{"id":106089,"date":"2025-12-31T10:18:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T10:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/106089\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T10:18:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T10:18:20","slug":"el-paso-locomotive-fc-names-junior-gonzalez-as-head-coach-for-2026-season-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/106089\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso Locomotive FC names Junior Gonzalez as head coach for 2026 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 El Paso’s soccer club has found its new coach for the 2026 season. <\/p>\n

The El Paso Locomotive FC announced Monday that 48-year-old Junior Gonzalez will be the club’s new head coach, becoming the fifth head coach in the club’s history. <\/p>\n

“We\u2019re very excited to welcome Junior and his family to El Paso,” MountainStar Sports Group President Alan Ledford said. “He brings the experience, competitiveness and leadership we believe are required to succeed in USL Championship. He has a strong track record of success and a clear vision for building a winning culture. We\u2019re confident he will establish a genuine connection to the El Paso community.”<\/p>\n

According to the team, Gonzalez is bilingual in English and Spanish and has 25 years of coaching experience in Major League Soccer, USL Championship and MLS Next Pro.<\/p>\n

“I am thrilled to have [Gonzalez] join Locomotive,” incoming President and General Manager Mike DiGiulio said. “[Gonzalez] embodies all the traits we look for in both a head coach and leader. His commitment to community and desire to immerse himself in the culture of our club and city is apparent and important. [Gonzalez’s] drive for success has been on display in every stop in his soccer journey and his experience at the highest levels of US Soccer is exceptional. The opportunity to work with [Gonzalez] is a very special one, and I have no doubt he will elevate our club on and off the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team also said Gonzalez’s most recent coaching experience was with the Los Angeles FC II, where he was the head coach since 2024.<\/p>\n

The team also boasted that during Gonzalez’s time with LA Galaxy II and LAFC II, he had 19 players promoted to first-team contracts in MLS.<\/p>\n

“It is a privilege to be trusted by ownership and leadership to lead this talented team towards continued success,” Gonzalez said. “It is my vision to foster an environment that challenges, inspires and prepares our team to demonstrate an attractive, organized and attacking style of play that our fans and community will be proud to support.”<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re delighted to be bringing Junior to El Paso,” Technical Director Ray Saari said. “Once our interview process concluded, it was clear to us that Junior\u2019s experience, football brain and competitive mentality would allow him to be an ideal fit as the future leader of our club.”<\/p>\n

RECOMMENDED: Fette practices for the first time with ASU ahead of Sun Bowl<\/a><\/p>\n

\"48-year-old<\/p>\n

48-year-old Junior Gonzalez will be the El Paso Locomotive FC’s new head coach for the 2026 season. Credit: El Paso Locomotive FC<\/p>\n

Meet Junior Gonzalez<\/p>\n

According to the Locomotive:<\/p>\n

Gonzalez’s coaching career began in the college ranks with UC Riverside Highlanders in 2001 before taking over as the head coach in 2004. <\/p>\n

Over his decade at the helm, he saw 30 players get named to the All-Big West Conference teams and two get named Conference Player of the Year. <\/p>\n

Six of his players would go on to have professional careers, including Aaron Long, the current captain of Los Angeles FC. <\/p>\n

Gonzalez was also named the 2011 Big West Coach of the Year.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez’s first professional coaching position came as an assistant coach with Chivas USA in MLS in 2013. <\/p>\n

After two years in Carson, he served as an assistant for the United States U-15 national team before a stint in the Pacific Northwest with Seattle Sounders FC II in 2016. <\/p>\n

Gonzalez’s first professional head coaching position came with Rio Grande Valley Toros FC in 2017, at the time the secondary team for Houston Dynamo FC.<\/p>\n

This led to Gonzalez accepting an assistant coach position back in MLS with the Los Angeles Galaxy under Sigi Schmid, where he worked with players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovi, Jonathan dos Santos, Giovani dos Santos and Ashley Cole. <\/p>\n

Gonzalez stayed within the Galaxy organization as an interim coach for LA Galaxy II the following season before taking over in a permanent capacity in 2019. <\/p>\n

Gonzalez led the team to the USL Championship postseason in 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez returned to MLS as an assistant coach with the Chicago Fire in 2022, where he would cross paths with Xherdan Shaqiri, among others. <\/p>\n

Gonzalez then returned to Los Angeles in 2024, this time to coach Los Angeles FC II, where he has been for the last two seasons in MLS Next Pro.<\/p>\n

As a player, Gonzalez won an NCAA championship with UCLA in 1997, defeating Indiana 1-0 in sudden-death overtime.<\/p>\n

UCLA was a tournament regular in Gonzalez\u2019s time with the team, as he would go on to play professionally with the San Diego Flash in the USL A-League before finishing out his career with the Utah Blitzz in USL Pro. <\/p>\n

Before his collegiate experience, Gonzalez also participated in the United States U-18 Youth National Team.<\/p>\n

RECOMMENDED: Arizona State Sun Devils touch down in El Paso for 92nd Sun Bowl, welcomed with mariachi<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up<\/a> to receive the top interesting stories from in and around our community once daily in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 El Paso’s soccer club has found its new coach for the 2026 season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":{"0":"post-106089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-el-paso","9":"tag-el-paso-headlines","10":"tag-el-paso-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}