Softball
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Alma Mater:
- UCLA, '93
- Year at UCLA:
- 19th as Head Coach in 2025 (32nd Overall)
- Email:
- kinouye@athletics.ucla.edu
Kelly Inouye-Perez's Bio (PDF)
Career Highlights
• UCLA Athletic Hall of Famer (Class of 2022)
• 2-time NCAA Champion head coach (2019, 2010)
• 3-time NCAA Champion assistant coach (2004, 2003, 1999)
• 3-time NCAA Champion player (1992, 1990, 1989)
• 2-time NFCA National Coaching Staff of the Year as head coach (2019, 2010)
• 8-time NFCA Regional Coaching Staff of the Year as head coach
• 4-time Pac-10/12 Coach of the Year (2024, 2023, 2021, 2009)
• 5-time Pac-10/12 Regular Season Champion as head coach
• 11 Women’s College World Series appearances as head coach
Biography
UCLA Athletic Hall of Famer Kelly Inouye-Perez begins her 20th season as The Shelly Carlin UCLA Head Softball Coach in 2026. She owns an overall record of 873-222-1 (.797) through 19 campaigns. Inouye-Perez, who is the only person to have won an NCAA Division I Softball Championship as both a player and coach, led the Bruins to their 12th and 13th national titles as head coach in 2010 and 2019.
Inouye-Perez officially took over from Sue Enquist as the third head coach in program history on Jan. 1, 2007. Including her 13 years as an assistant coach (1994-06) and five years as a player (1989-93), this marks Inouye-Perez's 38th consecutive season in Westwood.
Eleven times, most recently in 2025, the Bruins have reached the Women’s College World Series under Inouye-Perez, including a stretch of seven straight appearances from 2015 to 2022. UCLA has made the NCAA Tournament in all 18 possible seasons under Inouye-Perez and holds an 92-37 record (.713) in the postseason, including a 21-18 mark in the WCWS. Inouye-Perez claimed her fifth Pac-10/12 Conference regular season title and first Pac-12 Tournament championship in UCLA’s final year as a member of the league in 2024. Her five Pac-10/12 regular season titles rank third-most in conference history behind Arizona’s Mike Candrea (10) and Enquist (7). Inouye-Perez closed her time in the Pac-12 leading active head coaches with 276 conference victories and ranking second with 818 overall victories.
Entering 2026, Inouye-Perez ranks second among active NCAA softball head coaches and seventh all-time with a .797 winning percentage. In addition, UCLA has been ranked in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Poll for all 295 weeks with Inouye-Perez at the helm, including 20 weeks at No. 1.
Numerous Bruins have garnered national, regional and conference recognition over Inouye-Perez’s 19 seasons as head coach. Rachel Garcia was a three-time winner of the Honda Sport Award (2021, 2019, 2018) and softball’s first two-time winner of the Honda Cup (2021, 2019), which is given to the best female athlete across all collegiate sports. Garcia was also a two-time winner of the prestigious USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award and earned NFCA National Player of the Year in 2018. Inouye-Perez has directed 28 NFCA All-Americans to 50 total citations, including 14 players to 24 First Team plaudits. The Bruins have earned at least one NFCA All-America honor in all 18 possible seasons with Inouye-Perez as head coach. Additionally, Inouye-Perez has coached 46 players to 102 total NFCA All-Region honors.
Four UCLA student-athletes hauled in eight Pac-10/12 Player of the Year awards after Inouye-Perez took the reins of the program. Garcia became one of five players in conference history to win the Pac-10/12 Player of the Year trophy three times (2021, 2019, 2018). Two of Inouye-Perez’s players – Maya Brady (2024, 2023) and Ally Carda (2015, 2014) – repeated as Pac-12 Player of the Year. UCLA totaled three Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year awards with Garcia winning the honor in 2019 and Megan Faraimo becoming the first Bruin to secure the award in back-to-back seasons in 2022 and 2023. UCLA won seven Pac-12 Freshman of the Year awards under Inouye-Perez, and took home the award in five of the school’s last seven full seasons in the conference. Briana Perez became the first Bruin to win Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year in 2022.
Forty-three players have collected a total of 96 all-conference selections in the Inouye-Perez era, and 35 of those athletes have received 70 first team accolades (excl. honorable mention). Four of her players are four-time all-conference first team recipients: Garcia, Faraimo, Perez and Stephany LaRosa.
