Continuing Education

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” – John F. Kennedy

Texas State soccer’s associate head coach Henry Zapata sought to advance his skill set beyond the X’s and O’s of the pitch this past year. In doing so, he became part of the inaugural groups of collegiate coaches to receive the Credential of Coaching Excellence through the United Soccer Coaches organization.

The Credential of Coaching Excellence program was designed to elevate the standards of coaching professionalism, equipping coaches with the necessary skills and experience to excel as collegiate team leaders and programs managers. Over the course of the program, coaches committed to growing their leadership abilities, gained valuable insights and demonstrated a deep understanding of ethical coaching practices endorsed by United Soccer Coaches, The Knights Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, US Center for SafeSport and the NCAA.

“It’s something that interested me as I continue to develop as a coach and want to help this program out,” said Zapata. “Hopefully one day I’ll have my own program and be able to learn from this credentialing program.”

“I think always as a coach you want to develop and continue to learn, and Henry was very proactive in pursuing this as it went to only a select number of coaches throughout the country,” said Texas State head soccer coach Steve Holeman. “It’s been really good not only for him but for our program because he has taken a lot of the knowledge he has gained from it and applied it directly to our team and we’ve seen benefits because of it.”

Zapata was one of 60 coaches selected to participate in the pilot program. The group of coaches consisted of 40 head coaches and 20 associate head coaches/assistant coaches from across the NCAA Division I, II and III levels. Included in the group of head coaches was UCLA’s Margueritte Aozasa, who was coming off leading the Bruins to a national championship, and Texas A&M’s G Guerrieri. 

“The great thing of it is working with different coaches from different levels of Division I, II and III, and learning from them. Also, it’s a continuous kind of thing with the people that taught the classes and the mentorship of being able to reach out to them,” said Zapata.

The program lasted eight months beginning in November and concluded in June. Sessions were bi-weekly and typically consisted of Zoom meetings on Monday afternoons. There were also in-person sessions at the national coach’s convention that was held in Philadelphia, Pa. in January. The final meetings took place in Dallas in the early part of June.

Among the notable presenters during the sessions was Becky Burleigh, who was the first-ever head coach at the University of Florida and was in charge of the Gators from 1995 through 2021, and Brett Ledbetter, the author of the book What Drives Winning.

With meetings on Monday afternoons throughout the spring semester, Zapata had a conflict as the Bobcats were also practicing during those Zoom calls. Despite these conflicts, he received the full support from Steve Holeman.

“It was relatively easy adjustment. There were occasional times where he might miss part of practice or wasn’t able to attend a full meeting,” Holeman said. “The benefits of him doing this program certainly outweighed the time that he missed with the team.”

Areas from the program that Zapata has been able to bring to the Texas State program so far has been on the developmental and relationship sides.

“One of the things that I wanted to do in this program is to be able to use some of the material that I was taught and be able to instill it here at Texas State,” said Zapata. “Being able to bring the material in and adopt it to our program has been great and I think beneficial over the spring and will be throughout the season and as we bring in new student-athletes.”