University of Texas Permian Basin Women’s Soccer – Coach Elmer Zelaya
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Elmer from the University of Texas Permian Basin Women’s Program. We talk about how they focus a lot on local recruiting. He describes their new $30M athletic facility. Lastly, we discuss their league’s toughness and the need for fitness. Learn more about the University of Texas Permian Basin Women’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Elmer Zelaya of the University of Texas Permian Basin. Welcome coach.
Coach: Glad to be on. Thanks for having me, Matt.
Matt: Yeah, thanks for being here. Well, um, Let’s talk a little bit about your women’s program there in Texas.
Uh, but first, let’s, I guess let’s start talking on the recruiting side of things. Um, you know, the season’s just wrapped up, so I’m sure you’re, you’re getting hot and heavy into it right now. Um, w when are you starting to talk to players in terms of what year? Um, uh, and, and are you working on mostly 20 threes right now, or 20 threes done?
You’re working on 20 fours. What does that look like.
Coach: Well, sir, currently, well, I start in the summer talking to both 20 threes and 20 fours. Obviously this past summer we were able to talk to 20 fours. Um, but once the season, now I’m looking during the season, you stay in touch with the 20 fours and obviously majority time spent is with those 20 threes connecting, establish that relationship.
Um, and now once the season is, it is just hitting hard on those, on those 20 threes that you’ve been talking to, if, you know, if they haven’t committed yet, you know, trying to, you know, close a deal, um, on, on those recruits. Um, and you know, if, you know, if they moved on finding, you know, other 20 threes, um, available and [00:01:30] still and still talking to those 20 fours.
Um, but yeah, right now I’m just hitting heavy on, on 20 threes. , you know, actually just establishing that, that contact of, uh, with the 20 fours.
Matt: Okay. Are there kind of must hit events that, that you’re going to right now to, to look at players and find players?
Coach: Uh, yeah, so this past weekend I was actually in Dallas.
Um, I think, uh, being as West Texas I think is very important to, to have that. To get those founda, those players, um, in the DFW area. Um, you know, Dallas, the DFW area breeds, you know, talented women soccer players. Um, so I think, uh, U T P B never had that connection or never established that foundation with those players in those areas.
Um, so that’s kind of been my, my bread and butter, like to go to these past two, three weeks. Um, this is, like I said, this is that past. , I was there for the Dallas, um, kicks showcase, unfortunately weather, um, kind of canceled that one. But I was able to attend a Texas cop. Um, you know, they, they had turf fields available, so went out, watched, uh, some 20 threes and lot, lot of 20 fours.
Um, but yeah. And then, um, yeah, so that’s kind of my, that’s one common focus on in staying in the, in the Dallas area. Obvious. , uh, when I can, uh, I think I [00:03:00] missed the, uh, the showcase in Phoenix. Um, but trying to catch those staying in, in state and also couple around close by, um, other states and other, yeah, sure.
Matt: Uh, what about camps? Do you guys run any camps? Do you or, or, or other staff work at, at other people’s camps to, how do camps fit into your recruiting process?
Coach: Uh, yeah. Yeah, I do work camps. Um, I worked the, um, I worked a couple of exact camps. Um, but we do have camps here. We had, we had two camps over the summer.
Um, really good. We had a ID camp, and then we had kind of like a 77 camp, um, 77 camp. It was really successful. Id camp with lower numbers, but uh, it was more for, for local. Kind of same thing when I, when I first got here, U T P. Never done camps on the women’s side. Um, so it was just kind of same thing, just starting it up and trying to slowly build up, uh, your reputation and, and you know, just kind of just have an ID camp runs successfully regardless of the numbers.
Um, so yeah, we’re looking, we’re looking at, uh, at the winter ID camp right now, um, just kind of dates right now. I’m not familiar with the, with the region here, with the area here, but I know January, February is kind of a. Tough month here, like with, with the weather and things like that. So just right now, just kind of finding that date and, um, and finalizing that winter id, [00:04:30] but I do plan to have it at that ID camp, um, whether it’s in the middle of high school season or, or kind of the tail end or beginning before we start our spring season.