Four players who have competed in the Inouye-Perez era of UCLA softball have gone on to represent Team USA in the Olympics. Carda, Garcia, Bubba Nickles and Delaney Spaulding all donned the Red, White and Blue at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and brought home the silver medal.
Inouye-Perez and her staff have been consistently recognized for their efforts on and off the field. For the eighth time, Inouye-Perez’s staff was awarded NFCA West Region Coaching Staff of the Year in 2025 after returning to the WCWS stage for a second straight season. UCLA has received the NFCA National CSOY honor twice under Inouye-Perez in 2010 and 2019. Inouye-Perez was an assistant coach on the 2000 and 2004 staffs under Enquist that won the NFCA West Region CSOY award. In 2024, Inouye-Perez was awarded Pac-12 Coach of the Year for the fourth time in her career, which is tied for second-most in the history of the flagship softball conference.
Inouye-Perez became the 20th member of the UCLA softball program to be enshrined in the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022.
Inouye-Perez is a link to five decades of Bruin softball success having contributed to eight total NCAA Championships, 12 Pac-10/12 regular season titles and winning 1,760 total games in her previous 37 years as a Bruin. She served as an assistant coach and played for her two predecessors, hall-of-fame-coaches Sharron Backus and Enquist.
Over Inouye-Perez’s 13 seasons as an assistant coach (1994-06), UCLA was 617-150-1 (.804) and appeared in the NCAA title game seven times, winning the NCAA Championship in the 1999, 2003 and 2004 seasons. The Bruins also won three Pac-10 titles during that span (1999, 2002, 2006) and in 2004 were named the NFCA National Coaching Staff of the Year.
Inouye-Perez’s primary responsibility as an assistant coach was guiding the Bruins’ pitchers and catchers, a list which includes many of the most honored and recognizable names in college softball. Behind the dish, where Inouye-Perez also starred as a three-time All-Pac-10 honoree during her playing days at UCLA, she helped mold and influence arguably the best catcher in the history of USA Softball in Stacey Nuveman. Under Inouye-Perez’s tutelage, Nuveman became a three-time Pac-10 Player of the Year, four-time NFCA First Team All-American and the NCAA’s all-time single-season and career home run leader.
At least one NFCA All-America award was earned by a UCLA pitcher in 12 of her 13 assistant coaching campaigns. That list includes Pac-10 Pitchers of the Year Courtney Dale (1999) and Keira Goerl (2003), DeeDee Weiman, four-time Olympian Tanya Harding and two-time Olympian Amanda Freed.
As a player, Inouye-Perez was an exceptionally strong fielder. She made her mark immediately as a collegiate player, earning All-Pac-10 First Team as a true freshman and Second Team as a sophomore, leading the Bruins to the 1989 and 1990 NCAA Championships before receiving a medical redshirt in 1991 due to shoulder surgery.
She came back strong in 1992, picking up All-Pac-10 Second Team honors as the Bruins once again won the national championship and finished with a 54-2 record, the fewest losses in a season in program history. Inouye-Perez also was named to the 1992 All-Women’s College World Series Team, going 5-for-12 (.417) with four RBI during WCWS play. She wrapped up her career as a fifth-year senior in 1993 with an NCAA runner-up finish. Impressively, Inouye-Perez did not commit a single fielding error during her final two seasons.
Among the UCLA pitchers during her five seasons as a player were Lisa Longaker and Lisa Fernandez, both of whom were named to the NCAA’s 25th Anniversary Team. During her UCLA career, Inouye-Perez played in 22 Women’s College World Series games, a mark that is tied for third-best in UCLA history behind only Lisa Fernandez and Kristy Howard (23).
Prior to college, Inouye-Perez was one of the top players during her ASA days, winning four national championships with the Panthers (1984, 1985, 1989) and the Raiders (1986). She also competed on an international level in Japan in 1985 and in Peru in 1987 (Pan American Qualifier) and followed her collegiate career with time playing on the NPF Pro Tour.
Inouye-Perez graduated from UCLA in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and earned her master’s degree in physical education from Azusa Pacific University in 2004.
