Short Bio for Speaking Engagements
During his first five years as the Vice President and Director of Athletics at UTRGV, Chasse Conque (pronounced Chase Konk) has led the department through a period of exponential growth. Among his accomplishments are increasing attendance across all sports by about 60% and overall external generated revenue to an unprecedented $24.5 million in 2024.
Conque is currently presiding over $180 million in facilities enhancements across 13 capital projects taking place from 2022-27 touching all 18 athletic programs at UTRGV.
The remarkable support during Conque’s tenure has allowed UTRGV to move forward with starting football and women’s swimming & diving programs and make a move to the Southland Conference as full-time members.
In recognition of his impact on UTRGV and the Valley, Conque was named the 2024 Edinburg Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year and was promoted to senior vice president in June 2025.
#RallyTheValley
During his introductory press conference in Aug. 2019, Conque stated his intention to “Rally the Valley” behind UTRGV Athletics. #RallyTheValley has become both a rallying cry and a hashtag for not only athletics, but the university, as its meaning has grown to mean both rallying the Valley behind UTRGV and UTRGV rallying in support of the Rio Grande Valley.
UTRGV Athletics has rallied behind the Valley in a big way during Conque’s tenure, ranking sixth in the nation in community service hours in 2023-24 (5,042) after ranking seventh in 2022-23 (3,706), eighth in 2021-22 (2,433) and 20th in 2019-20 (1,526).
Conque has placed an emphasis on bringing UTRGV Athletics to both campuses, spearheading a Cameron County initiative that has seen the soccer and tennis teams play competitions, including the 2024 WAC Tennis Tournaments, and multiple teams host youth clinics in Brownsville and Harlingen. Additionally, both basketball teams played on South Padre Island in 2021-22 and 2022-23.
The Valley has responded in a meaningful way, breaking single-season and single-game attendance records for multiple sports while providing record financial support.
Attendance
UTRGV Athletics shattered multiple attendance records for the third-straight year in 2023-24, with all sports combining to welcome over 120,000 fans, a department record.
The baseball team ranked 39th in the nation in attendance, drawing a program record 62,132 fans. UTRGV had the ninth best overall attendance outside of the Power 5 while welcoming the second and third largest crowds in program history and seven of the program's 10 largest crowds since moving into UTRGV Baseball Stadium in 2002.
Women’s basketball shattered its program attendance record as well, drawing 17,128 fans across 14 games.
Volleyball broke the program record for average attendance by 41.35%, averaging 1,234 per match while drawing 12,336 fans across 10 contests, the second most in program history.
Community Investment
Conque and his team have achieved unprecedented fundraising, including a $20 million dollar gift from Robert and Janet Vackar in March 2024 that is believed to be one of the 40 largest in the history of college athletics. In total, UTRGV Athletics raised a department record $23 million in 2023-24. That is in addition to a department record $725,000 in corporate sponsorship revenue and a department record $475,709 in ticket sales.
Licensing
The UTRGV Vaqueros can now be found in stores, banks and restaurants across the Valley, as UTRGV Athletics has partnered with 5x5 Brewing Co. in Mission to create the first branded beer in the UT System – Los Vaqueros, Tio Pelon’s, whose founders are from McAllen, to create Vaqueros Especial Salsita, Texas Regional Bank to launch the UTRGV debit card, and The Jank, whose founder lives in Weslaco, to create Vaqueros Gourmet Barbecue Sauce.
Academics
Academically, UTRGV student-athletes have thrived, currently sporting a 3.35 cumulative grade point average. During Conque’s tenure, UTRGV student-athletes have earned 671 academic all-conference awards and 1,641 AD Honor Roll awards. After initially honoring student-athletes with a semester GPA of at least 3.0, Conque moved to raise the bar for the AD Honor Roll, increasing the threshold to 3.25 for the 2021-22 academic year.
The commitment to academics extends beyond the student-athletes, as Conque has built a strong working relationship with the UTRGV Student Government Association to promote internships and student employment opportunities in the department.
UTRGV Athletics is also partnering with the Hospitality and Tourism Management program to give students opportunities for real-world, hands-on experience by assisting with the implementation of UTRGV athletic events. Additionally, UTRGV Athletics employs over 100 student workers every year.
Sport Expansion
Conque was instrumental in guiding UTRGV through a successful student referendum process in the fall of 2021 that was upheld by the UT System Board of Regents in the fall of 2022 to start football, women’s swimming & diving and marching band programs while expanding the spirit program. The football team will start competition in the fall of 2025 with a practice year starting in the fall of 2024. Women’s swimming & diving will begin competition in 2024-25.
Facility Upgrades
In November 2023, UTRGV broke ground on the Vaqueros Performance Center (VPC), a new 45,000+ square foot facility that will house the football program and be used by multiple sports upon completion, which is expected by the fall of 2025.
The construction includes two practice fields, including a turf field that was completed in July 2024 and a natural grass field that is expected to be ready in the fall of 2024.
The VPC will house a new, large, state-of-the-art strength & conditioning facility for use by football and other athletics programs, an academic success center, a football locker room, football coaches' offices, a sports medicine facility, a team room with stadium-style seating, multiple meetings rooms, and additional office space to be used by other athletics personnel.