So. Okay.
Matt: Well, I, looking at your roster, you guys kind of got a mix of. Let’s say regional folks and, and international. So, so how does international recruiting kind of fit in and, and what’s, what’s kind of the balance there between international and domestic for you?
Coach: Yeah. Um, honestly, usually just trying to get the best players regardless of, of where they’re from.
Um, uh, I know in the past, um, with internationals here, we, we have a really good. I think we offer a good financial package, um, for out-of-state or in-state. Um, you know, we have an out-of-state waiver, um, that helps us get those internationals or out-of-state, um, then bring ’em on if, you know, if they get awarded any kind of academic money or athletic money, you know, they, they’re paying in-state tuition.
So that’s why, um, we’re fortunate enough to, to have that kind of almost ba same balance of international and. And domestic kids here. Um, you know, but, uh, you know, my, my priority is, you know, I’m looking more to be heavy on the domestic side. Um, and whether it is, you know, freshmen or Chicos or, and then, you know, [00:06:00] look obvious, obviously looking out for those internationals who, you know, who, who have the potential to play at a D two level and, you know, wanna be here.
Um, and you know, if we’re fortunate enough to bring them.
Matt: Well, you mentioned, you know, you’re always looking for the best players, right? So whether it’s at camp or, or through video or watching a tournament or something, what, what kind of defines a best player for you? What are some of those attributes, whether it’s on the field stuff or off the field, stuff that that really makes you wanna say, okay, we want that person here at our school.
Coach: Yeah, so I, um, I look first, I look off the field. I look at their, um, I look at their gpa, uh, look at what, how. What club, what, sorry? What extracurricular activities. They’re involved with it, you know, at their school, you know, in the community. Um, pretty much whatever their resume, you know, they, they whatever they, whatever on their resume.
I, I kind of look into, uh, and then I look on the, on the soccer side of it. Um, you know, are they on video, are hard work and. , do they give a hun? Do they have that, that engine to just keep going? You know, do they, are they a team player? Are they, um, do they get frustrated easily? Uh, obviously you don’t see that much from the highlights because, um, you know, they send you kind of the best clips.
But for those recruits that kind of send me those full game clips, or when I’m fortunate enough to catch a game, you know, that’s what I, that’s what I look at. Um, regardless, you know, obviously everybody’s gonna look at the, the most talented kid, but you know, like they say, [00:07:30] you. Hard work piece talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
So I’m kind of like looking for those kids. Just, just grinders, you know, kind of kind. Cause that, I mean, that represents myself too. You know, I kind of first in the office, last out in the office, you know, just kind of work until, you know, until my, to my fiance tells me to, to come home. But, uh, no, but I’m looking at those similar attributes for, into recruits.
just because, you know, you get a team like that and then they commit into, into goals. Um, and you know, obviously, you know, when you have a team, a team belief like that, it just, you know, it’s special and it, it has good outcomes. For sure.
Matt: Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school. I’m sure there’s some folks out there not familiar with utpb.
Yeah. Uh, so you. Kind of give us, uh, some background, some, some interesting insights into the school that maybe we’re not gonna learn just from going through the website.
Coach: Yeah. I think, uh, one thing you probably won’t see is, um, our, our really nice 30 million acle athletic facility here. Um, it’s just two years old, um, is built think right after Covid, um, or summer after Covid.
Um, it. Honestly, one of the nice facilities I’ve seen D two s and some in major D one s. [00:09:00] Um, and I, I, you can’t see it, you can only see the outside, um, if you kind of Google it. But inside the facilities top notch, the weight rooms world class, um, you know, training rooms top notch, um, with, with just five different kind of, you know, pools.
Like we got hot tubs cold, but cold. , we got a kind of a physical therapy, uh, pool with treadmills. I mean, just a lot, everything there to kind of have the athlete from rehab to rehab, um, just from, yeah. And, and even just the injury prevention. And we have doctors that come here once a week. Um, we have x-ray machine, you just, things like that.
