Published September 1, 2026
The Orlando Pride fired head coach Seb Hines on Monday, ending the most successful coaching tenure in club history with the team sitting 12th in the 16-team NWSL table, five points outside a playoff spot with eight games remaining. Assistant coach Yolanda Thomas takes over as interim head coach, effective immediately — just over two years after Hines led Orlando to a historic NWSL Shield-and-Championship double.
Key Takeaways
- The Orlando Pride fired head coach Seb Hines on Monday, Aug. 31, with the club in 12th place in the 16-team NWSL table, five points outside a playoff spot with eight matches remaining.
- Assistant coach Yolanda Thomas was named interim head coach effective immediately; goalkeeper coach Paul Crichton also departed the club.
- Hines became the NWSL’s first Black head coach when he was promoted from interim in November 2022, and later the first Black head coach to win a trophy after leading Orlando to the 2024 NWSL Shield and Championship double.
- The firing comes roughly two years after Orlando signed Hines to a contract extension through 2026 with a 2027 option, on Aug. 7, 2024 — weeks before his Coach of the Year-winning season fully took shape.
- Orlando has lost four of its last five matches and has struggled to score outside of forward Barbra Banda, whose 13 goals account for half the team’s total this season.
Orlando Pride Fires Seb Hines Two Years After NWSL Double
The Orlando Pride announced Monday that they had parted ways with head coach Seb Hines, effective immediately, with goalkeeper coach Paul Crichton also departing the club. Assistant coach Yolanda Thomas, who has been with Orlando since 2023 and served as head coach for the U.S. Under-23 Women’s Youth National Team during two camps in 2025, will lead the team on an interim basis for the remainder of the season.
“We want to express our gratitude to Seb for the dedication, leadership and professionalism he brought to the club during his time with us,” Orlando Pride general manager Caitlin Carducci said in a statement, adding that the club believed a leadership change was appropriate given its long-term vision. Owner Mark Wilf called Hines’ legacy “undeniable.”
That legacy is real. Hines joined Orlando as a volunteer assistant coach in 2018, was promoted to interim head coach in June 2022 after Amanda Cromwell was placed on administrative leave, and took over full-time that November — becoming the NWSL’s first Black head coach in the process. Two years later, he delivered one of the most dominant seasons in league history: Orlando started 2024 unbeaten through 23 matches and won both the NWSL Shield and NWSL Championship, a double that also made Hines the first Black head coach to win a trophy in league history and earned him NWSL Coach of the Year honors.
Why It Matters
The speed of the fall is what makes this firing notable. Orlando signed Hines to a contract extension through 2026, with a 2027 option, on Aug. 7, 2024 — roughly two years and three weeks before Monday’s dismissal. The Pride reached the 2025 semifinals despite losing Barbra Banda to a season-ending injury during that campaign, but 2026 has been a different story: Orlando sits 12th in the 16-team table, five points outside the playoff line, having lost four of its last five matches — a stretch that included a 1-0 win over Washington Spirit sandwiched between defeats. The team’s scoring has leaned almost entirely on Banda, whose 13 goals account for half of Orlando’s total output this season — a level of dependence on one player that’s made the offense easy to game-plan against as the campaign wore on.
Hines’ significance extends beyond any single season’s results. As the league’s first Black head coach, and later the first to win a trophy, his tenure carried weight well beyond Orlando’s own standings — a marker of representation in NWSL coaching ranks that took until 2022 to reach for the first time.
What Comes Next
Thomas inherits a team with real, if difficult, playoff math: eight matches remaining and five points to make up on the teams currently occupying the final postseason spots. She takes over having already coached at the U.S. Soccer level with the Under-23 national team, giving her some experience managing a group under pressure, even if this is her first NWSL head coaching assignment. For Orlando, the more important marker than any single result is whether the club can find scoring outside of Banda before the season runs out — the issue that, as much as any single result, defined Hines’ final months in charge.
Conclusion
Seb Hines’ Orlando Pride tenure began as an emergency fill-in during a league investigation and ended, two years after a historic double, as a cautionary tale about how quickly form can turn in the NWSL. His legacy as the league’s first Black head coach and first to win a trophy isn’t going anywhere. But with eight games left and a playoff spot slipping away, Orlando decided Monday that legacy alone wasn’t enough to save his job — and now it’s Yolanda Thomas’s turn to try to salvage what’s left of 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Orlando Pride fire Seb Hines?
Orlando fired Hines with the club in 12th place in the 16-team NWSL, five points outside a playoff spot with eight matches remaining, after losing four of its last five games. The club cited its long-term vision rather than a specific incident.
Who is Orlando Pride’s new head coach?
Assistant coach Yolanda Thomas was named interim head coach effective immediately. She has been with Orlando since 2023 and also served as head coach for the U.S. Under-23 Women’s Youth National Team during two camps in 2025.
What did Seb Hines accomplish with Orlando Pride?
Hines became the NWSL’s first Black head coach in November 2022 and led Orlando to a historic 2024 NWSL Shield-and-Championship double, becoming the first Black head coach to win a trophy in league history and earning NWSL Coach of the Year honors.
Can Orlando Pride still make the 2026 NWSL playoffs?
It’s a real long shot but not impossible. Orlando sits five points outside a playoff spot with eight matches remaining, and the club’s scoring has depended heavily on forward Barbra Banda, who has 13 of the team’s goals this season.