Draft:Kenneth Laird
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Kenneth Laird | |
|---|---|
| Born | Kenneth L. Laird c. 1970 Arizona, U.S. |
| Other names | Ken Laird, Kenny Laird |
| Education | Grand Canyon University |
| Occupations |
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| Known for | Founder, president and head coach of Stars FC |
| Title |
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| Children | 5 |
Kenneth L. "Ken" Laird (c. 1970) is an American soccer coach, soccer club executive and security business owner from Phoenix, Arizona. He is the founder, owner, president and head coach of Stars Fútbol Club (Stars FC), a semi-professional club that has competed in USL League Two since 2025, and he is the chief executive officer of Canyon Security Specialist & Consulting, a Phoenix security and investigations firm.[1][2]
Before entering the private sector, Laird spent more than two decades with the Phoenix Police Department, retiring in 2013 as a sergeant and neighborhood-enforcement supervisor. He subsequently served as assistant public safety director and later police chief at Grand Canyon University (GCU), his alma mater, and as director of public safety and emergency management for the Hartnell Community College District in Salinas, California.[3][4][2]
Laird has coached high school soccer in the Phoenix metropolitan area since the mid-2000s, most extensively at Greenway High School in Phoenix, where he has served multiple stints as head coach of the boys' program.[5][6]
Early life and education
[edit]Laird is a native of Arizona.[3] He was 43 years old in April 2013, indicating a birth year of approximately 1969 or 1970.[3]
He attended Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, earning a business degree in the mid-1990s at a time when the institution was, as GCU's own publication later described it, "still a quiet little campus on the outskirts" of the city.[3] While a student, Laird volunteered as an assistant coach with the GCU Antelopes men's soccer program under longtime head coach Petar Draksin, his first known involvement in organized soccer coaching.[3]
Law enforcement career
[edit]Phoenix Police Department
[edit]Laird joined the Phoenix Police Department, where he served for more than 22 years before retiring on May 3, 2013.[3]
Over the course of his service, Laird worked in what GCU News characterized as nearly every type of assignment the department offered "except piloting a helicopter or riding a patrol horse."[3] His assignments included investigating cold-case homicides and working as a school resource officer.[3]
In the later part of his career, Laird was a neighborhood-enforcement team leader and a supervisor at the department's Cactus Park Precinct, which covers much of northwest Phoenix.[3] In that role he partnered with neighborhood leaders through a federally funded "weed and seed" program intended to curb crime and blight in the area surrounding Grand Canyon University. GCU later credited that work with preparing him for his campus role.[3]
Laird organized a Coffee with a Cop program in the Cactus Park precinct that, by his account, grew from four attendees at its first session to roughly 1,000 participants within six months.[4] Reflecting on the effort, he said: "Events like these build slowly. People don't naturally engage with police. Once it gets going, people understand it's a partnership and not a one-way street."[4]
Grand Canyon University
[edit]Laird was hired as assistant public safety director at Grand Canyon University in 2013, joining the institution full-time nearly three years earlier than he had planned by opting out of an Arizona deferred-retirement benefits program.[3] He cited the university's rapid expansion as his motivation: "The growth (of GCU) is so enormous, I took it as a challenge."[3]
At GCU he helped build out the campus police substation, which had operated since 2010, and contributed to the GCU Neighborhood Safety Initiative, a partnership between the university and the surrounding west Phoenix neighborhoods.[3] On resourcing the growing department, he said the university would "have to be smarter about how we use our resources and asking for resources when we need them."[3]
By February 2017, Laird held the title of GCU police chief, overseeing a public safety organization that he described as comprising roughly 30 full-time sworn police officers and about 160 non-sworn safety personnel.[4] He drew a distinction between campus and municipal policing, saying, "We hire people who have personalities you want to talk to. Collegiate policing is different in that most people who come here are not coming to commit crimes of opportunity."[4]
Hartnell Community College District
[edit]Laird left Arizona in 2017 for California, serving as director of public safety and emergency management for the Hartnell Community College District in Salinas, California, from August 2017 to October 2019.[2]
Canyon Security Specialist & Consulting
[edit]Laird is the owner, president and chief executive officer of Canyon Security Specialist & Consulting, a Phoenix-based security firm incorporated on October 6, 2004, while he was still serving with the Phoenix Police Department.[7][2]
