You’ll be able to be taught all you want to about Diego Ortiz from how he launched himself as a brand new Texas Tech graduate scholar in 2015:
“Howdy, 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 method to changing into what’s believed to be the primary coach identified to have been born and raised in Mexico on an NFL employees.
“Everybody discovered it a bit curious, as a result of that is how I might introduce myself through 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 lots of the similar virtues present in different coaches hungry for a shot: dedication, ardour, an inherent ability 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 Lovely Thoughts’ written all around 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 sport, any rating, like he’s extra locked in on soccer of most likely anyone I’ve ever been round.”
Soccer’s world reputation 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 coming into a world through which he’d should make a reputation for himself over again 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 staff that competed within the Liga Mayor, Mexico’s most prestigious collegiate circuit.
“I used to be all the time 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 rapidly realized that is what I appreciated probably the most in regards to the sport and that I needed to be a coach.”
At Texas Tech, Ortiz’s street towards his objective started as an unpaid recruitment and operations intern, organizing paperwork and dealing with different inner duties. It was commonplace for senior members of Kingsbury’s teaching employees 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 typically mirror Kingsbury’s morning routine and arrive on the staff’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 certified employees member might 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 totally free at that time as a scholar assistant. So you may 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 stories, transcribing sport plans for coaches and scribbling out apply schedules all the way down to the final element. It is an ideal function for potential coaches seeking to immerse themselves in a sport 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 means 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 underneath a number of teaching staffs, first underneath Matt Wells and later Joey McGuire.
“He biked in all places. So when you had been coming in early, you may guess that you will see Diego on his bike using in,” McGuire stated. “You type of anticipated it day-after-day. We’re early. I do know Kingsbury is an early man. And so, you may all the time 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 kind of soccer is the nationwide pastime speaks to his thirst for the sport.
As a teenager, Ortiz dreamed of changing into the subsequent Drew Brees, a Texas native who starred at Westlake Excessive Faculty 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 method to a ardour typically cited as a motive Ortiz was in a position to mix into Texas’ soccer tradition and make his eventual leap to the NFL.
“Indubitably, Texas highschool coaches and guys that love this sport respect and are open to guys which have an exceptional work ethic and guys which can be passionate in regards to the sport,” McGuire stated. “And that is who Diego is. He’s extraordinarily obsessed with soccer. He’s a learner.”
Constructing a ‘library of information’
Placing collectively an NFL playbook requires an enormous quantity of knowledge. Coaches and gamers are obligated to be acquainted with each element. Ortiz is the sort 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 assumed it is a man who simply needs to be taught as a lot soccer as potential,” stated Colts operating backs coach DeAndre Smith, one in all Ortiz’s a number of Texas Tech connections. “He was simply constructing his library of information.”
Smith and Ortiz had been collectively at Texas Tech from 2019 to 2021. Their present boss, Colts head coach Shane Steichen, is thought for his artistic use of the run sport whereas serving as offensive coordinator with the Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Chargers. His schemes typically embrace run-pass choices that till lately had been extra widespread within the faculty sport.
“For those who can know [Diego] like we did, he is been phenomenal. Simply sensible, actually good,” Steichen stated. “He’ll do no matter you ask. There’s numerous the operation stuff behind the scenes, breaking down tape scripts, all these varieties 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 targeted 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’ employees, he keyed Ortiz in on this system and allowed him to look at 17 days of staff practices throughout camp.
In his present function, Ortiz has immersed himself in absorbing the breadth of the Colts’ playbook.
“There is no doubt that [Diego] might go in and set up Kingsbury’s offense,” McGuire stated. “And, , 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. , 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 assist 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 12 months earlier than,” Steichen stated. “We had him in because the Invoice Walsh [recipient] final 12 months. And the best way he labored in Walsh deal was unbelievable. He was all the time making an attempt to do various things, something he might do to assist.”
A lot of Ortiz’s former colleagues and gamers at Texas Tech had been thrilled for him, together with former Pink Raiders operating again Tahj Brooks, a second-team preseason All-American:
Happy with my Man 💙 https://t.co/gudK3FMvWn
— Tahj Brooks (@just_tahj) April 22, 2024
No less than 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 larger and higher issues.
“Whether or not he will get a shot within the NFL first or has to return to school 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 minimize his tooth on teaching on his personal room,” Kingsbury stated. “After which he’ll do a terrific job at that.”
ESPN Deportes’ Carlos A. Nava and NFL Nation reporters John Keim and Stephen Holder contributed to this report.