You just, you don’t see em, um, very much D two programs and, and the resources. In our, our locker rooms right here, walking distance to our, our, our game field, our game fields, turf. Um, you know, we just added this tailgate kind of experience for, for our, our community, our fans that come out. Um, it’s picked, it really picked up really well towards the end of the year.
Uh, and then just, just the resources here that we have in West Texas. It’s, it’s, , it’s untapped. Um, and it, it’s, I think it’s, it’s very special. Um, you know, obviously our campus speaks for itself, being a part of the University of Texas, uh, school system. You know, we have great academics, um, you know, offer a bunch of majors.
[00:10:30] Um, but yeah, I, I, you know, when we have recruits come on campus or when we talk to a recruit, you know, especially international outta state, um, you know, kind of. What I end my calls with is a kind of a video tour and they’re just, they’re just amazed. Um, cause it’s, it’s special, um, you know, kind of benefits of having a football team, you know, kind of use, use, use their, use their resources as well, you know, to help us out.
But no, it’s our immediate room’s. Awesome. So it’s just, like I said, it’s one of those things you won’t see on, on the. , but it’s hopefully they add it soon. So so more recruit
Matt: can see it. Well, you mentioned, you mentioned academics, so, you know, how do your student athletes kind of balance the, the, the rigors of both being a college soccer player and the academic side of things, and kind of what support systems does the school offer to help out the players?
Coach: Yeah, so, um, majority of our students, you know, tell majors, you know, we. Some engineers, some pre-med students, some nursing students, um, you know, business students. Um, to juggle all that is, is tough on, uh, you know, that alone. But, you know, some of ’em have jobs as well, um, that they have kind of work around, you know, soccer school.
Um, but no, our, I think our resources here, um, that we offer on the athletic department, it’s really good. You know, we have a athletic academic advisor that she. [00:12:00] Beyond, um, her job description to, to help every athlete. Um, and then also just the, the academic advisors on that. Um, for the individual athlete, it just, they’re, they’re so helpful.
Um, you know, I always hear good things about, um, their academic advisors when, when it comes time to register classes because, you know, the, the, the, they’re the, the advisors care and you know, they’re like, they want ’em. Succeed. So they, they know the kind of the, the, the, the busyness of, you know, when they’re in season and outta season.
So in season, you know, they try to not just give ’em classes that they need, but obviously not tough classes where they fall way too behind. Um, you know, obviously the harder classes more in the spring, but they just keep ’em on track so they don’t, uh, have to take an extra semester or I have to do summer school.
You know, they can take that time off to, to. Focus on themselves or focus on, you know, more soccer or whatever they wanna do, but have that freedom to do it in the summers instead of just taking summer school just to catch up. Um, but yeah, I think our girls here do a really, really well job of balancing that.
You know, we all, we also do study all hours here. Um, all the girls go in and do it, uh, you know, um, during the week. Um, and yeah. Most of our girls are tutors as well, so like, so we, we don’t have a problem here academically wise, but we just, yeah, it, uh, [00:13:30] I think it, it speaks highly for our athletes here. Just they, they do really well academically regardless of everything they, they have going on.
Matt: Okay, great. Well, , can you kind of walk me through what a typical week during the season would look like for a player in terms of, you know, meals and classes and practice and kind of what your game cadence is and just, just an overall, uh, viewpoint of, of what a new student athlete would be walking into?
Coach: Yeah. Um, so here we, uh, we do practices in the kind of mid-afternoon. . Um, so athlete would wake up if she has am CLA 8:00 AM class, go, you know, have breakfast before in in a dining hall, um, if they live on campus. If they live off campus, obviously, you know, they’re on their own. They do whatever, you know, cook themselves by themselves, but go to class.
Um, then we have, um, kind of training room hours where they can come and see. Um, they kinda have the training room to themselves, um, so they can get, they’re not wait. Around, uh, for other athletes in the, and then obviously then they go back to class. And then once again, we practice from about four to six.
