Allison Gibson enters her fourth season as the head coach at Idaho State University. In her first season with the Bengals, Gibson reestablished the soccer tradition at Idaho State, leading the Bengals to both a Big Sky Conference regular season title and a tournament championship. The tournament title earned the Bengals an automatic bid to the NCAA College Cup, where the team nearly upset 11th-ranked Utah on its home field, falling 3-2 in double overtime.

ISU players celebrate their 2006 Big Sky Tournament title by drenching head coach Allison Gibson with water.

Under Gibson's direction, 13 Bengals landed spots on the All-Conference First and Second place teams with eight earning honorable mention. Five Bengals have earned places on the Big Sky All-Tournament team. On her watch, 27 Bengals also received Big Sky All-Academic honors. Gibson was named Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year for her accomplishments during the 2006 season and has had one of her players, Lyndsay Gensler, earn Big Sky Tournament MVP in 2006.

During the 2007 season Gibson posted a 7-5-6 record. Gibson tied the record for the fewest losses in a season. Unfortunately a string of ties, that set the record for most tied games in a season, kept the Bengals from the Big Sky Conference tournament by one point. Gibson is the only coach in Idaho State history to have an undefeated home season in 2007 and posts the longest home undefeated streak in ISU history with 13 games from 2006-08.

Gibson also serves the soccer community in numerous roles outside of college athletics. She served as the head coach of the U-17 Olympic Development Program team marking the seventh year that the coach has been involved in the program.

Gibson came to Idaho State after a five-year stint as the top assistant at the University of San Francisco of the West Coast Conference, considered one of the nation's best soccer conferences. While serving as an assistant for the Dons, Gibson also served as a head coach in the Region IV Olympic Development Program, for the past seven years. At USF, Gibson handled all matters of coaching, including practice planning, travel, scouting, recruiting and USF summer camps. She also developed a leadership workshop for student-athletes.

USF's best season was the 2004 campaign, where the Dons went 10-7-3 despite a schedule that included regional and national powerhouses such as the University of Portland and Utah. Gibson has definitely seen the best the nation has to offer, as in her last year San Francisco played the nation's toughest schedule, facing 10 teams that qualified for the NCAA College Cup in 2005, including national champion Portland and North Carolina.

Gibson is highly decorated as a player, leading Sonoma State University to a pair of NCAA College Cup appearances, including the Final Four in 1992, and a Final Eight appearance in 1993. She led the Cossacks to a pair of Northern California Athletic Conference championships, earning NCAC Player of the Year both in 1992 and 1993, while leading SSU to a 31-9 composite record. She also earned All-America honors both years from the National Soccer Coaches Association of American. In 2000, Gibson was inducted into Sonoma State's Hall of Fame

She then became an assistant coach at SSU, helping the Cossacks to a 29-6-1 record over the next two seasons, and two more postseason trips. Ironically, SSU's volunteer coach for the 1995 season was Gordon Henderson, who served as Idaho State very first head coach from 1998-2003.

Gibson later went on to play professionally in Japan for three seasons with the Fujita Mercury before returning to the United States, where she worked as the Director of Coaching of the Youth Girls for the Colorado Rush Soccer Club in Denver.

Allison graduated from Sonoma State in 1995 with a bachelor's degree in kinesiology, and she earned her master's in 2004 from the University of San Francisco in organization and leadership. She holds a United States Soccer Federation "A" coaching license.

Gibson's Coaching Record
Season   Record    Percentage   BSC Finish
2006     10-9-1    .525         1st
2007     7-5-6     .556         5th
2008     3-12-4    .263         8th
TOTAL    20-26-11  .447         ...