Texas A & M International

TAMIU Athletics - Kinesiology Convocation
RM. 107,5201 University Boulevard Laredo, TX 78041

Division 2 Texas South

Public Medium Competitive team

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Coaches

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Claudio Arias

Claudio Arias recently completed his 16th season as the head men’s soccer coach and fourth as the Director of Soccer Operations at Texas A&M International University. During his tenure, Arias has helped to transform the Dustdevils soccer facilities and the men’s soccer program into one of the prominent soccer programs in the nation.

Under Arias, the Dustdevils won three Heartland Conference Regular Season Championships, including back-to-to back titles in 2010 and 2011. He also elevated the program to new heights in 2019, finishing ranked 20th (topping out at 10th earlier in the season) in the nation in the United Soccer Coaches Poll and advancing to the NCAA Division II National Tournament for the first time in program history.

Arias has compiled an impressive 140-17-24 (.770 winning percentage) record as head men’s soccer coach for TAMIU and 183-145-31 overall record in 20 seasons as a men’s head coach.

In 2019, Arias led the Dustdevils to another 12-7-1 win season, his ninth at TAMIU. The Dustdevils posted a 7-3 conference record, finishing second in the Lone Star Conference and ninth out of 41 teams in the NCAA II Super Region IV.

Most recently, Ruben Nielsen, Elias Perales, Nadav Datner, Cem Izgec, and David Martinez were selected to the 2019 All-Lone Star Conference team. Datner also earned LSC Freshman of the Year, while Nielsen was selected to the D2CCA First Team All-South Central Region honors. Nielsen, Perales, and Datner also harvested 2019 USC All-Region Team honors. Academically, fifteen men’s soccer student-athletes were named to the 2019 Lone Star Spring Honor Roll.

Two of the most notable standouts to ever play under Arias were Daniel Hermosillo and Greg Mulamba. Hermosillo was a two-time First Team All-Red River Athletic Conference pick, while also earning NAIA All-American honors. Mulamba was a two-time First Team All-Heartland Conference pick who ended his outstanding career in 2008 by being selected as Heartland Conference Player of the Year and Daktronics South Central Region Player of the Year.

Arias was named Heartland Conference Coach of the Year in 2008 after leading the Dustdevils to a 12-5-1 overall record and 5-4-1 league mark in the team’s first season competing as an active NCAA Division II member. TAMIU established a school-record nine-game winning streak in 2008, finishing the campaign with a 9-1-1 mark over its last eleven games.

Prior to arriving at TAMIU, Arias served four seasons as head coach at Southern Wesleyan University in South Carolina. He led SWU to the 2003 Georgia-Alabama-Carolinas Conference title, with a 2-1 overtime win over No. 2 Auburn-Montgomery in the semifinals. Arias played collegiate soccer for Bryan College in Tennessee, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology. He also holds a master’s degree in health and exercise science from Furman University. After his collegiate career, Arias played in the USL for the Shreveport-Bossier Lions.

Arias and his wife, Nicole, are the proud parents of three daughters: Rebecca Nicole, Andrea Belen and Sarah Elizabeth and two sons, Christian Hugo and Lucas Claudio.

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Victor Olivares

Olivares was born in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua Mexico. He attended Lydia Patterson Institute In El Paso, Texas, for four years to later received a scholarship to attend Hiwassee College in Madisonville, Tennessee, for his freshman and sophomore year.

He graduated from West Texas A&M University in 2013 after transferring to play his junior and senior years and serving as a graduate assistant coach for one year at WTAMU.

In 2017, he moved to Toluca, Mexico to work in the second-tier division of the Mexican Professional League System for Potros UAEM as an assistant to the strength and conditioning coach.

From 2019-2021, Olivares completed a professional master's in football organized by F.C. Barcelona Methodology Department, a second master's from MBP School of Coaches and is in the process of completing a third master's in Masters in High Performance of Teams Sports (Mastercede) from the National Institute of Physical Education in Catalonia.

While in Spain, he served as an intern assistant strength and conditioning coach to a third-division local team C.E. Europa.

In 2022 Olivares joined El Paso Locomotive, a USL Championship franchise in the second division of the professional tier of American Soccer. His role as Academy Director of Coaching Development and Methodology was to educate and optimize coaches on a daily basis and to create the pathway for our academy program. At the same time, he served as also the head coach of Americas High School.

He is currently enrolled in the Technical Director License from the Mexican Football Federation - National System of Capacitation for coaches holding an "A" coaching license from FIFA-CONCACAF. Also, he currently holds a USSF ''C" License from the united states soccer federation/FIFA.

Olivares is the son of Heriberto Olivares and Irene Garcia. Brother to Jair, Miguel, and Gabriela Olivares Garcia.