Henry Zapata is entering his fifth season as the Associate Head Women’s Soccer Coach at Lamar University. He joined the LU staff in February 2016, rejoining LU head coach Steve Holeman.
At Lamar, Zapata is primarily responsible for the implementation of tactical and technical training for all defenders. With his defender training, it led to the best Goal Against Average in program history at 0.90 during the 2017 season, which also led to two defenders and a goalkeeper earning All-Southland honors.
During his time at Lamar, Zapata has helped guide the Cardinals to back-to-back-to-back 10 or more-win seasons from 2017-2019. During the 2017 season, he helped guide LU to its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance against Texas A&M while in 2019 he helped them to the NCAA Tournament against UCLA.
In the 2019 season, the Cardinals claimed the Southland Conference regular season title, going 16-7 overall with a 10-1 conference record, and avenged their only loss of the season to Northwestern State in the SLC Tournament title game, 3-1, to claim the 2019 tournament title.
During the 2017 season, the Cardinals went 18-4-1 overall and 11-1-0 in Southland Conference play, setting school records for wins and conference wins. LU improved upon its 2016-win total by 16 victories, equaling the NCAA record for the biggest improvement for wins in a single season.
Zapata also is the recruiting coordinator and primary international recruiter to Europe and South America for the Red and White.
Zapata came to LU from Elon University, where he served as an assistant coach in 2015. While at Elon, Zapata was responsible for the training for all goalkeepers, which led to 421 continuous scoreless minutes, four consecutive shutouts for the first in program’s Division I era. During the 2015 season, Elon recorded eight shutouts.
Prior to that, Zapata spent two years as Holeman’s assistant coach at Georgia, helping the Bulldogs post a 22-15-3 record in those two campaigns, advancing to the NCAA Tournament in 2014, a season that saw Georgia ranked as high as 14th in the nation.
With the Bulldogs, Zapata worked with attacking players in 2014 on technical and tactical concepts that led to three attacking players receiving All-SEC accolades. During the 2013 season, Zapata trained the goalkeepers. During 2013, Georgia recorded eight consecutive shutouts and had 11 on the season.
Zapata has also served on the staffs at the College of Charleston and the University of Illinois. He has also coached club soccer in South Carolina and Illinois.
Zapata, who earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from Illinois in 2008 and a master’s degree in sport management from Illinois in 2011, holds a USSF National “B” coaching license.
