{"id":192,"date":"2024-12-17T14:27:12","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T14:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/?p=192"},"modified":"2024-12-17T14:27:12","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T14:27:12","slug":"pellissippi-state-hires-first-head-womens-soccer-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/?p=192","title":{"rendered":"Pellissippi State hires first head women\u2019s soccer coach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Mariana Diaz Lopez<\/strong> has joined Pellissippi State as head women\u2019s soccer coach to build and lead the college\u2019s first competitive women’s soccer team this fall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Knoxville has given Mariana Diaz Lopez<\/strong> a lot of opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the former NCAA Division II soccer player is in a position to \u201cgive back\u201d to the community she says has always embraced her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diaz, who was a five-year women\u2019s soccer captain at Lincoln Memorial University, has been hired as Pellissippi State Community College\u2019s first-ever head women\u2019s soccer coach. The college announced in November that it is adding competitive athletics starting in fall 2023, after it was accepted into the National Junior College Athletic Association in October. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have a love for developing players by enhancing the fundamentals of the game,\u201d said Diaz, who most recently served as an assistant women\u2019s soccer coach at LMU and will graduate with her Master of Business Administration in May. \u201cI bring experience in creating training plans. I believe that challenging and improving single players will ultimately lead to team success.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diaz was born in Mexico, but grew up in Knoxville and graduated from Halls High School in 2017. Although she has been playing soccer \u201cever since I can remember\u201d and played two years for her high school team, it was her mentor Dave Goldschmidt <\/strong>and her time at his Inter Futbol Academy that helped Diaz turn soccer into her ticket to college. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy mom is a single mom, so I didn\u2019t have a father figure,\u201d Diaz explained. \u201cWhen I came to Dave at IFA at 15, he made me into a college athlete. He taught me that you don\u2019t have to spend thousands of dollars to become a good soccer player, and I want to create that environment here.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s one of the things that drew Diaz to the coaching position at Pellissippi State: the opportunity to reach out to local girls who want to continue playing soccer after high school but aren\u2019t ready to jump straight to a four-year university. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPellissippi State can help students academically and financially,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cOur in-state students can take advantage of Tennessee Promise, which saves so much money on your first two years of college, and we can focus on developing our student-athletes for their next step, wherever they want to go. Being able to provide an experience that gives players tools that go beyond the pitch will be the key to building a successful program.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diaz plans to add some international players to her roster as well to diversify the team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was always around international students as a soccer player at LMU and having international teammates helped give me a global perspective,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Mariana is an exciting coach with experience in NCAA Division II Soccer,\u201d said Pellissippi State Athletics Director Brock Evans. <\/strong>\u201cShe will bring a passionate and distinctive brand of soccer to the pitch.  Mariana has a great proficiency in coaching the technical side of the game, and she will be able to develop a high-level technical team with a drive to compete at the highest level.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diaz also will be serving Pellissippi State as a student success coordinator in the college\u2019s Stay Strong Success Center, which helps students navigate the many transitions and challenges they may encounter during their college experience. She will focus on areas such as academic planning, study skills and cultivating a sense of belonging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis will be a big piece of connecting athletes to academics and building a Panther Nation,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diaz already has 18 games scheduled for fall 2023 \u2013 10 in the National Junior College Athletic Association, two against other two-year schools and six against four-year schools, she said \u2013 and now is recruiting student athletes. Those who are interested in playing soccer for Pellissippi State should fill out the interest form on the College\u2019s Athletics webpage, www.pstcc.edu\/athletics<\/strong><\/a>, or email Diaz at mvdiazlopez@pstcc.edu<\/strong><\/a> to find out more about an identification camp she is planning for Sunday, May 21. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking for kids with great character who want to embrace the opportunity to start at Pellissippi State, who see this as a time of growth and are ready to work hard,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to give them the development they can\u2019t get anywhere else.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Knoxville has given Mariana Diaz Lopez a lot of opportunities.  Now the former NCAA Division II soccer player is in a position to \u201cgive back\u201d to the community she says has always embraced her.  Diaz, who was a five-year women\u2019s soccer captain at Lincoln Memorial University, has been hired as Pellissippi State Community College\u2019s first-ever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions\/197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}