Texas associate coach Elena Lovato keeps ailing father near heart

Before the Texas Longhorns even started cutting the nets in Birmingham, Ala., Monday night, Elena Lovato rushed to the locker room to get her smartphone. The Texas women’s basketball associate head coach then called her father Ernesto, who was in a New Mexico hospital fighting cancer.

“We did it!” Lovato screamed as soon as her dad answered the Facetime call. “We are going to Tampa!”

Then she passed the phone to several Texas players so they could celebrate with Ernesto. They all screamed with joy on the phone after clinching a trip to the Women’s Final Four. 

Ernesto Lovato would likely have been dressed in burnt orange and cheering for the Longhorns to beat TCU in Birmingham, Ala. But he’s back home in New Mexico after undergoing a stem cell transplant to fight Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Elena Lovato is in her third season as the associate head coach on Vic Schaefer’s staff. She also served one season as Texas’ assistant coach/recruiting coordinator. In that role she helped the Longhorns land the No. 4 ranked class in the country in 2021. 

Before that, she spent four seasons over two stints at Mississippi State under Schaefer. She also served as the head coach of Arkansas-Fort Smith from 2016-2018.

Love, passion, service

“Coaching basketball to me is about the love, the passion and the service that we get to display and help others and be blessed with these opportunities with the game,” she says. “So my journey starts with who I was raised by and who they molded me to be.  They gave me a big heart. And I work really hard.”

Lovato’s parents, Frances and Ernesto, were a constant presence at her games. They were present when she played at West Texas A&M. Then they followed her closely as she coached high school, junior college and Division II and Division I college basketball. 

“She’s my world,” Ernesto Lovato said from his hospital room Thursday. “We used to go everywhere ever since she was recruited out of high school to the college in West Texas in Canyon.”

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Frances Lovato died on Aug. 5, 2019, at 62 years old. Elena is still mourning her mother. She holds onto the memories. She also serves as somewhat of an aunt-grandmother to her two brothers’ kids.

Frances Lovato was somewhat of a team mom to Elena’s players at Trinity Valley Community College, Grayson Community College, Fort Smith and at Mississippi State.

Winning and Elena’s parents were constants at Trinity Valley, where she won consecutive NJCAA Division I national titles in 2013 and 2014. She was the NJCAA Division I Coach of the Year after leading the 2013-14 Trinity Valley team to a 36-1 record.

“My teams loved her,” Elena Lovato says of her mother. “She would cook enchiladas and sopapillas for them.”

Ace recruiter

After her two national titles in her second stint at Trinity Valley, Elena joined Schaefer’s staff at Mississippi State for the 2014-2015 season. As the recruiting coordinator, she helped Schaefer guide the Bulldogs to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and their first Sweet 16 appearance in five years.

Her recruiting classes helped Mississippi State reach two national championship games. She’s considered one of the best recruiters in women’s college basketball. Not surprisingly, she credits her upbringing in Albuquerque with helping her become an elite recruiter and coach.

“I think my dad’s integrity is second to none, and my mom loved everybody she came in contact with,” Elena Lovato says. “And my dad worked really hard to provide. So that’s what I looked at every day. So this game of basketball has provided me with a career now to be a role model.”

Lovato considers navigating the last five years without her mother as the most difficult test in her life. She misses the woman she considered her best friend. As far as Lovato is concerned, her late mom gave the biggest and best hugs. Elena misses those embraces.

Now Lovato loves to share the compassion, empathy and love that defined her mother. Ernesto Lovato is certain that Frances is watching from above and enjoying the view of her daughter’s road to the Final Four.

Special 76th birthday

He’ll tune in from his hospital room as the Longhorns (35-3) face South Carolina (34-3) in a national semifinal between the co-SEC regular season champions Friday night in Tampa, Fla. Elena would love nothing more than to win the national championship and repeat the scene from last Monday night.

The Longhorns even serenaded Ernesto via FaceTime from Tampa on Thursday, which was his 76th birthday.

“The girls sang Happy birthday to him on Facetime. And made my heart melt,” Elena says. “They are inspiring him.”

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