Since 2022, UTRGV Athletics has embarked on $160 million in facility upgrades impacting all 18 programs. Facilities impacted in 2023-24 include:
Vaqueros Golf Center
A brand-new facility at Champion Lakes Golf Course in McAllen including more than 4,200 square feet of space for locker rooms for the men’s and women’s golf programs, two hitting bays, a study lounge, nutrition station and viewing area, and coaches’ offices.
UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex
New buildings including more than 13,500 square feet of space for locker rooms for the men’s and women’s soccer and track & field programs, athletic training rooms, meeting rooms, and coaches’ offices.
UTRGV Fieldhouse
Interior renovations, including new seating, and a new video board and ribbon board.
UTRGV Baseball Stadium
New chairback seats, a brick backstop, new padded walls extending down the left and right field foul lines and all around the outfield, home plate club seating for an upgraded experience, and more.
Conference Championships Run Through the Valley
After hosting on average at most one conference championship per year for its first nine years in the Western Athletic Conference, Conque expanded UTRGV’s commitment to bidding on and hosting championship-level events.
Over the last two years, UTRGV has hosted four conference championships and one additional postseason event, including the 2023 and 2024 WAC Swimming & Diving Championships in Pharr, the 2022 WAC Volleyball Tournament and National Invitational Volleyball Championship in Edinburg, and 2024 the WAC Tennis Tournaments in Harlingen.
UTRGV is committed to hosting WAC Championships across the Valley, having now done so in five cities, including Brownsville, Edinburg, Harlingen, McAllen, and Pharr.
Competitive Success
UTRGV’s current athletic programs have experienced significant competitive success during Conque’s first five seasons. Some of the recent highlights include the baseball team beating Texas for the first time since 1971 on April 16, 2024, track & field sending six student-athletes to the 2024 NCAA West Preliminary Round, the volleyball team making back-to-back postseason appearances and winning the WAC in 2022, Desirea Buerge reaching the semifinals of the U.S. Track & Field Olympic Trials in the discus in 2021, men’s soccer earning top 25 rankings in both 2020-21 and 2019, and Abraham Chirchir advancing to the NCAA Cross Country Championships for the second-straight year in 2019.
#RISEup
All the above successes play into the mission statement that Conque unveiled on Sept. 16, 2021:
UTRGV Athletics will create a first-class student-athlete experience that fosters a culture of RESPECT, growth, and INTEGRITY, and supports our student-athletes in achieving SUCCESS in both the classroom and in competition.
We will be inclusive and #RallyTheValley as we inspire pride, create excitement, and ENGAGE our campus community and our region as the Rio Grande Valley’s Division I team.
Vaqueros United
The impact of UTRGV Athletics goes well beyond traditional metrics, though, as student-athletes took the initiative to launch Vaqueros United in the fall of 2020, a collaboration between UTRGV Athletics, the UTRGV Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and the campus community to motivate the community in continuing meaningful conversations of peace, equality, social justice, and human rights through the utilization of our public platforms.
While Conque was an active participant in these conversations, one of the early leaders was men’s basketball coach, Lew Hill, and everyone was shocked and devastated when learning of his passing on February 7. In perhaps the most difficult role a Director of Athletics can have, Conque and the entire department were there for Hill’s family, including his wife and kids, and the team. Conque did everything he could to support everyone who was close to Coach Hill, including spearheading an effort to hold a memorial ceremony at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
Varsity Club
Conque is passionate about reconnecting with former student-athletes, leading to the launch of the Varsity Club in July 2020. The Varsity Club is the official organization for all letter winners at UTRGV and its legacy institutions. The goal of the Varsity Club is to keep former student-athletes engaged with UTRGV Athletics following their collegiate careers, provide an opportunity for current student-athletes to have mentoring and networking opportunities with former student-athletes, and host letter winners on campus throughout the year.
Little Rock
Conque previously served as Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock from 2015-19, leading a resurgence of the athletic department. Little Rock won a combined 19 team and individual Sun Belt Conference Championships, highlighted by both the men’s and women’s basketball teams reaching the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Three Little Rock head coaches garnered Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year honors and nearly four dozen Little Rock student-athletes were named to all-conference teams.
One of Little Rock’s top athletic highlights under Conque came in 2015-16, when the men’s basketball team finished the season 30-5 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament after an 85-83 double-overtime win over Purdue. The head coach of that team was Chris Beard, who Conque hired in April of 2015. Beard is now the head coach at Ole Miss and previously led Texas Tech to the national championship game in 2019.
Little Rock student-athletes posted a department-wide GPA above 3.0 during each of Conque’s last 13 semesters, including a 3.36 GPA in the fall of 2018, during which time 124 Little Rock student-athletes registered a GPA of 3.0 or higher, 38 of whom boasted a perfect 4.0.
In 2017-18, Little Rock set a program record for fundraising, bringing in $4.3 million to increase its total to more than $11 million over the previous three years.
Conque also added a wrestling program that competes as part of the Pac-12 in the spring of 2018.
Prior to becoming Director of Athletics at Little Rock, Conque spent four years at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), serving as Senior Director of Development for the UAMS Medical Center from 2014-15 and Director of Development for the College of Medicine from 2011-14.
Conque began his professional career with Little Rock in July 2006 as the Manager of Donor Relations. He was promoted to Director of Development for Intercollegiate Athletics in Oct. 2007, a post he held for three and a half years.
Conque earned his MBA from Little Rock in 2008 and his Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Central Arkansas in 2006.
Conque and his wife, Lisa, have three daughters: twins Julianna and Sydney (12) and Adeline (10).
