Heather Ruiz will enter her second season on the UTSA softball coaching staff in 2025.
After arriving in 2024, Ruiz hit the ground running helping UTSA achieve 21 wins – the most since the 2019 season. She oversaw a wealth of improvements, including batting average (24.5% increase), on base percentage (13.2% increase), hits (25% increase), runs scored (21% increase), RBIs (21% increase), total bases (14% increase), stolen bases (44% increase). UTSA collected 21 wins, marking the most since 2019, and achieved a 5-0 start, the best in program history.
Ruiz was a four-year starter for the Texas A&M-International Dustdevils, working a stellar .321 batting average across 393 plate appearances. She drove in 53 runs for the squad and was named to the All-Headland Conference All-Tournament teams in 2018 and 2019. Ruiz also got the job done in the classroom, picking up All-Academic honors in all four seasons, and was awarded Third-Team All-Conference in 2022.
Following her playing career, she joined the Dustdevils’ strength and conditioning staff as an intern in 2022, where she assisted in developing and implementing plans for women’s basketball, softball, and volleyball during all phases. She then joined UTSA, performing a similar role in the Roadrunners’ Sports Performance Department.
Ruiz then joined the UTSA softball staff as a graduate assistant in the spring of 2024, helping support the squad in various aspects of team operations and player development.
She graduated from TAMIU in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and a minor in psychology. Additionally, Ruiz earned her master’s degree in public health at UTSA in the Fall of 2024.