Abilene ISD director of athletics Phil Blue announced Thursday that Michelle Velez has been named the new girls’ head soccer coach at Cooper High School.

Michelle VelezVelez – who has been the girls’ athletics coordinator at Craig Middle School since 2016 – replaces Justin Head, who resigned last month after one season as the head coach to join the Army National Guard. Head, who joined the Cooper coaching staff in 2012, led the Lady Cougars to the Class 5A playoffs in his only season as the head coach.

Aside from her coordinator duties, Velez has coached volleyball, basketball and soccer at Craig. Prior to moving to Craig, she was an assistant volleyball coach (2007-16) and assistant girls’ soccer coach (2008-16) at Abilene High School. She also served one season as an assistant softball coach at AHS (2007-08) and before that one season as an assistant volleyball at Abilene Christian High School (2006).

Velez graduated from Hardin-Simmons University with her B.A. in Spanish in August 2006.