UCLA Sports Info UCLA women’s soccer head coach
Jillian Ellis looks to finish her second season in
Westwood with a national championship.
By Amanda Fletcher
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
UCLA women’s soccer head coach Jillian Ellis should be on
Wall Street.
With her philosophy that you get back as much as you put in,
Ellis has seen her returns come back exponentially.
Taking over as the team’s third coach in the
program’s eight-year history, Ellis has taken a squad plagued
by instability and molded it into the current No. 10 squad in the
nation.
With the Bruins’ recent 4-0 win over visiting Texas
A&M Sunday, UCLA moves on to the NCAA quarterfinals for the
first time ever.
Add to the equation Ellis’ recruiting panache, which
brought in the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation, and there is
no question that the Bruins are on their way to becoming one of the
elite teams in college soccer.
So how does a coach do what others couldn’t and do it all
in only two years? According to assistant coach Lisa Shattuck,
it’s Ellis’ genuine concern for her team members, not
only as players but as people, too, that has made her so
successful.
“Her experience, her knowledge of the game and her
compassion for people are things that helped build this
program,” Shattuck said.
“She’s given the time energy and heart that the
program needed,” Shattuck added. “There hasn’t
been a coach here long enough to do that.”
Ellis’ philosophy that you get back as much as you put in
is something she learned from her father, legendary British soccer
coach John Ellis.
“I learned at a very young age that personality and
delivery are very important,” Ellis said. “It always
amazed me that players loved to listen and loved to train for my
father.”
With his unique combination of humor and knowledge, he taught
her how to get the most out of her players by treating them
like
people.
“As coaches, we can all teach players strategy or how to
bend a ball,” Ellis said. “But the more you invest the
greater your return.
“I want the players to feel they are the most important
thing.”
And they do.
“She really tries to get to know the team on a personal
level,” Shattuck said. “She understands that they have
a lot on their plate.”
This is evident in the extent to which Ellis is willing to help
her players with matters other than soccer.
According to Shattuck, when a player on the team was struggling
in school, Ellis met with her once a week and made sure that she
did her homework and finished her reading until she was caught
up.
It’s this kind of compassion and extra off-the-field
attention that gets Ellis the exemplary results she seeks on the
field.
It’s a talent she was destined to possess.
Born in Portsmouth, England, ironically, Ellis was never bred to
be a “footballer.” Instead, she played on the British
national field hockey team. Still, a fascination for soccer seemed
to be in her genes.
“Soccer was always so intriguing,” Ellis said.
When she finally started playing, her father bought her the
cheapest pair of cleats he could find.
“He didn’t think I’d stay with it,”
Ellis said. “And my mother was horrified because she
didn’t think it was lady-like.”
But Ellis not only stuck with it, she made it her life.
After a brief two-year stint in Singapore, where her father was
helping to establish a national soccer program, Ellis and her
family moved to the U.S., where she began coaching at her
father’s soccer camps at age 16.
Since then, she has coached women’s soccer at colleges in
Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland, as well as for the
U.S. under-16, under-21 and Olympic soccer teams.
“It really doesn’t matter what team I work
with,” Ellis said. “My personal goals are to always be
sharp and motivating and give a player their best opportunity to
succeed.”
And success is exactly what she’s seen at UCLA.
Last year, she led the Bruins to their fourth consecutive
tournament appearance after a perfect record at home. The team was
also ranked as high as No. 7, the program’s highest
regular-season ranking ever.
This year, the Bruins were the preseason No. 5 team and have a
legitimate chance at a national championship.
“That’s why I came here,” Ellis said,
“because I believed the program could win a national
championship.”
“I’m not a patient person,” she added.
“I want to win a national championship, that’s what
motivates me.”
But the strides her team has already made are rewarding in
themselves.
“Seeing the difference since the beginning of preseason
and the level we can play at now is exciting and
exhilarating,” Ellis said. “They’re believing in
themselves. They want this and want to work hard and know they are
a legitimate team.”
Original Graphic: JACOB LIAO/Daily Bruin Web Adaptation: STEPHEN
WONG