The company began as a broker of off-duty law enforcement services and later expanded into a full private security operation.[2] Its services include armed and unarmed security, executive protection, background and private investigations, safety consulting, security assessments and emergency management consulting.[7] The firm serves retail, e-commerce, residential and corporate clients, operating from the Greater Phoenix area with statewide reach in Arizona, and has been reported as employing approximately 69 people under five principal managers.[2]
Laird has been an advocate for interoperable public safety communications in the private security industry; his company subscribes to the FirstNet network. "FirstNet is a cost-effective solution that anyone in any size department can use to enhance their communication ability and their dispatch ability," he said.[2] He appeared as the inaugural guest on The Scottsdale Chamber Podcast in an episode released October 26, 2020, in his capacity as the company's chief executive.[8]
Soccer coaching career
[edit]High school
[edit]Laird's first head coaching position on record came at Agua Fria High School in Avondale, Arizona, where he led the boys' varsity program during the 2006–07 season to a 15–1–3 overall record and a 4–0 mark in the 4A West Valley region.[9][10]
He then took over the boys' program at Greenway High School in Phoenix, where he has coached in multiple separate stints beginning with the 2008–09 season.[11] MaxPreps credits him with a 100–59–7 record across nine seasons from 2009 to 2017 and a 20–11–0 record across three seasons from 2022 to 2024.[5]
Laird inherited a program that had gone 1–14–1 in 2006–07 and posted losing records in each of his first three seasons.[11] Greenway went 13–3 in 2011–12 and then 14–5–2 in 2012–13, sweeping its section at 9–0 and advancing to the Division II state semifinals, the program's deepest postseason run in decades.[11] In the 2015–16 season the Demons entered the Division II playoffs as the No. 14 seed at 10–3–1; AZPreps365 noted at the time that "Ken Laird is leading the Demons to their best record since a semifinal finish in 2013."[12] The team finished 11–5–1.[11]
Following a break during which he worked in California, Laird returned to Greenway, guiding the Demons to an 8–8 record in 2022–23 and 11–3 in 2023–24.[11] He continues to be listed as the school's head boys' soccer coach.[6]
Head coaching record
[edit]| Season | School | Division / Region | Overall | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006–07 | Agua Fria | 4A West Valley | 15–1–3 | 4–0 |
| 2008–09 | Greenway | 4A Western Sky | 5–10 | 0–3 |
| 2009–10 | Greenway | 4A Black Canyon | 3–12 | 2–5 |
| 2010–11 | Greenway | 4A Black Canyon | 6–9 | 3–2 |
| 2011–12 | Greenway | Division II, Section I | 13–3 | 0–1 |
| 2012–13 | Greenway | Division II, Section I | 14–5–2 | 9–0 |
| 2013–14 | Greenway | Division II, Section I | 6–8–2 | 3–4–2 |
| 2014–15 | Greenway | Division II, Section IV | 8–5 | 7–3 |
| 2015–16 | Greenway | Division II, Section II | 11–5–1 | 6–2 |
| 2016–17 | Greenway | 4A West Valley | 7–5–1 | 3–1–1 |
| 2019–20 | Greenway | 4A Skyline | 2–11–1 | 1–4 |
| 2022–23 | Greenway | 4A Skyline | 8–8 | 4–1 |
| 2023–24 | Greenway | 4A Skyline | 11–3 | 4–1 |
Club
[edit]Alongside his high school work, Laird built what the Surprise Independent described as "a long track record of coaching youth soccer in the Valley."[1] In the mid-2000s he coached age-group teams for CISCO Soccer Club, a competitive youth club based in the West Valley of the Phoenix area. He guided the U18B '85 squad to the Arizona state final four in 2003 and the U12B Lightning squad to the final four in 2006; an U11B Lightning squad also reached the final four during the same stretch.[13]
Stars Fútbol Club
[edit]Founding
[edit]Laird founded Stars FC in 2024 as its owner and president.[14][15] The club operates under the Stars FC Foundation, a Phoenix-based 501(c)(3) public charity formed in 2024 (EIN 99-5086288) whose stated purpose is to support the development of Arizona youth through soccer at all ages and levels of competition.[16][17]
On October 31, 2024, USL League Two announced that Stars FC would join the league for the 2025 season as a member of the Southwest Division.[18]
Mission and philosophy
[edit]Laird has built Stars FC around Christian-focused leadership training for its players alongside competitive play at the USL2 level, an approach the club summarizes with the phrase "Win, Train, Send."[19] The foundation's activities include free summer clinics and community partnerships in the north Phoenix, Peoria and Glendale areas.[16]
Move to Surprise
[edit]Searching for a longer-term home in the West Valley, Laird turned to Benny Piña, a former Phoenix police colleague who had gone on to become police chief of Surprise, Arizona. According to the Surprise Independent, the two met over lunch, and Piña's involvement was credited with bringing the club to Spirit Field on the Ottawa University Recreation Campus in Surprise.[1]
Coaching Stars FC
