As professional sports leagues rely more heavily upon analytics to evaluate an athlete’s performance, Cordero Roche is using his major-league experience to educate the next generation of sports scientists at UNLV.

Roche — a Florida native, former Troy University cornerback, and 2021 graduate of UNLV’s interdisciplinary health sciences Ph.D. program — has returned to his alma mater to help manage the university’s Sports Performance Education Economic Development (SPEED) Lab.

The SPEED Lab introduces UNLV students to the vast and ever-evolving landscape of sports science. As a community partner with the Clark County School District, it also increases awareness to the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields and introduces to K-12 students how science is an integral part of athletic performance. 

“With the SPEED Lab, we’re able to show our students and other people in the community about [STEM] fields and hopefully get them interested in STEM as well,” he said.

An Expert Sports Scientist Returns to UNLV

After getting his doctorate, Roche spent a couple of seasons as a sports scientist with the Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Mets.

“I knew that working in sports wasn’t going to be permanent,” he said. “When the season starts, that’s all you do. We have a good work-life balance here at UNLV, and I never forgot that when I was doing my Ph.D.”

John Mercer, a professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences, housed within UNLV’s School of Integrated Health Sciences, has known Roche since taking him on as a Ph.D. student in 2017.

Mercer helps lead UNLV’s Sports Innovation Institute, which oversees the SPEED Lab. Since Roche's return, he's been encouraged by an uptick in student involvement.

“Cordero has significantly expanded the presence of UNLV's Sports Innovation Institute in the local sports and educational communities,” Mercer said. “He is building collaborations with local high schools and youth sports organizations with the goal of providing hands-on experiences that inspire young athletes and students to see how science can improve performance and health.”

Roche also has created partnerships with the Las Vegas Raiders, Vegas Golden Knights, Las Vegas Lights, Las Vegas Desert Dawgs, and UFC.

“One of the things we are trying to drive home is getting our students these opportunities to work with these organizations,” he said. “We have access to work with these teams, and it helps that we are the only university in town doing this type of research.”

Working in the Bigs

A new way of looking at stats in the big leagues can be attributed to a certain award-winning movie. Moneyball told the story of how sports science ballooned across all leagues after Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane used nontraditional metrics — like focusing on on-base and slugging percentages rather than RBIs or batting average — to scout talented players.

Beane’s reliance on science and analytics in the late 1990s ushered in a new wave of thinking for MLB teams with much smaller payrolls to compete with bigger-market teams. Teams now rely heavily on science and analytics to assess player performance.

And while MLB has been notoriously slow to implement change, Roche credits the league for being the first to use motion capture technology to record player movement. Once the data is digitally stored, sports scientists have a better understanding of how to assess their players before relaying the information to the coaches.

While Roche contemplated jobs after graduation, MLB stood out among the rest. 

“As I considered different opportunities, MLB’s sports science and research was much further ahead than the other leagues,” he said.

Roche knew that if he could get his foot in the door with MLB, he could apply the skills he learned as a UNLV student and put them into practice as a budding sports scientist. 

His wish came true after landing a job with the Tampa Bay Rays organization in 2022.

A big component of his job during the grueling days of spring training included monitoring the information coming in from the players’ GPS trackers so the sports science team could meticulously dissect their workload and performance.

“You have to structure everything around the players’ schedules, and it’s an all-day process,” he said. 

Roche joined the New York Mets organization for the 2023 season, a season where the team had Cy Young pitchers Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, along with All-Star players Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso.

“I got to see Pete Alonso in the hitting cage before games at Citi Field, and that’s where you really see the difference in levels between the majors and the minor leagues,” he said. “Just hearing the crack of the bat, I knew it was different.”

Roche primarily worked with minor league players during his tenure and loved seeing the players he worked with make it to the big leagues. Mark Vientos, Ronny Mauricio, and Luisangel Acuna, all of whom Roche worked with as minor leaguers in the Mets organization, are now enjoying careers in the majors. 

Expanding Sports Science in Las Vegas

Las Vegas has boomed as a professional sports city over the past decade, and Roche is proud to see UNLV's programs growing as well. 

UNLV’s SPEED Lab is in a fortuitous position. The growing need for more sports scientists coupled with Las Vegas’s success as a major-league city is the perfect combination to help educate the next generation of sports scientists. 

“Cordero’s efforts have not only strengthened relationships with local professional teams but have also positioned the SPEED Lab as a trusted community partner that helps bridge the gap between academic research and real-world impact,” Mercer said. 

Roche is also confident that UNLV can be a regional leader in the field, led by students eager to learn more.

“I knew I wanted to come back to UNLV,” he said. “I’m able to take my education and my experience and use it to mold the next generation of sports scientists.”