El Paso Patriots was an American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team based in El Paso, Texas, United States. Founded in 1989, the team played in the

Premier Development League USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental association football, soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United Stat ...

(PDL), the fourth tier of the

American Soccer Pyramid The United States soccer league system is a series of professional and amateur soccer leagues based, in whole or in part, in the United States. Sometimes called the American soccer pyramid, teams and leagues are not linked by the system of prom ...

, in the Mid South Division of the Southern Conference. The team played its home games at the soccer-specific Patriot Stadium, where they played since 2005 until 2012, when they played their last season (2013) home schedule at the SAC. The team's colors were red, navy blue and white. Prior to their stadium being completed in 2005, the Patriots played at the

Sun Bowl Stadium The Sun Bowl is an outdoor football stadium in the southwestern United States, on the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso. It is home to the UTEP Miners of Conference USA, and the late December college football bowl game, the Sun Bowl. Th ...

on the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso, and at Dudley Field, the former home of the El Paso Diablos baseball team. They were one of the more long-serving franchises in American soccer, having previously played in the first division

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

until 2003.

History

Founded in 1989 as the El Paso Sixshooters and owned and coached by Dan Guard, the team competed in the Southwest Indoor Soccer League. In January 1990, the team ceased operations. The team resumed operations in the fall of 1990 as the El Paso Spurs. Before the 1991 season, the Spurs were sold to a group which included primary investor Enrique Cervantes as well as Jaime Monardes. The new ownership group renamed the team the Patriots to capitalize on the Patriot missile's recent success in the Gulf War and hired Brazilian

Marinho Chagas Francisco das Chagas Marinho (8 February 1952 – 31 May 2014), generally known as Marinho Chagas or Francisco Marinho, was a Brazilian professional footballer. One of the best left-backs of his era, he is best known for his flowing curly blon ...

as head coach. In 2003, the team played in the

Sun Bowl The Sun Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played since 1935 in the southwestern United States at El Paso, Texas. Along with the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl, it is the second-oldest bowl game in the country, behind the Rose Bowl. ...

. Prior to the 2010 PDL season the Patriots signed a formal agreement with Mexican Premier Division team

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the list of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Me ...

, and were officially rebranded as the Chivas El Paso Patriots. In addition to cross-promotion, sponsorship and player development, the agreement will also see the U-20, Division 1A and Division II Chivas teams playing regular games in El Paso. In 2012, the club rebranded to their original name El Paso Patriots.

Players

Notable former players

''This list of notable former players comprises players who went on to play professional soccer after playing for the team in the Premier Development League, or those who previously played professionally before joining the team.'' *

Carlos Kaiser (footballer) Carlos Henrique Raposo (born 2 April 1963), commonly known as Carlos Kaiser, is a Brazilian con artist and former footballer who played as a striker. Although his abilities were far short of professional standard, he managed to sign for numerous ...

* Ben Everson * Carlos Farias * Julio Daniel Frías * Freddy Juarez *

Cesar Sosa Cesar, César or Cèsar may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''César'' (film), a 1936 film directed by Marcel Pagnol * ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt * César Award, a French film award Places * Cesar, Portugal * Ce ...

* Salvador Mercado * Dimitar Popov *

Steve Sengelmann Steve Sengelmann ''(Sangleman or Sengleman in various sources)'' is a former U.S. soccer defender. He spent two season in the Western Soccer Alliance, two in the American Professional Soccer League, two in the USISL and earned two caps with the ...

* Dimitar Vasev

Year-by-year

Honors

* USL PDL Southern Conference Champions 2005 * USL PDL Mid South Division Champions 2005 * USL PDL Mid South Division Champions 2004 * USISL Pro League South Central Division Champions 1995 * US Open Cup Runners-Up 1995 * USISL Southwest Division Champions 1992

Head coaches

* Dan Guard (1989–1990) *

(1991–1992) * Oscar Lira (1993–1994-1995) *

Francisco Paco Chavez Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name '' Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed " Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father o ...

(1996–1999) * Greg Petersen (2000) * Alfredo Solares (2001 – interim) *

Carlos Bracamontes Carlos Alejandro Bracamontes Zenizo (born 4 January 1959) is a Mexican Association football, football manager and former player. References External links

* 1959 births Living people Footballers from Colima Mexican footballers People f ...

(beginning July 2, 2001) *

Tita Tita may refer to: People Given name and nickname * Tita (Lord Byron) (1798-1874), full name Giovanni Battista Falcieri, personal servant of Lord Byron * Tita Bărbulescu (1936-2021), Romanian folk singer * Tita Rădulescu (1904-unknown), Romania ...

(2002) * Miguel Murillo (2002, 2008) *

Fernando Gutierrez Fernando is a Spanish and Portuguese given name and a surname common in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Switzerland, former Spanish or Portuguese colonies in Latin America, Africa, the Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka. It is equivalent to the G ...

(2003) *

Jesus Enriquez Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

(2002–2003-2004–2005–2006) * Salvador Mercado (2007) *

Javier McDonald Javier may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Javier, in video game '' Advance Wars: Dual Strike'' * Javier Rios, a character in the Monsters, Inc. franchise. * ''Javier'' (album), a 2003 album by the American singer Javier Colon, known a ...

(2008 interim)

Stadium

; El Paso, Texas (2003) * Dudley Field; El Paso, Texas (2004) * Gary Del Palacios Field ( Patriot Stadium); El Paso, Texas (2005–2012) * SISD Student Activities Complex; El Paso, Texas (2013)

Average attendance

Attendance stats are calculated by averaging each team's self-reported home attendances from the historical match archive at https://web.archive.org/web/20100105175057/http://www.uslsoccer.com/history/index_E.html. * 2005: 1,546 (2nd in PDL) * 2006: 867 (7th in PDL) * 2007: 789 (8th in PDL) * 2008: 1,269 * 2009: 607 * 2010: 1,069 (8th in PDL)

References

External links

Official Site
{{USSoccer Association football clubs established in 1989 Defunct Premier Development League teams Soccer clubs in Texas USISL teams Indoor soccer clubs in the United States A-League (1995–2004) teams 1989 establishments in Texas 2013 disestablishments in Texas Association football clubs disestablished in 2013