Eastern Illinois Athletic Director
Tom Michael has announced the hiring of Ruy Vaz as the next Panthers men's soccer coach. Vaz becomes the 12th head coach in program history as the Panthers are set to embark on their third season playing soccer in the Ohio Valley Conference.
Vaz comes to EIU following a successful stint at Cowley College where led the program to unprecedented success winning 110 matches since taking over in 2018.
" I am truly honored to be joining Eastern Illinois University as the head coach of the men's soccer program. I am eager to begin working with the student-athletes and building lasting memories both on and off the field. This is a great opportunity for me and my family, and I would like to extend my gratitude to President Jay Gatrell, Director of Athletics
Tom Michael, Senior Associate AD
Mark Bonnstetter, and the entire hiring committee for placing their trust in me," said Vaz.
"We are excited to welcome Coach Vaz and his family to the EIU community," said Michael. "In the interview process it was evident that he has built his programs along the same philosophical lines that we expect to have in our EIU program and has had great success not only on the pitch but also in the classroom and local community. We look forward to him moving our program forward and building a competitive product that the current players, soccer alumni and school will be proud of."
An experience player with college and professional experience, Vaz began his collegiate coaching career as an assistant at Cowley College from 2015-17. In 2018 he took over the program and under his direction the program has won 85 percent of its matches with a 110-17-6 record. He has won five conference championships, five Plains District championships and led the program to a NJCAA Top 5 national ranking in all seven seasons. Individually as a coach he was been named the KJCCC Coach of the Year and Plains District Coach of the Year five times.
He has served as the head coach for all six of Cowley College's NJCAA National Tournament appearances including two final four appearances and one national tournament championship game appearance (runner-up finish). All told he has had 60-plus All-Conference selections, 40-plus All-Region selections and 10-plus NJCAA All-Americans. More than 80 of his players have gone on to play at the four-year collegiate level spanning 45 different universities.
In addition to his experience coaching at Cowley College, Vaz was the technical director – head coach UPSL with the Sporting Wichita Academy since 2021 and is the head of soccer at RVF Soccer Academy.
He earned his bachelor's degree from Oklahoma City University while playing at the NAIA level and owns a master's degree from Wichita State University.
