league title, 2-1. But McGlynn — who was traded to Utah a few weeks later and has since signed a long-term extension keeping her under contract through the 2029 season — has been eager to get back ever since.
“Anything can happen,” she said, “and I’m excited to give it our all on Friday.”
Utah Royals goal keeper Mandy McGlynn (1) during an NWSL soccer match in Kansas City, Mo., Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)
The team has embraced the scrappy, underdog role as well as anyone in the NWSL, where world stars like Gotham’s Sam Kerr, Rose Lavelle and Midge Purce; Washington’s Trinity Rodman; and Kansas City’s Croix Bethune compete weekly.
The Royals have a different approach to the league, but their own stars in their own right. The list includes Kiana Palacios, the Mexican international from southern California who spent five years at Club América and set a club record with 83 goals in 162 appearances; Canadian winger Cloé Lacasse, the Royals’ all-time leader in goal contributions who had eight goals and a team-high 10 assists in 2026; and talisman midfielder Mina Tanaka, the Japanese international with a team-best nine goals who has been out since Oct. 3 nursing a hamstring injury.
Coenraets expects Tanaka to play a role in Friday’s quarterfinal, along with forward Cece Delzer and midfielder Narumi Miura, both of whom missed the regular-season finale at Gotham last weekend.
But they’ll also be able to rely on McGlynn and Kate Del Fava, the center back who has played every minute of the regular season for the past three years in a defense that conceded just 1.3 goals per match — the third-best mark in the NWSL — this season.
“The defense has gotten so much better throughout the season, and I think we’re in a really good spot right before the playoffs,” McGlynn said. “It’s going to be important to keep games 0-0 and give our team a chance to put the ball in the back of the net.”
From Utah’s perspective, the pressure is on San Diego, which is making its fourth playoff appearance in five years and trying to reach the NWSL semifinals for the first time since 2023.
“We’re putting ourselves in a good mental state,” Coenraets said. “I think San Diego has more pressure than we have. I think that’s a great position to be in.”
Friday’s quarterfinal match will kick off at 8 p.m. MT on Amazon Prime Video.