Carmen Esnal has been hired as an assistant coach for The University of New Mexico soccer program, joining the program in May 2026.
Esnal will oversee the goalkeepers and comes to Albuquerque with an extensive history of working with goalkeepers.
The new Lobo coach founded AZGK Performance out of Arizona, which she started in 2016 and developed a specialized goalkeeper training academy focused on technical, tactical and mental development. She worked with goalkeepers in areas that included shot-stopping, positioning, distribution and decision-making under pressure and designed training programs tailored to each athlete.
In addition to working at AZGK Performance, Esnal worked as an assistant coach and goalkeeper coach at Phoenix College, where the program won the NJCAA Men’s Soccer DII Championship in 2025. She led goalkeeper development and defensive organization, as well as oversaw video analysis, match preparation and training planning.
During her coaching career, she worked as a youth soccer club coach, with the Arizona Soccer Association as the Olympic Development Program goalkeeper coach, and at the high school level as the varsity assistant coach and goalkeeper coach at Millennium High School, later becoming the men’s varsity head coach.
Esnal was a goalkeeper at Grand Canyon, graduating with a bachelor's degree in education with a physical education emphasis in 2013, later earning her master’s degree in business administration in 2015.