Inouye-Perez and her husband, Gerardo Perez, reside in Cerritos. Along with Kelly’s exploits on the diamond, Gerardo competed as a catcher and designated hitter for Cerritos College from 1988-90 and helped lead the Falcons to the 1989 Junior College National Championship. After a stellar career at Cerritos, he went on to compete at Loyola Marymount, earning All-West Coast Conference First Team honors his junior and senior seasons. He currently teaches and coaches baseball at Gahr High School in Cerritos. The couple has two children, Mikey, a former standout on the UCLA baseball team, and Kylie, a soccer player at Long Beach State. Mikey was drafted in Round 15 of the 2021 MLB Draft with the 459th pick by the Minnesota Twins organization.
Year-By-Year Kelly Inouye-Perez Head Coach Summary
Awards Won By Players (as head coach)
• 2-time Honda Cup Winner Rachel Garcia
• 3-time Honda Sport Award Winner Rachel Garcia
• 2-time USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Rachel Garcia
• NFCA National Player of the Year Rachel Garcia
• NFCA National Pitcher of the Year Rachel Garcia
• 28 NFCA All-Americans (50 citations)
• 14 NFCA First Team All-Americans (24 citations)
• 8 Pac-10/12 Player of the Year Awards
• 3 Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year Awards
• 6 Pac-10/12 Freshman of the Year Awards
• 1 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Award
NCAA Tournament History (as head coach)
• 2019 NCAA Champion
• 2010 NCAA Champion
• 11 Women’s College World Series appearances
• 13 Super Regionals appearances
• 16-time Regionals host
• 18 NCAA Tournament appearances
• 92-37 postseason record (.713)
• 21-18 WCWS record
Kelly Inouye-Perez’s Year-by-Year UCLA Head Coaching Record
| Year | Ovr. Record | Conf. Record | Conf. Finish | Conf. Tourney | NCAA Tournament |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 37-18 (.673) | 12-9 (Pac-10) | T-3rd | -- | 1-2 (T-17th – Regionals) |
| 2008 | 51-9 (.850) | 17-4 (Pac-10) | 2nd | -- | 6-2 (T-5th – WCWS) |
| 2009 | 45-11 (.804) | 16-5 (Pac-10) | 1st | -- | 4-2 (T-9th – Super Regionals) |
| 2010 | 50-11 (.820) | 14-7 (Pac-10) | 2nd | -- | 10-0 (National Champions) |
| 2011 | 36-19 (.655) | 9-12 (Pac-12) | T-6th | -- | 3-2 (T-17th – Regionals) |
| 2012 | 36-20 (.643) | 12-12 (Pac-12) | T-4th | -- | 0-2 (T-17th – Regionals) |
| 2013 | 40-20 (.667) | 10-14 (Pac-12) | T-5th | -- | 3-2 (T-17th – Regionals) |
| 2014 | 52-8 (.867) | 19-5 (Pac-12) | 2nd | -- | 4-2 (T-9th – Super Regionals) |
| 2015 | 51-12 (.810) | 19-5 (Pac-12) | 2nd | -- | 6-2 (T-5th – WCWS) |
| 2016 | 40-16-1 (.711) | 16-5-1 (Pac-12) | 2nd | -- | 5-3 (T-7th – WCWS) |
| 2017 | 48-15 (.762) | 16-8 (Pac-12) | T-3rd | -- | 6-2 (T-5th – WCWS) |
| 2018 | 58-7 (.892) | 20-4 (Pac-12) | 2nd | -- | 8-3 (T-3rd – WCWS) |
| 2019 | 56-6 (.903) | 20-4 (Pac-12) | T-1st | -- | 10-1 (National Champions) |
| 2020 | 25-1 (.962) | canceled | canceled | -- | canceled |
| 2021 | 47-7 (.870) | 19-2 (Pac-12) | 1st | -- | 6-3 (T-3rd – WCWS) |
| 2022 | 51-10 (.836) | 19-5 (Pac-12) | 2nd | -- | 8-2 (T-3rd – WCWS) |
| 2023 | 52-7 (.881) | 21-3 (Pac-12) | 1st | 2-1 (Runner-Up) | 0-2 (T-17th – Regionals) |
| 2024 | 43-12 (.782) | 17-4 (Pac-12) | 1st | 3-0 (Champions) | 6-2 (T-5th – WCWS) |
| 2025 | 55-13 (.809) | 17-5 (Big Ten) | 2nd | 2-1 (Runner-Up) | 6-3 (T-5th – WCWS) |
| Totals | 873-222-1 (.797) | 293-113-1 (.720) | 5 Titles | 1 Title | 92-37 (.713) |
