LOWELL, Mass. – Ahead of his first season at the helm, UMass Lowell Men's Soccer Head Coach Kyle Zenoni has announced the addition of Nico Luque to his coaching staff. Luque joins the River Hawks as an assistant coach after spending the last four years as part of the men's soccer staff at the University of South Carolina Upstate.
 
"I am very excited to be adding Nico to our coaching staff," Zenoni said. "Nico is an extremely hard worker that is very well connected in the recruiting world and brings high-level coaching that will have an immediate impact on our student-athletes. He has experience coaching at the Division I level and has high expectations of his program, which is something I was looking for. We look forward to all that he brings as we prepare to compete for a championship this season."
 
During his time at USC Upstate, Luque helped lead the team to the Big South Conference Championship game, while also becoming a top-50 team in the country, setting a program record.
 
Prior to joining USC Upstate, Luque spent nearly three years as the assistant coach at Concordia University Nebraska. While there, he helped Concordia reach the Great Plains Athletic Conference tournament in 2015 and 2016, and capture the conference title in 2015, securing a bid to the National Tournament.
 
Luque began his coaching career as an assistant at Southern Wesleyan University, where he helped train, recruit and develop players for both the men's and women's soccer programs. During his time at Southern Wesleyan, Luque had a major role in the men's soccer program, capturing the NCCAA National Championship for the first time in program history.
 
Alongside coaching at the collegiate level, Luque has spent time as an assistant coach for the Upward Stars, a semi-professional soccer program, and as a volunteer assistant coach and video analyst for the Greenville Triumph, a professional soccer team in the USL League One.
 
Luque graduated with his bachelor's degree in pyschology from Southern Wesleyan in 2013 and proceeded to earn his master's in athletic administration from Concordia Nebraska in 2017.