The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's soccer team announced on July 26, 2021 the hiring of AJ Madero, who spent the 2021 spring season as a volunteer assistant with the Vaqueros, as an assistant coach.
Madero, who brings over 10 years of coaching experience, was part of the Vaqueros staff that saw the program go 6-2-2 in the spring en route to earning its first-ever national ranking in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 Poll while also earning the No. 2 seed in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament
Madero is also member of the United States Soccer Federation High Performance Department where he serves as a performance analyst for the youth national teams. Since joining the U.S. Soccer Federation High Performance Department in March 2020, Madero utilizes video to evaluate players and coaches in practices and matches to help their development.
Madero also coaches at the RGV Toros Academy, which plays in the MLS Next and USL Academy.
Prior to joining the U.S. Soccer Federation, Madero spent 10 seasons as an assistant coach and Director of Performance Analysis at Liberty University. Madero started out as a graduate assistant in 2010 and moved his way into an assistant coach’s role a year later before becoming the Director of Performance Analysis in 2017.
While at Liberty, Madero supported personnel in enhancing athletic performance and improving player development while overseeing physical development, nutrition, recovery and conditioning, and developed uses for performance data, research and innovation. Madero was also the recruiting coordinator for Liberty where he recruited 12 All-Americans and 11 National Team players and recruited Jony Munoz, who was the 2020 Gatorade National Player of the Year.
Throughout his time at Liberty, Madero helped the program to 86 victories, nine conference tournament appearances, a Big South Championship (2011), and an NCAA Tournament appearance (2011).
Madero played for Liberty from 2007-09 as a goalkeeper where he compiled a 16-4-6 record with a program record goals against average of 0.52. Madero holds the Osborne Stadium record with eight consecutive shutouts, wrapping up his career without conceding a goal at the facility and finishing with a 10-0-2 record at home.
Madero graduated from Liberty with a Bachelor of Science with a specialization in Kinesiology in 2010 and earned his Master of Science in Sports Management in 2013.
