You’ll be able to study all it is advisable about Diego Ortiz from how he launched himself as a brand new Texas Tech graduate scholar in 2015:
“Good day, my title is Diego. I used to be born and raised in Mexico. I have been in Texas for 2 weeks now, and I need to be a soccer coach.”
9 years and three grasp’s levels later, Ortiz is an everyday on the Indianapolis Colts’ offensive coordinator’s sales space on fall Sunday afternoons helping with high quality management, having distinguished himself on this planet of American soccer on his strategy to changing into what’s believed to be the primary coach identified to have been born and raised in Mexico on an NFL workers.
“Everybody discovered it a bit curious, as a result of that is how I might introduce myself throughout the first few days of sophistication,” Ortiz informed ESPN Deportes, who profiled the Colts’ 34-year-old Tony Dungy Variety Teaching Fellow for Hispanic Heritage Month.
Ortiz’s journey towards his objective is paved with most of the similar virtues present in different coaches hungry for a shot: dedication, ardour, a flair for studying and a willingness to leap on alternatives. Those that mentored the Mexico Metropolis native say that what has made him stand out are an encyclopedic data of the sport and a persistent work ethic that drove Ortiz to grab a mile when given an inch, leaving a long-lasting impression alongside the best way.
“We might stroll into his workplace, and he’d have a thousand performs, like ‘A Stunning Thoughts’ written everywhere in the whiteboard,” stated Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, who as Texas Tech’s head coach gave Ortiz his first alternative in 2016. “He has a real ardour for it. You may ask him about any play, any recreation, any rating, like he’s extra locked in on soccer of in all probability anyone I’ve ever been round.”
Soccer’s world recognition and initiatives have however translated into restricted pathways for worldwide gamers and coaches. Ortiz, a former faculty soccer quarterback who additionally frolicked as a youth coach in Mexico, was acutely conscious that he was getting into a world wherein he’d should make a reputation for himself once more in a rustic the place his sport is king. However those that have witnessed his ascension from Mexico Metropolis to Indianapolis imagine he has arrived.
Drawing it up
Highschool soccer applications are uncommon in Mexico, however youth golf equipment have been round for many years. Rising up in Mexico Metropolis, Ortiz performed quarterback for Membership Gamos at each stage earlier than becoming a member of Pumas Acatlán, which represents the Nationwide Autonomous College of Mexico’s satellite tv for pc campus in Naucalpan. He was QB1 on a group that competed within the Liga Mayor, Mexico’s most prestigious collegiate circuit.
“I used to be at all times fascinated by the X’s and O’s of soccer and the opposite sports activities I performed as a child,” stated Ortiz, who additionally participated in baseball and tennis. “I shortly realized that is what I preferred essentially the most in regards to the sport and that I needed to be a coach.”
At Texas Tech, Ortiz’s highway towards his objective started as an unpaid recruitment and operations intern, organizing paperwork and dealing with different inside duties. It was commonplace for senior members of Kingsbury’s teaching workers who arrived earlier than dawn to search out Ortiz already within the constructing.
“I began to do these little jobs, and it went nicely. I might watch video games and scout them, and in my free time, watch movies from prior seasons and begin studying the terminology for performs, ideas and routes,” Ortiz stated. “I needed to be prepared for when a chance offered itself.”
Ortiz would usually mirror Kingsbury’s morning routine and arrive on the group’s amenities by 4 a.m. since he had not but been granted a keycard, stated Diego’s father, Guillermo Ortiz. If he could not sync his arrival with Kingsbury’s, he would wait exterior and courageous the weather till a licensed workers member may let him in.
In the meantime, the top coach started to take discover.
“His work ethic was wonderful,” Kingsbury stated. “He was one of many first few within the constructing, one of many final to depart. and he was doing it without cost at that time as a scholar assistant. So you might inform that he was eaten up by it and had an actual thirst for data and love for the sport.”
Upon finishing the primary of his three grasp’s levels from Tech in 2018, Ortiz was able to dedicate himself totally to soccer. He earned a promotion after one season to high quality management assistant, which entails assembling scouting studies, transcribing recreation plans for coaches and scribbling out apply schedules all the way down to the final element. It is an ideal function for potential coaches trying to immerse themselves in a recreation plan’s finer factors. Present NFL head coaches Mike McCarthy, Sean McVay, Robert Saleh and Kyle Shanahan all dealt with high quality management duties as they labored their manner as much as the highest of the ladder.
Texas ties that bind
Ortiz and Kingsbury nonetheless communicate, their textual content chain suffering from recollections of the pupil’s whiteboard left for the grasp to guage. Ortiz stayed on at Tech after Kingsbury left for the NFL in 2018 and labored beneath a number of teaching staffs, first beneath Matt Wells and later Joey McGuire.
