Special from
Zoo Tennis
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Growing up in Puerto Rico, USTA National Coach Jose Caballero began his athletic pursuits in an obvious place: baseball, the Commonwealth's favorite sport.
USTA National Coach Jose Caballero
© Zoo Tennis
Yet, even with achievements that included a position on the national team, Caballero discovered a new love in tennis, and that passion hasn't waned since shifting from playing to coaching.
Now 46, Caballero competed in the Caribbean section as a junior, then played at Miami Dade Community College before finishing his collegiate career at then-NAIA North Georgia College.
After graduation, Caballero returned to Puerto Rico, where he began coaching tennis at all levels—10-and-under, adaptive, adult—before establishing a high performance academy.
After nine years, Caballero and his wife moved to the United States, where he joined the Boca Raton academy founded by Martin Blackman, now the General Manager of USTA Player Development. After Blackman was named to lead Player Development in 2015, Caballero took over the academy, then followed Blackman to the USTA as a coordinator in the Coaching Education department. After two years there, he applied for a position as a National Coach in men's tennis and has been working with juniors in that capacity ever since.
At last month's ITF J300 in San Diego, I sat down with Caballero to discuss the phases of his coaching career, the daily responsibilities of a USTA National coach, his favorite and least favorite parts of the job and the impact of the recent budget cuts at Player Development.
Colette Lewis: What prompted you to leave Puerto Rico and move to the United States?
Jose Caballero: When we moved to Florida, I didn't know if we were going to have an academy or not. It was just, let's see what happens. I always told my wife, I love the work, so if it doesn't work there, we're going to find somewhere. But my goal was to get away from my comfort zone in Puerto Rico and to grow as a coach. Like we always tell the players, I wanted to see how good of a coach I could become. So a big thing was to be around great people, coaches that push and mentor you.
