EDINBURG, Texas – Five hundred ninety-six days ago, University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) Director of Athletics Chris King pulled off his best Steve Jobs impression.

 

Just like Jobs used to do at the end of a keynote speech introducing the latest hardware and software from Apple, King ended a press conference that was about UTPA’s entrance into the Western Athletic Conference by saying something along the lines of “Oh yeah, there’s one more thing.”

 

The difference was, rather than introducing color iMacs, the iPod Shuffle or the MacBook Pro, King broke the news that UTPA Athletics was adding soccer.

 

Five hundred forty-seven days ago, UTPA Athletics held the official press conference to announce the start of women’s soccer in 2014 and men’s soccer in 2015.

 

Four hundred sixty-eight days ago, UTPA Athletics hired Glad Bugariu as the first head coach in program history. Since then, Bugariu has spent the majority of his time preparing for #SeasonOne of UTPA women’s soccer.

 

His recruiting philosophy of starting locally and expanding globally has led to a 23-player roster that includes student-athletes from as close as McAllen to as far away as Sweden.

 

He brought in Houston-native Lindsay Vera, who played collegiately at NC State, as an assistant coach, and has since added Silviu Telespan as a volunteer assistant coach.

 

Bugariu has watched as the new UTPA Soccer and Track & Field Complex has been constructed, even helping to build two of the goals.

 

He has done everything over the last 468 days except get his team together on the field for practice.

 

That changes today.

 

With just 15 days until the first match in program history, the Broncs hold their first full training session tonight at 6 p.m., marking the first event at the new complex.

 

“It’s pure excitement,” Bugariu said. “We’ve seen [the student-athletes] play on their club teams and their high school teams, but we haven’t had a chance to get on the training field with them and start creating the team. That’s basically what we’re looking forward to. I know they all are. I know the coaching staff is. It’s going to be massive and it’s what I live for. We can’t wait to begin.”

 

Since this is a completely new team that boasts just three players with collegiate experience and one with Division I experience, the Broncs will practice as much as is allowed, holding three practices on three of the first five days of practice, as well as two practices on three other days out of the first seven.

 

The Broncs will also spend plenty of time in the weight room and the meeting room while also engaging in team building exercises.

 

Since classes don’t start until Aug. 25, by which time the Broncs will have already played a pair of road matches, the Broncs can use as much of these 15 days as is allowable to get ready for their first season.

 

You can follow the countdown to kickoff on the UTPABroncs Instagram page over the next 15 days.

 

Get ready for #SeasonOne. It’s history in the making.