EL PASO, Texas – Having never left his home state of Virginia, coming to the city of El Paso was an exciting adventure in the eyes of James Ellis who aims to grow love for the game of soccer amongst local youth in the community.
Previously the Sports Director for the YMCA in Chesapeake, Virginia with additional experience coaching youth teams, Ellis has shown he can foster interest in soccer at a grassroots level and that in part stems from how much the sport provided him and his desire to give back through the game.
“Soccer was one of those things that gave me the opportunity to travel and meet new people who I now call friends, so I knew I wanted to do the same thing for other kids trying to go in that direction,” Ellis said. “I know the level of impact I could have through soccer and coaching, so it is nice to be out there to give back and make sure kids have similar or better experiences with the sport than I did.”
Ellis had always thought about the idea of moving to Texas, but never knew how or when that would happen until El Paso Locomotive FC Academy Director Ivan Militar presented him with that possibility.
Although they never crossed paths on the field at Old Dominion University (where they both played collegiate soccer), Ellis had massive respect for Militar as he was the one who gave him his first-ever coaching job in Virginia Beach. Reunited with his former boss, Militar eventually brought up a new youth soccer role with Locomotive that was being established and that immediately caught the interest of Ellis.
It would be a difficult cross-country move somewhere he was completely unfamiliar with but the role itself and the change in lifestyle excited Ellis. What Militar was offering him was a chance to drive major impact across a large region where soccer is highly popular.
“The opportunity to work at a professional soccer organization with the ability to make a big difference, as well as it being in a state that I heavily considered moving to, were reasons why I ultimately decided this was something I wanted to pursue,” Ellis said.
Coming up on two months in his new role, Ellis has gotten a greater grasp of the community he is working in and is making sure to reach out and establish relationships with local schools and families to inform them what Locomotive can provide for their children. He also oversees a small staff of coaches and works with them to help make sure they are simultaneously helping kids develop the basic skills of soccer and maximize their interest in the sport.
This work is done with the hope that as the kids grow up, they pursue soccer at a much more competitive level and integrate themselves into the Locomotive Youth Soccer pipeline. But for Ellis, his priority is to ensure that those introductory soccer experiences are as memorable as possible.
“A big part of my job is to make sure that people understand that what we offer aims to create positive experiences for kids,” Ellis said. “Whether it is me or the coaches, we want our interactions to be fun and genuine so that kids and parents are getting what they want out of these programs while also creating love and passion for the game of soccer.”