Um, so they come back in the training room, they weren’t able to go earlier. Um, get anything, need, you know, get done whatever they need to get done. Um, you know, have practice after practice. Uh, we have like kind of a fuel room in our locker room, so [00:15:00] we have snacks in there so they can eat before and after.
and obviously they go dining room, um, for dinner, dining hall, for dinner. Um, and then some of ’em go straight into some study hall hours or, um, whether it’s work, you know, a lot of ’em, like I said I mentioned earlier, a lot of ’em have jobs. They lo work on campus a lot, so they kind of squeeze that. If they couldn’t squeeze it in before practice, they squeeze it after in practice.
And then that just kind of on a typical day where we don’t, like, we don’t have any games like a day before the game obviously. , uh, have film before practice go out, um, have that walkthrough and you know, kind of similar things. And then depending on the week, uh, we would’ve multiple film sessions with, with players, um, if we had multiple games that week, obviously.
But, um, this is kind of the breakdown is just wake up class. Either you work or you get some treatment in, um, you go back to class, either film session or, or treatment session, practice after practice, um, then, you know, dinner on their own and then more academic. So we don’t, we don’t have, we don’t try to keep ’em too much away, um, from, from academics and, and work.
Um, but you know, so that’s why we have that two hour. So we try to feed fit in. If we need to have meetings, we’ll do [00:16:30] it beforehand or, you know, we kind of schedule it with the, with those, with the team, um, prior and, and kind of find a time that works for everybody if we can’t get it in that practice time.
Matt: Okay. Well, let’s, let’s shift gears. Talk a little bit more about the team and the soccer side of things. Um, you know, as you’re recruiting right now, do you have a, a target roster size in mind each year that you find is ideal?
Coach: Yeah, I think, um, I think between 30 or 32, um, it a good roster size. Um, this league is tough.
Um, we play a lot of games. . So being, I mean, we also, we do emphasize on being fit as a team, but you know, fitness can only take you so far. You know, more games, you play the physical, this division is physical, so it wear the wear, the wear down the body. Um, so that’s where our roster size come, comes in play.
Um, we had, I think 26 this past season. Uh, I don’t think that was enough. Um, you know, We just, we, we didn’t have, like I said, we didn’t have that size, the roster size we wanted, so it kind of hurt us in some games when the teams were just subbing. Um, the second halfs just a lot, sub 10 to 12 players while we were subbing three to four, three to five.
So it is tough. Um, so that’s why I kind of roster size 30 to [00:18:00] 32. I think it’s, it’s ideal. I think it’s, it’s good enough to to, to help. Be more competitive in those tougher games later in, during the stretch of the season. Um, and, and just, you know, it gives our girls starters a break. And then just give opportunities for, you know, underclassmen, you know, other, other upperclassmen who don’t see much playing time, get playing time, because now we have that roster size.
Um, we have the quality. , um, of the, of the rush of the bench. And so then come in and, and keep the level the same. So that, that’s what I’m looking at, uh, as I’m going in, in this recruiting class.
Matt: Okay. Well, can you talk to me about kind of your style of coaching and theme style of play, what you guys are looking to, to implement there when you’re, when you’re in season, during games?
Coach: Yeah. Yeah. So. My, my coaching style, um, I’m very possession style based, you know, I love to keep the ball. Other programs where I’ve been a part of the coaching style kind of similar ways. So I kind of adapted that. Uh, cuz it work, it works. Uh, long as you get, like I said, you get the right type of players.
Um, the commitment from ’em and, and to buy in into that time of. That type of planes that also they have to be used to it. Um, it can, you can have really successful seasons. Um, but yeah, so [00:19:30] possession style base, um, just kind of looking to be athletic, um, in, in the midfield, uh, and kind of have pacey forges up, up top.
Um, but yeah, I look, I look at athletic being technical, um, like I said in the mid. And kind of building out the back too. So our goalkeeper has to be really technical, good with their feet, comfortable in, in precious situations, um, to just, to play the ball, um, without, you know, just, just playing it in the hurry.
Just being comfortable in the ball and being able to break lines, um, you know, from the goalkeepers to, from the senate, black to midfield and, and we built and we have those play makers, you know, determine what kinda, uh, attack we’re gonna. Okay.
