POCATELLO, ID – Idaho State women's soccer Head Coach,
Dustin Downey, announced the hiring of Assistant Coach Roberto Rodriguez for the 2024 season.
Rodriguez, a San Diego, CA native, joins the Bengals after serving as an Assistant Coach and Goalie Coach with Cal Poly's men's team (2020-22) in San Luis Obispo, CA. In his first season with Cal Poly men's soccer, Rodriguez helped the Mustangs reach a third-place finish in the Big West Conference. While also helping goalkeeper, Carlos Arce, finish 4
th in shutouts in the regular season.
"It's an absolute honor joining Idaho States women's soccer and competing in the Big Sky" says Rodriguez. "I am looking forward to helping these young women achieve their goals on and off the field.
My career has taken me to many special places, allowed me to experience different cultures, people, and now this beautiful state. I'm always looking for ways to grow in my career and coming over to the women's game has been a breath of fresh air. The coaching staff and student athletes have been so welcoming and now we are focusing on achieving greatness. I am looking forward to what's to come."
Prior to Cal Poly, Rodriguez served four year (2014-2018) as goalkeeper acadmeyn coach, director of goalkeeping, second team goalkeeper coach, and first team assistant to goalkeeping from LOGA MX side Xolos. Rodriguez helped see both Xolos U-20's and U-17's to a league final from 2016-17.
Head Coach,
Dustin Downey, shares his thoughts on bringing Rodriguez onboard, "Roberto has an extensive coaching background and has competed and coached at the professional level. Having a coach on staff who has worked in an elite, competitive environment is something that will help develop our team and staff greatly!
More so, we've been searching for a high-level Goalkeeper Coach for a couple of years now, so to have stumbled upon Roberto in the hiring process was a blessing to our program.
We're lucky to have him on our squad this season, and believe he's going to be a massive help in leading this team, and future teams, to the success we aim to achieve."
Idaho State is set to begin their 2024 campaign tomorrow night, August 15
th, in Fort Collins, Colorado as they face off against the Colorado State Rams at 7 PM. The Bengals will follow this match up with another on Sunday, August 18
th as they go up against the University of Denver Pioneers in Denver, CO. Kickoff for this game will be at 1 PM.
