ETB
JOSE ALONZO HEAD MEN’S SOCCER COACH 903-923-2268 jalonzo@etbu.edu Jose Alonzo completed his 14th season as head coach of ETBU’s men’s soccer program in 2008. Alonzo joined the ETBU staff in 1994 to start the university’s men’s soccer program from scratch. Alonzo’s first team provided a glimpse of things to come in the program. The 1995 Tigers finished 19-3-0 and won the Big State Conference. In the two years after that, with ETBU moving to the NCAA Division II level and joining the Heart of Texas Conference, Alonzo’s teams won HOT North Zone championships in 1996 and 1997 with a combined mark of 31-9 those two seasons. ETBU’s move to the NCAA Division III ranks in 1998 forced the Tigers’ playoff goals to change somewhat, as ETBU competed in the National Christian College Athletic Association while becoming a provisional D-III member. The Tiger soccer program responded with its best three-year run in the history of the program -- a combined 60-12-2 mark over the three years that included back-to-back NCCAA national championships in 1998-99. The 1998 team still ranks as the best ever in the history of the program, with a 23-1-1 record that included the first of those two NCCAA titles. In 2000, ETBU was still ineligible for the ASC championship but finished 18-5-1 and made a third straight appearance in the NCCAA national tournament. But a rash of injuries at the end of the year cut short the Tigers chances of a third straight national title. ETBU’s first season as a full-fledged NCAA member in 2001 saw the Tigers finish short of 15 wins in a season for the first time in program history. The Tigers came back in 2002 with an 8-8-1 mark before falling to back-to-back five-win seasons in 2003-04.
Overall, Alonzo still has one of the most impressive resumes ever by an ETBU coach in any program on campus -- a 161-90-6 overall record (.626 winning percentage), three conference championships and two national championships. He also has an NCCAA National Coach of the Year honor, following his team’s 1998 national championship. Alonzo received a BBA in Marketing and a B.S. and M.S. in Agriculture from Stephen F. Austin State University. He added a teacher’s certificate in Spanish and ESL from the University of Texas-Tyler in 1991. In the spring of 2000, he was awarded his Masters in Spanish from Texas A&M University-
Commerce. While attending SFA, Alonzo played soccer for four years while coaching the women’s team for a short time. He was an assistant coach at Marshall High School for three years, where he also taught ESL and Spanish. He was also a member of the Honduran National Basketball Team, an experience which allowed him to have two big thrills in his career: playing against the Harlem Globetrotters and meeting NBA Hall of Fame center Bill Russell. Besides coaching the Tigers, Alonzo also teaches Spanish at ETBU. Jose and his wife, Tami, have three children: Micah, Anna and Gabriel.
THE ALONZO FAMILY:Jose, Tami, Micah, Anna and Gabriel