Jacob Lopez knows what it takes to be successful at Sul Ross State.

Lopez was a member of the Lobo men's basketball squad that won the American Southwest Conference West Division title in 2019-2020.

Prior to coming to Alpine, he was on the 2017 NAIA Division I men's basketball national championship team at Texas Wesleyan.

Now, life has come full circle for Lopez as he was hired to become the new assistant men's basketball coach and head tennis coach at Sul Ross.

"It's actually really exciting," he said. "I get to come in here and try to raise that level back to where we need to be and also try to help these guys I played with win a championship."

Athletic Director Amanda Workman on the hiring of Lopez: "Jake was a great student-athlete at Sul Ross and we are very excited to have him serve in this new role."

A native of El Paso and a 2016 graduate of El Dorado High School, Lopez played basketball under his father Raul.

After garnering first-team All-District selections twice, Lopez redshirted at Texas Wesleyan before breaking into the lineup as a sophomore.

Lopez played in 17 games during his overall time at Texas Wesleyan. He finished with seven rebounds and 13 assists.

Texas Wesleyan went an impressive 29-7 during its national championship season. The following season Lopez helped the program to a 22-11 mark as it finished as regular-season champs in the Sooner Athletic Conference.

He then transferred to Sul Ross, where he played for the next three seasons. Lopez played in 73 games, scoring 186 points and tallying 194 assists, 183 rebounds and 47 steals.

Under former head coach Clif Carroll, the Lobos enjoyed a 17-10 overall record while going 13-3 in conference play during the 2019-2020 season.

Sul Ross hosted the ASC tournament that year. Unfortunately, the season came to an end in the semifinal round.

Lopez graduated with a bachelors in business administration before earning his master's degree last year.

He now gets to coach players he once played with like Julian Paredes, Deveraux Minix and Trace Edwards.

"The last two years hadn't been what we wanted as far as the expectation," added Lopez. "I want to help these guys be successful on and off the court. That's the main goal."

Lopez and current head men's basketball coach Xavier Webb are no strangers to each other.

Webb was a former assistant at Wayland Baptist for two seasons, which competes in the same conference as Texas Wesleyan.

When Lopez arrived at Sul Ross as a player, Webb was serving as an assistant coach.

"He has a great basketball mind. I knew he'd be a great fit. He's a great up and coming collegiate coach," Webb said about Lopez. "He's going to help take our team to the next level."

Lopez is one of the many former El Paso area athletes to flourish at Sul Ross on the basketball court.

The list is plentiful, but it includes players like Larry Morales (Del Valle), a member of the 2003-2004 Sweet 16 squad, recent standout Tristen Licon (Americas), Jimmy Martinez (Andress) and Filiberto Torres (Clint), to name a few.

"It's just a privilege to be here because there's a lot of El Pasoans that came to Sul Ross that were successful back then," said Lopez.