Untied hair and goals

When junior forward Emily Zapata broke the UTRGV Women’s Soccer Team record in career goals, she fulfilled a promise she made to her family. Her mom called afterward, crying tears of joy at the accomplishment. 

Zapata became the program leader for career goals with 29 on Sept. 15 after scoring two goals against Our Lady of the Lake University. 

After the first goal, she made a heart symbol toward the camera for her family, who were supporting Zapata from her hometown. 

Early Soccer Career

Zapata was born in Laredo and is the daughter of a Salvadorian mother and a Mexican father. She said almost all of her family live in the bordertown and always help each other out. 

Her dad, Romualdo Zapata, a passionate soccer player and fan, always wanted his children to share the same enthusiasm for the game.

“My dad started training me when I was 3 years old and from there, I just liked soccer and I continued with soccer,” Zapata said. 

When she was a child, Zapata would play games with her hair untied, she said. She continues that habit and can be recognized on the field by her long, black untied hair. 

She said her dad is proud that she is playing Division 1 and aspires for her to play professionally.

“He expects more from me every game I play,” Zapata said. “There’s always something more I can give and he knows it.”

Before breaking records at UTRGV, she garnered 238 goals at United South High School and won multiple awards throughout her career there.

“It feels good to leave high school with a record like that, but I can’t say it was all me,” Zapata said. 

She credits the help from her sisters, father and family support that contributed to her early development in high school. 

Zapata said she never thought she would play Division 1 soccer because she wanted to be close to home. 

Glad Bugariu, UTRGV Women’s Soccer head coach, told The Rider that he had been scouting Zapata since she was a junior in high school.

“We knew right away she’d be a special player. There was no doubt,” Bugariu said. “She’s certainly a Division 1 player. We knew that from the first moment we saw her. So, you know, proven right, because she has been the leader in goals for the team every single year since she’s been here.” 

Zapata said Bugariu was the only head coach that came to personally scout her and he said he had to fight off professional Mexican teams that wanted to sign her.

“It made no sense for her to do that at her age,” Bugariu said. “She can always go to Mexico. … I think it was important for her to play Division 1 soccer, get exposure, get a college education and then she can always continue her career after that.” 

UTRGV Career 

When Zapata arrived at UTRGV in 2018, she said, “No manches” at how well her college teammates’ level of play was and thought she would never break any records but told herself she was going to give it all her “ganas.”

Junior forward Shentatious Knox told The Rider that when she transferred from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in 2018, a lot of girls on the team talked about how great a shooter Zapata is. 

“I hadn’t really got to see her play it and then when she did play, she just goes out there and she plays very fearless,” Knox said. “Like, she doesn’t really care. She’ll shoot from anywhere on the field and it’ll carry in.” 

Zapata would go on to a program season record of 11 goals and one assist in 2018.  

Proud and happy is what she felt after her freshman season, she said. 

A player who helped Zapata become the shooter she is today is previous career-record-holder Sarah Bonney, who played for UTRGV from 2016 to 2019. 

Zapata said she has a lot of respect and appreciation for Bonney for showing and teaching her various things that helped elevate her game. 

“She would always tell me that if I had a one-v.-one situation that I should go for it and that’s how I get some of my goals,” she said. 

Bugariu said with her tremendous talent, Zapata had to learn how to be a known entity. 

“Since nobody really knew her freshman year coming out of Laredo, it made scoring a bit easier, but the following seasons have seen teams mark her tighter, thus giving her less space to work with,” he said. “So, she’s learned how to deal with that and still become the leading goal scorer of the team each year.” 

Fast forward three years, Zapata said becoming the program leader for career goals is something that she strived for and feels happy knowing she accomplished and kept her promise to her family.

“They always knew I could break it,” she said. 

Knox said she would describe Zapata now as fearless, a force and graceful. 

“The way that she just dribbles around people, she makes it look very easy,” she said. 

Zapata admitted she hasn’t had the best start this season. However, she was confident going into the game against Our Lady of the Lake University and felt she was going to get a goal and break the record. 

 “My mom called me crying. She was very happy,” Zapata said. “She said, ‘We’re always going to be supporting you. No matter where you are, we will always support you.’”

She said her next goal is to win the Western Athletic Conference this year.

“I want to get a [championship] ring. I want to win the WAC,” Zapata said. “I think it’s something all the girls have dreamed about and want.”