Julia Perez returned to the UTRGV Department of Intercollegiate Athletics as the Coordinator for Student Development on Feb. 25, 2019. She was promoted to Assistant Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Services in Sept. 2023.
Perez has been an integral part of the department since 2012, competing as a women’s tennis student-athlete, serving as a volunteer assistant women’s tennis coach, and working in the compliance office. She earned the #RISEup award in Nov. 2023.
Perez organizes community service opportunities for the student-athletes, playing an instrumental role as the Vaqueros totaled 3,706 hours of community service in 2022-23 – ranking No. 7 among all NCAA Division I departments for a second-straight year finishing in the top 10. She also oversees academics for both golf teams and men’s soccer, helping to produce Academic All-Americans in golf and improving the men’s soccer team GPA. Perez contributed to UTRGV’s student-athletes earning a department-record cumulative 3.32 GPA in the 2022-23 academic year, also accumulating 126 Academic All-WAC honors.
Most recently, Perez was a compliance assistant from July 2017 through December 2018 while completing her Master of Science in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Sports Management. Her duties included oversight of all incoming prospective student-athlete academic eligibility evaluations, serving as a liaison to the UTRGV admissions and registrar’s offices, conducting internal audits, creating compliance rules education program for the golf and tennis program, and assisting with eligibility certification.
Prior to that, Perez assisted with the women’s tennis program by planning team travel, assisting with on-court coaching, and handling team gear and equipment during the 2016-17 season. During the spring of that season, Perez also worked as the Assistant Director of the LuAnn Alexander Tennis Academy, for whom she taught tennis, arranged community engagement, created marketing materials and ran events.
Perez played from 2012-16, helping her team to its first WAC Tournament Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance as a senior co-captain. She was deeply involved with the student-athlete community, service as Vice President of the UTRGV Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and participating in WAC SAAC conferences at Utah Valley and Grand Canyon. Perez was also a member of the UTRGV Football Feasibility Study Committee. She graduated in December of 2016 with a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology.
Originally from Roma, Perez had a storied high school career, going 72-0 in district play for Roma High School and earning District 32-4A MVP, First Team All-Valley and First Team All-District in Doubles all four years. She was ranked the No. 12 tennis player in Texas in 2011. She also helped her basketball team to the playoffs in 2012 and was part of the first Roma golf team to advance to regionals.
