Paul Zavala joined the UIC coaching staff as an assistant coach prior to the 2021-22 season before being elevated to interim head coach on July 7, 2022.
From the 2022-23 Season, Paul Zavala has led the Flames Cross Country and Track & Field Programs to 53 New School Records, 244 Top 10 All-Time Track & Field Performances, and 56 Top 10 All-Time Cross Country Performances.
In 2025, Coach Zavala led our UIC Men’s Cross Country Team to their highest conference finish ever in program history and 2nd Place Overall in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Men’s Cross Country Program also finished being ranked 12th in the Midwest Region and best regional ranking in school history.
During the 2024-25 Track & Field Season, the Flames had their most individual conference scoring individuals in their initial three season in the Missouri Valley Conference and Alessia Sarussi became the first ever Women’s Track and Field athlete to qualify for the NCAA DI Outdoor Track & Field National Championships.
Zavala spent the 2020-21 season as the director of track & field/cross country at Chicago State after spending two years at Benedictine University (2018-20) where he led the Eagles men's and women's cross country teams and was an assistant coach for BU's men's and women's track & field teams (2018), before getting promoted to head coach (2019). He led the men's cross country program to its first-ever Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Championship in 2018, the first overall title since 1991. BU was paced by individual champion Marcos Garcia in record time, the school's first male individual to win the race. On the women's side, the Eagles finished second at the conference championships, its highest finish ever, led by women's champion Emma Roberts, her second consecutive individual title.
In addition to the men's cross country title, the BU men's program claimed first-ever NACC titles in indoor and outdoor track & field during the 2018-19 season while Garcia became the first Eagles male distance runner since 1984 to qualify for the NCAA DIII Indoor and Outdoor National Track & Field Championships. He earned All-America honors in the 5,000m in outdoor track & field.
During the 2019-20 season, Roberts and Garcia both qualified for the NCAA DIII Cross Country National Championship and each earned Midwest All-Region honors. The men's program repeated as indoor conference champions for the fifth year in a row while Zavala was honored as the NACC Men's Indoor Track & Field Coach of the Year. BU had three national qualifiers during the indoor season (Marcos Garcia, 5,000m; DJ Anderson, 200m and 400m; Matt Fleming, long jump) and each earned All-America honors in their respective events while the men's team was ranked as high as No. 5 in the nation.
Zavala's BU resume includes four NACC men's team conference championships, 2020 NACC Men's Indoor Track & Field Coach of the Year, six NCAA DIII All-Americans, 11 NCAA DII national qualifiers, 12 NCAA DII all-regional athletes, five NACC Athlete of the Year winners, 40 NACC individual conference champions and 93 NACC all-conference award winners.
Prior to joining the Eagles, Zavala was the head men's and women's cross country and track & field coach at Robert Morris University from 2010-18. He coached four National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) All-Americans and 22 national qualifiers. He coached eight individual conference champions, 43 all-conference runners and eight time Puerto Rico National Champion Mizael Carrera (5,000m, 10,000m, half marathon and cross country) who was the 2014 Puerto Rico National Athlete of the Year and Puerto Rico's top competitor at the 2015 Pan American Cross Country Cup.
Zavala is an alumni of Roosevelt University (2006), graduating with a Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Business Administration (2008). He competed for the Eagles and was awarded with the Newcomer of the Year award before twice earning Most Valuable Player honors. He was awarded the prestigious Eagle Award, given each year to the student-athlete who best personifies the ideals of intercollegiate athletics and the University. In 2011, he was inducted into the Robert Morris University Athletic Hall of Fame through his contribution and representation of RMU athletics at the highest level. He was a four-time (Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) All-Conference honoree, a three-time NAIA All-Region runner and the CCAC Freshman of the Year. He was also a NAIA National Qualifier for the Cross Country Championship Meet.
Zavala started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at RMU (2007-08) and spent one year as an assistant men's and women's cross country coach at Morton College (IL) (2008) before returning to RMU in 2009, assisting both men's and women's cross country and track & field teams.
He is a member of USA Track & Field Athletics, Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association, and U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. He is also a certified in USA Track & Field Cross Country Specialist and Level 2 for Distance, Sprint, Hurdle and Relay, Jumps Events. Additional certifications include ALTIS Foundation, Horizontal Jumps, and Shorts Sprints.
