New UF strength and conditioning coordinator Victor Lopez.
Training Days
Friday, April 8, 2022 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The memory is embedded. How could it not be? Victor Lopez and the rest of 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines Echo Company were about to enter their first combat tour in Iraq. The year was 2006. Lopez was 21. The senior Marines, already with combat experience, told their junior Marines to look at the men to their left and to their right and understand some of them would not be coming back. Victor Lopez
Lopez let his head take a spin at the faces around him.
"The sooner we accepted that fact, the sooner we could go in and do what we had had to do. That was the message," Lopez recalled. "When you're a young Marine, you're ready to gear up and go. At that moment, I wanted to understand — I really did — but you can't understand until you actually go through the process."
Talk about an indoctrination to "the process." As a Marine, Lopez saw first-hand the ultimate example of selflessness, while also witnessing those close to him make the ultimate sacrifice.
It was in the Marines that Lopez's philosophy of commitment and teamwork took root. No, basketball is not a matter of life and death, but there are some fundamental concepts that Lopez, the new Florida men's basketball strength and conditioning coordinator, will apply to how he trains the Gators. More specifically, how he trains them to prepare for a purpose bigger than any one individual.
"The Marine aspect will come with the way they work for each other," said Lopez, the 36-year-old from Antioch, Calif., who accompanied new coach Todd Golden from the University of San Francisco. "Marines don't go into challenges thinking about what they're fighting for; the politics or whatever is going on. They may be there for that reason, but they're doing what they do for this guy and that guy."
The Gators, with a limited number of guys, got their first taste of Lopez's methods on Tuesday. All told, eight participated in the inaugural session. Seven of them (including two walk-ons) were players. The eighth was the head coach, who will train regularly with the team, as he did back at USF.
Victor Lopez during his first day training the Gators.
"He fits exactly the type of program I want to have here," Golden said. "He has a great attitude, works his tail off and is really excited about being here. He made us a lot better at San Francisco, and now, being at a place like the University of Florida, he's going to have a lot more talented bodies to work with."
Lopez was a multi-sport athlete (football, basketball, soccer) growing up in the Bay Area — Antioch is about 40 miles east of Oakland — but his path to a career in fitness training took a different path.
He recalls being a high school freshman in auto shop the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 when his teacher told the class they would be watching television, rather than working on cars. As the news from New York, Washington and Pennsylvania played out so did speculation of other potential terrorist targets, with mentions of the Golden Gate and Bay bridges getting play on the local outlets. Lopez's father was a construction worker who made daily treks across the Bay Bridge (Oakland to San Francisco).
The moment spoke to him.
"It would be a few years before I could really act on it, but that day was always a driving force for me," Lopez said. "I felt personally obligated to do something."
Not only did Lopez enlist in the Marines right out of high school, but he recruited three of his closest friends to join up with him, an act that so impressed the recruiting office that it quickly got Lopez to a rank of lance corporal. From there it was boot camp at Camp Pendleton (Calif.), then to a first tour and jungle warfare training in Okinawa, Japan, where his leadership skills truly took flight.
Late 2006 brought his first combat tour.
Victor Lopez(top right) with members of his battalion during their combat tour in Rutbah, near the Syrian/Iraq border.
Lopez respectfully declined to go into details about his time in-country, but rather referenced a book — "Echo In Ramadi: The Firsthand Story of US Marine's in Iraq's Deadliest City" by Scott Huesing — that was written about the ordeal.
"I'll just say it was a very tough time to be in there," said Lopez, who recalls waking up mornings in Ramadi and hearing prayer music blasting over the speakers through the city with calls to action for the local loyalists to fight the Americans. "You just knew it was going to be, well, a busy day. Reflecting back, anyone who said they weren't scared was lying."
After four years in the military, Lopez returned to civilian life in 2008 as a personal fitness instructor certified in multiple methods and disciplines, including martial arts. His first break to join a team came from Cal State-East Bay, a Division II program, where Lopez both trained student-athletes and got a bachelor's degree in Kinesiology. He then moved on to Saint Mary's College, where as a graduate student on his way to a master's degree he oversaw the same men's basketball program (under the same coach, Randy Bennett) for which Golden starred as a player a decade earlier.
In 2019, Golden brought Lopez to USF. Three years later, he brought him to Florida.
"He's a fountain, not a drain," said Golden, whose last team with the Dons went 24-10 and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 23 years. "He gives to people and puts others in front of himself. I just think he embodies what this whole program will be about and is really passionate about being here."
And he has a long, unique line of experience (and experiences) to draw on.
"How we do it, I've seen it work, with this past team at USF showing a selflessness and a belief in something bigger than themselves, with everyone buying into what it takes to reach a level of success," Lopez said. "It'll be a bond. It'll be a brotherhood."
After four years in the military, Lopez returned to civilian life in 2008 as a personal fitness instructor certified in multiple methods and disciplines, including martial arts. His first break to join a team came from Cal State-East Bay, a Division II program, where Lopez both trained student-athletes and got a bachelor's degree in Kinesiology. He then moved on to Saint Mary's College, where as a graduate student on his way to a master's degree he oversaw the same men's basketball program (under the same coach, Randy Bennett) for which Golden starred as a player a decade earlier.
