Faces of SONJ: Coach Marcus Lozano

May 13, 2022July 28, 2022 Category: Coach of the Season Posted by ejh

Born in Buffalo, New York, Marcus’ Father was a firefighter and multi-sport coach, and his Mother was a Special Education Teacher.  Coach Lozano was raised in an environment that inspired him to combine those two professions and become a Special Olympics coach. Marcus was a standout soccer player in high-school and was recruited on a soccer scholarship to Caldwell University. After graduating with a Masters in Special Education he started teaching and coaching youth soccer. It wasn’t until he came to Union City that he became involved in coaching Special Olympics. While coaching youth soccer in Union City, Coach Lozano was able to include some of the Special Education students from his classroom on his teams. This was his start of Unified Sports. Marcus started the Unified Program at Union Hill Middle School and then brought it to Union City High School (UCHS).

The Unified Club at UCHS aims to promote inclusion in the school, using sports as the vehicle. The Unified Teams include half students with disabilities and half students without disabilities. Starting out with Unified Soccer, the program quickly expanded to Unified Basketball, Bowling and Track. The Unified Teams from UCHS have been very successful, bringing home several State Championships in Soccer, Basketball and Bowling. The Unified Soccer Team recently won their second State Championship in October.

Coach Lozano was named as the Special Olympics New Jersey Coach of the Season in 2016 and in 2017 he was named as the New York Red Bulls Community MVP for his work in teaching soccer to kids with disabilities. He also coached the New York Red Bulls Unified Team in 2016 and 2017. He currently resides in Union City where he is a Special Education Teacher at UCHS, Assistant Varsity Soccer Coach, Unified Club Advisor, and Unified Sports Coach.