Brenda Ortiz is in her first year as the head soccer coach of the Putnam City High School girls soccer team. While she loves coaching soccer, it was not something that she sought out, instead it seemed to find her. 

“When I was teaching physical education at the middle school, they needed a girls soccer coach,” she recalled. They automatically came to me because I played soccer in college.”

When asked if any of her coaches in the past had a big influence on her, she had a definitive answer.

“I would honestly say every single coach that I have had in club soccer, college, even coaches I’ve had in cross country and track in high school and college have all led me to become a leader,” she said. “I’ve had a very diverse number of coaches, I’ve even had coaches from different countries. For every single one of them to have always picked me as captain, or one of the captains just shows that I have a natural leadership ability.”

One coach that Brenda looks up to the most would have to be Jill Ellis, the former coach of the USWNT and UCLA women’s soccer team. 

“If you look at her record, she is one of the greatest coaches of all time,” she said. “She has an outstanding record, at every single place that she has coached at. If you look into her background from her coming to the US and starting to play soccer at an older age it’s crazy. She is a very inspiring person and a lot of my coaching philosophy comes from her.”

There are a number of aspects of coaching that Ortiz appreciates the most, but there is one that she really appreciates.

“Some highlights would be having the ability to turn programs around. I really enjoy this because you get a group of girls who think they are not good, and you get a coach that believes in them and is willing to work hard to get them to where they need to be. Then just seeing them growing as a player, team, and seeing them grow in their self-confidence is rewarding.”