Kaig (pronounced Cage) Lightner is 37. He is founder of the Portland Community Football Club and Director of Coaching.

Kaig holds a USSF National ‘C’ Coaching License. He has been coaching and working with youth for over 16 years. He grew up in Redmond, WA and began playing soccer at the age of eight along with basketball, softball and volleyball. Kaig took a short hiatus from soccer from 2001 – 2003. During that time he was on the nationally ranked #1 rowing team at the University of Washington. As a novice rower he earned the title of most inspirational. Ultimately, Kaig found the beautiful game of soccer to be his true passion. In 2003 he came back to coaching and was the head coach of several competitive and recreational level teams in Seattle in addition to coaching at many summer camps. In 2005 Kaig moved to Portland where he was the Head Coach of a U12 girls team and Co-Coach of a U15 girls team at Eastside United FC (now Eastside Timbers). During his time at ESUFC he also ran the speed and agility clinics and was the director of the U6-U8 Developmental League. He left ESUFC in 2007 and returned to coaching recreational teams for Laurelhurst Soccer Club. It was also during this time that Kaig decided to begin the process of transitioning from living as female to living as male. This was a challenging and also incredibly rewarding process for him. In 2007 he also co-founded Transactive, a non-profit that serves transgender children, youth and their families. Kaig has also been the Program Director for various after school programs and a caseworker for the Department of Human Services. He earned his Masters in Social Work degree from Portland State University in 2012.

Recently Coach Lightner had a talk with his players about Being Authentic.