“He biked in every single place. So in case you have been coming in early, you’ll be able to guess that you’ll see Diego on his bike driving in,” McGuire stated. “You form of anticipated it day-after-day. We’re early. I do know Kingsbury is an early man. And so, you’ll be able to at all times guess you noticed Diego biking in.”
There may be maybe no higher place to showcase soccer’s dominance than in Texas, the place even highschool groups take pleasure in state-of-the-art stadiums and infrastructure. That Ortiz gained sufficient credibility to work in one of many state’s Energy 5 soccer applications whereas coming from a rustic the place one other sort of soccer is the nationwide pastime speaks to his thirst for the sport.
As a teen, Ortiz dreamed of changing into the following Drew Brees, a Texas native who starred at Westlake Excessive College close to Austin earlier than enjoying faculty ball at Purdue and finally changing into one of many NFL’s most prolific passers with the San Diego Chargers and New Orleans Saints. These desires gave strategy to a ardour usually cited as a motive Ortiz was in a position to mix into Texas’ soccer tradition and make his eventual soar to the NFL.
“Surely, Texas highschool coaches and guys that love this recreation respect and are open to guys which have an exceptional work ethic and guys which can be passionate in regards to the recreation,” McGuire stated. “And that is who Diego is. He’s extraordinarily enthusiastic about soccer. He’s a learner.”
Constructing a ‘library of information’
Placing collectively an NFL playbook requires a large quantity of knowledge. Coaches and gamers are obligated to be accustomed to each element. Ortiz is the kind to fortunately volunteer to devour each web page.
“I might are available in and also you see that he was pulling up movie of NFL groups, and he would have a pleasant little chart on his wall of groups he needed to guage. So initially I believed it is a man who simply desires to study as a lot soccer as potential,” stated Colts working backs coach DeAndre Smith, one among Ortiz’s a number of Texas Tech connections. “He was simply constructing his library of information.”
Smith and Ortiz have been collectively at Texas Tech from 2019 to 2021. Their present boss, Colts head coach Shane Steichen, is thought for his inventive use of the run recreation whereas serving as offensive coordinator with the Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Chargers. His schemes usually embody run-pass choices that till not too long ago have been extra widespread within the faculty recreation.
“Should you can know [Diego] like we did, he is been phenomenal. Simply sensible, actually sensible,” Steichen stated. “He’ll do no matter you ask. There’s a number of the operation stuff behind the scenes, breaking down tape scripts, all these kinds of issues. However actually detailed.”
Final season, the Colts gave Ortiz his first style of the NFL once they invited him to coaching camp as a part of the Invoice Walsh Teaching Variety Fellowship, a program centered on giving younger minority coaches the chance to achieve expertise.
Smith was key to serving to him transition to the professionals. In his first season as a part of the Colts’ workers, he keyed Ortiz in on this system and allowed him to look at 17 days of group practices throughout camp.
In his present function, Ortiz has immersed himself in absorbing the breadth of the Colts’ playbook.
“There isn’t any doubt that [Diego] may go in and set up Kingsbury’s offense,” McGuire stated. “And, you understand, I might assume name it and execute it at a really excessive stage. He’s a man that has studied it and has gone all-in. And I feel that is how he lives his life. You recognize, he is a lifelong learner.”
Alternative knocks
The Colts’ personal Tony Dungy Variety Teaching Fellowship, named after their Corridor of Fame coach who was the primary African American to win a Tremendous Bowl, additionally goals to supply a help system for younger minority coaches. Ortiz was introduced as a recipient final April, giving him his most up-to-date alternative within the NFL.
“When the Tony Dungy [Fellowship] got here up and we interviewed him for that, clearly we had expertise with him from the yr earlier than,” Steichen stated. “We had him in because the Invoice Walsh [recipient] final yr. And the best way he labored in Walsh deal was unimaginable. He was at all times attempting to do various things, something he may do to assist.”
Lots of Ortiz’s former colleagues and gamers at Texas Tech have been thrilled for him, together with former Crimson Raiders working again Tahj Brooks, a second-team preseason All-American:
Pleased with my Man 💙 https://t.co/gudK3FMvWn
— Tahj Brooks (@just_tahj) April 22, 2024
At the least three former Tony Dungy recipients have latched on to the NFL in several capacities. That bodes nicely for Ortiz, whose dedication and zeal for soccer have served as the best calling card and have prompted these round him to foretell greater and higher issues.
“Whether or not he will get a shot within the NFL first or has to return to varsity to [coach his] personal room as a place coach, that is the one half to me that is left for him … to get in there and lower his enamel on teaching on his personal room,” Kingsbury stated. “After which he’ll do an important job at that.”
ESPN Deportes’ Carlos A. Nava and NFL Nation reporters John Keim and Stephen Holder contributed to this report.
