Brandon Bonilla is in his second season as the head men’s soccer coach at Nebraska Wesleyan University and third season working with the Prairie Wolves soccer program.
In his first season as head coach, Bonilla led the NWU men’s team to an 8-8-1 overall record and a trip to the conference postseason tournament. The Prairie Wolves were 3-5 in American Rivers Conference play earning the No. 6 seed in the tournament where they lost on penalty kicks in the opening round.
He had two players named 1st-Team All-Conference in his first season leading the program and also two players earned Scholar All-West Region recognition.
Bonilla spent his first year at NWU as a full-time assistant for both the Prairie Wolves men’s and women’s soccer programs. In his first year with the program he helped lead the NWU men’s soccer team to their highest win total in ten years and the first postseason tournament win in over 20 years.
He came back to Lincoln in 2017 after spending time coaching in his home state of Texas. He has spent two seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Houston where he helped turn around the Cougar program after only having three wins the previous two combined seasons.
Before his time at Houston, Bonilla spent four years at Houston Baptist University as an assistant coach. He was part of HBU’s transition from NAIA to NCAA Division I and helped them to double digit wins in three of the four seasons. In his final season, the program reached new heights as they won the Southland Conference Tournament and became the first team in school history to reach the NCAA Tournament.
Prior to Houston Baptist, Bonilla was a volunteer women’s assistant coach at the University of Nebraska for two seasons. He worked with the attackers and helped lead the 2009 Cornhuskers to their best scoring output since 2002. During his time at Nebraska, he also coached at Omaha Football Club, leading the U11 and U12 girls to three tournament finals and one championship.
From 2003-07, Bonilla was the team manager for Texas A&M while completing his undergraduate degree in leadership and development. His duties included helping the head coach train the goalkeepers and be in charge of on-field operations. He was the voice of Aggie Soccer from 2007-09, providing play-by-play in the broadcasting booths. He coached the Texas A&M club team in 2008-09 as the Aggies finished with a record of 14-0-1.
Bonilla has his USSF “C” license and NSCAA Advanced National, Goalkeeper “Level 1 and 2” badges. He also led a mission trip for a Christian soccer camp in Belize in the spring of 2009, where he taught faith through the game of soccer.
Brandon and his wife, Tami, have three children Nora, Brayden and Jay.