Matt: Well, you know, we’re, you mentioned it a little bit, uh, but we’re, you know, now we’re in the off season, so can you just gimme a very broad strokes overview of what your players are gonna be doing between now, now that the season’s over and August when they.
Get ready for the next season. What does that off season program look like?
Coach: Hmm. Yeah, so right now, uh, um, well being off season right now, we, we can’t do much. So they’re on their own. So a lot of the girls are, are doing things, doing their own things in the, in the weight room, kind of working on whatever they needed to work on, um, from the summer.
And, um, but once we come back, uh, for the Springs, um, semester, [00:21:00] kind of work on, um, our strength and conditioning more. We’ll, we’ll hit weights, but not as to, to get, to get bigger as far as just getting leaner, stronger, quicker. And kind of talk with the strength coach about that. Just get ’em faster, get him quicker.
Um, so we’ll do a lot of, he makes a lot of, some, some weights, some body weights exercises, um, but do a lot of, um, acceleration drills. Um, uh, also we do, we’ll stay fit so we’ll, we’ll do some, uh, Endurance, uh, exercise as well. Um, but, and then once we, we get more time on the ball, you know, actually that’s when we’ll we’ll hit the field, um, spend and just kind of emphasize on, on the possession style and, you know, doing a lot of possession drills, um, a lot of possession, um, like small, small sided possession gr uh, games.
uh, and then lead to, to 11, 11 games and then, you know, have those spring games. Um, we’re looking to have five spring games, um, in the march, in the month of March and April. Um, and then from April to the end of the school year, uh, kind of same thing. We won’t be able to to do much with them. So once again, there, we’ll, we’ll give them a plan, um, to follow for the summer and they follow that plan.
And obviously, you know, work. What they need to work on individually. And then, um, then we’ll have a couple looking to play summer ball. [00:22:30] Um, so looking for U W P S L teams or, um, if they’re freshmen coming in, still playing with their, with their club teams over the summer, just trying to stay fit, you know, touching the ball.
Um, and then once, once they come back in August and half preseason. Two days and, you know, kind of same thing, established that relationship, that team, that team chemistry that we’ve built in the spring for the new, new players coming in, in the, in the fall. Um, and yeah, just kind of having them to adapt to, to what we’ve already built.
And, uh, in the spring, doing everything in preseason and back. All right.
Matt: Well, coach, we’ve talked about a lot of different things, covered a lot of ground, and I always like to end these the same way. And that’s what didn’t we talk about. Uh, is there anything else you want to let us know about the recruiting process, about the school, about the team, or anything else?
I give you the last word.
Coach: Yeah. Um, like I said, a lot of people don’t know about, uh, university of Texas Permian Basin. Um, but you know, we compete in Lone Star Conference on D two. Uh, we compete with dvu. Angelo State, you know, really good schools. Um, but I think this year we, we kind of returned the program around.
Um, and, you know, we’re, we’re trying to compete. Um, we’re starting to get those girls to buying in, uh, same thing. We’re getting those recruits like, okay, like starting to show interest. But, uh, like I said, I just, for any [00:24:00] kind of, I guess anyone listening, uh, and if you’re a recruit, definitely Look, look, look us up.
Look, look into. , um, you know, academically and, uh, uh, you know, on, on the soccer side. But yeah, I, I think we’re, we, we have, we’re, we’re trending forward, um, and I think we’re, we’re, we have some exciting things coming up and, and in the spring, and then obviously we’ve looking to have a better season in the fall.
So, uh, if any recruits you’re interested, please, you know, like I said, look into us, reach out, and, uh, like I said, I think, I think. Sorry. We’re, we’re, we’re build, we’re building something special here, so I’m looking to continue there.
Matt: Awesome. Well, coach, we wish you the best of luck in, in that building process, and, uh, we’ll keep an eye on you, see how you guys are doing next season.
And if you’re in the, uh, if you head out to Philly for the coaches convention, uh, swing by and say hello. All right.
Coach: All right. I appreciate that, man. Thank you for having me. Yeah, thank you. All right.
