Following a short professional soccer career, Coach Mauricio Ruiz became a volunteer coach for the University of Central Florida. His love for the college environment and being able to guide college students in the right direction led him to get his education and licensing towards coaching. After volunteering as the assistant head coach for UCF, he became the assistant coach in the summer of 2009, maintaining this position until 2014.
During his time at UCF, he developed the drive and ambition to become a head coach, to stand on a platform where he can make change and impact the life of young people in a positive way. He became the head coach of the Jacksonville University men's soccer team in 2014 and has been there ever since. Here's his advice on recruiting, transferring, and other hot topics in college sports.
Related: Recruiting Advice from DII Women's Soccer Coach, Chris Hennessey
Recruiting
When recruiting, Ruiz meets regularly with the coaching staff to discuss what their needs are, what their depth chart is like, availability of funding, and what will contribute to the team on and off the field. There is a profile that the team looks for when recruiting and Coach Ruiz, along with other coaches, considers how closely each player they are recruiting fits that profile.
Transfer Students
When recruiting players from the transfer portal, Coach Ruiz takes into account that they may have not been a good fit at their previous school. He filters through what went wrong at the player's former school to see if they are taking on baggage from somewhere else. Players are often asked a lot of questions to test their self reflection skills. This is a way Coach Ruiz can tell if they will be an asset to the team or not. He has expectations for transfer students to perform rather than a true freshman who is still developing as a collegiate player.
Related: Vassar Soccer Assistant Coach Ross Macklin | What Type of Coach is He?
Advice
Want to know how to stand out? Here's the big thing coaches like Ruiz are looking for: “Coachability is a really important trait,” he said. “Talent is easy to identify–now how does talent act in the face of adversity? That's hard.”
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* Originally published on June 7, 2022, by Finn Rice