[edit]Laird has served as the club's head coach since its inaugural USL League Two campaign in 2025 while continuing as president and chairman.[14][20] Stars FC finished its debut season with a 1–8–3 record and 6 points, placing eighth in the Southwest Division; Phoenix native Liam Mullins, who plays collegiately at DePaul, led the team with six goals.[21][1] The club improved in 2026 to 4–4–4 and 16 points, finishing fifth in the division.[22]
Ahead of the 2026 season, Stars FC staged tryouts in December 2025 at Greenway High School, the program Laird also coaches, for both its USL Academy and USL League Two rosters, spanning the 2009 age group and older with no upper age limit. "We usually invite anyone who wants to come," Laird said.[23]
In 2026 the club also entered the USL Academy League, competing in the Cactus Division.[24]
International partnership
[edit]In September 2025, Laird's club announced a three-way developmental partnership with Medina United Football Academy of The Gambia (the academy attached to Medina FC of the Gambian first division) and Capt Sports Agency, a player representation firm. The agreement was designed to create a player pathway linking development in the Gambia with training in the United States, and included technical development for coaches and equipment support.[25][26]
Personal life
[edit]Laird is the father of five children, including two sons who have played collegiate soccer.[3] Speaking of his return to his alma mater in 2013, he said of GCU's student body: "The quality of the students we're getting from Arizona and beyond is incredible. It creates just a great sense of pride coming into the school."[3]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 Stone, Jason (May 17, 2026). "Semi-pro soccer settles upon Surprise". Surprise Independent. The Daily Independent at YourValley.net. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Link to first responders is critical for security firm". FirstNet. AT&T. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 "Longtime Phoenix police sergeant natural fit as GCU's assistant public safety director". GCU News. Grand Canyon University. April 25, 2013. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Getting to know GCU police at Coffee with a Cop". GCU News. Grand Canyon University. February 21, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- 1 2 "Greenway Soccer Coach History". MaxPreps. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- 1 2 "Ken Laird – Head Coach Stars FC USL2". FieldLevel. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- 1 2 "Canyon Security Specialist & Consulting | BBB Business Profile". Better Business Bureau. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- ↑ "Kenneth Laird, Chief Executive Officer/President of Canyon Security Specialist and Consulting". The Scottsdale Chamber Podcast. October 26, 2020. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- ↑ "Agua Fria Soccer Coach History". MaxPreps. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- 1 2 "Agua Fria Owls Soccer – Season History". MaxPreps. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Greenway Demons Soccer – Season History". MaxPreps. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- ↑ "Boy's Division II Soccer preview". AZPreps365. Arizona Interscholastic Association. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- ↑ "Champions". CISCO Soccer. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- 1 2 "College soccer players shine at Stars FC in Northwest Valley". Arizona CW7. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- ↑ "Stars FC soccer team plays in NW Valley". YouTube. Arizona CW7. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- 1 2 "Stars FC Foundation". Cause IQ. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- ↑ Staff, USL League Two (October 31, 2024). "Stars FC to join USL League Two in 2025". USL League Two. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- ↑ "About Stars FC". Stars FC. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- ↑ "Stars FC (Instagram post)". Instagram. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- ↑ "USL League Two Stats". USL League Two. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- ↑ "League Standings". USL League Two. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- ↑ "Stars FC's USL Academy and USL 2 Tryouts Set for December". Arizona CW7. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- ↑ Staff, USL Academy (March 18, 2026). "USL Academy announces 2026 Men's Division Alignment". United Soccer League. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- ↑ "Stars FC of USA announce partnership with Medina Utd FA". The Point. Banjul. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
- ↑ "Medina United inks partnership with US League 2 side Star FC". The Standard. Banjul. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
External links
[edit]- Official website – Stars Fútbol Club
Category:Living people Category:1970s births Category:American soccer coaches Category:Sportspeople from Phoenix, Arizona Category:American police officers Category:Grand Canyon University alumni Category:USL League Two coaches Category:American chief executives
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