An experienced mentor among the professional ranks, Nick Jaramillo has joined the UCF men’s soccer team as its newest assistant/goalkeepers coach ahead of the fall 2025 season.
“I had the opportunity to come to a university with as high as standard as UCF,” Jaramillo said. “As a coach recruiting in the professional game, you always knew UCF was always a big program, soccer-wise.”
He joins head coach Scott Calabrese’s staff on the heels of, most recently, two years with One Knoxville SC as an assistant coach and the team’s Head of Goalkeeping.
With One Knoxville SC, Jaramillo oversaw the development of back-to-back USL League One Golden Glove winner Sean Lewis, who also earned league Goalkeeper of the Year honors in 2024 and was a finalist for the award in 2023. The netminder posted a league-best 0.73 goals-against average last season and made 53 total saves, good for sixth most in the league.
The squad produced 15 clean sheets overall between the 2024 USL Jägermeister Cup and the regular season, seven from Lewis and eight more courtesy of Johan Garibay.
Garibay led all netminders in clean sheets, with four, during the 2024 USL Jägermeister Cup as well, on the strength of a 0.59 goals-against average.
“Interacting with the staff was the biggest thing as well. Within my networking circles, everybody had nothing but great things to say about Calabrese, Paul Souders and Austin Nyquist,” Jaramillo continued. “It was good knowing that I’m going to be around great individuals but still have to perform at a really high level. That was something that I really wanted to prioritize, because for me, that translates to the family life too.”
Prior to his time with One Knoxville SC, Jaramillo served as the Assistant Director of Goalkeeping with NCFC Youth from 2021-22. There, he was responsible for training and developing goalkeepers for NCFC (USL League One) and the NC Courage (NWSL).
From 2019-21, Jaramillo coached with Tormenta FC, assisting with USL League One, USL League Two and USL Academy Training on a daily basis while also training goalkeepers for League One and Two programs. He spearheaded the USL Academy program as well, running and managing player pools to help develop and identify players as prospects for USL Academy contracts with USL League One.
Jaramillo’s USL experience also includes time spent with the Des Moines Menace in 2019 and the Mississippi Brilla from 2016-18.
He brings extensive collegiate coaching experience to his role with the Knights as well, beginning with his most recent tenure with Young Harris College in Young Harris, Georgia, from 2016-2020. In addition to serving as a goalkeepers coach during that time, he graduated from Young Harris with a bachelor's degree in psychology in 2018.
Jaramillo served as an assistant coach with the women’s team at Barry University in the fall of 2019, and also aided in the development of the goalkeepers at Palm Beach Atlantic University from 2015-16.
“I hope to continue doing what I’ve done in the past,” Jaramillo added. “Building relationships with the individuals first is the biggest piece, because then you can bring out the best in them. That’s something that I’ve learned with the head coach that I’ve been with for ages, Mark McKeever. The relationship aspect is the biggest, and hopefully me building that with the keepers will then translate onto the field with them performing at the highest standard that they can.”
Nick and his wife, Laura, have four children, Landon, Noah, Alexis and Oliver.