As Hispanic Heritage Month comes to a close on October 15th, the following is a closer look at two individuals who are making a difference in their communities on and off the tennis court.

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XAVIER RODRIGUEZ
TENNIS COACH FROM CALEXICO

Tennis is growing in the Imperial Valley, and it’s because of dedicated coaches like Xavier Rodriguez who put in the time and effort to continue to grow the game within the Hispanic community.

Rodriguez is a high school teacher at Calexico High School who formerly coached the tennis team. He also serves as the vice-chair for the USTA Southern California DEI Committee alongside chairman Carlos Cruz-Aedo.

“It is so incredibly humbling to serve on that committee and see how it has evolved over the last few years,” Rodriguez said. “I started playing tennis later in life when I was a junior in high school so to be on this committee with some other great SoCal players, and experts in their fields, is humbling but at the same time awesome to work with people from different backgrounds who come together for a common goal.”

Rodriguez has taught English at Calexico for 21 years and recently took a different position within the district that didn’t allow him the time to remain the boys’ and girls’ tennis coach, which he led for 10 years. “Of course I miss it,” said Rodriguez, who also served as a league representative for CIF on behalf of the San Diego Section. “I’m still able to go out to the courts and help out as much as I can.”

While still teaching some private lessons, Rodriguez said he still works diligently at recruiting new players to the sport and that the best recruitment tool is usually the classroom.

“A lot of times the students may have never played sports, or come from different sports, but as they get to know you there is a familiarity there and they feel more comfortable trying something they have never done before,” Rodriguez said. “But they get pretty good pretty quickly and it’s incredible to watch.”

Rodriguez said he was lucky enough to meet legendary San Diego tennis coach Angel Lopez many years ago, and that his kids have been able to visit Lopez at the San Diego Tennis & Racquet Club.

“Every summer we would take kids to Angel’s camps and during the school year we’d get to go to his club and meet some really great players like Brandon Nakashima and Keegan Smith and others who have made a pretty big impact in Southern California and then gone on to play professional tennis,” Rodriguez said.

He added there have been some instances where the kids have become friends with these players. “That’s something they never thought would happen because they come from just completely different worlds,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez considers himself lucky that he has been given the opportunity to introduce hundreds of students to the game of tennis over the years.

“It’s neat to think about how much of an impact playing tennis might have had on them and how that may have attributed to some success they had in their personal life,” Rodriguez said. “For many of them tennis kind of seemed to be one of the support systems they leaned on and for that I’m grateful to have been a small part of their success.”

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JOSEPH REYES
TENNIS DIRECTOR, MOUNTAIN VIEW SPORTS & RACQUET CLUB IN SAN DIEGO

Because of the influence of his childhood tennis coaches Antonio and Alberto Ramos, Joseph Reyes made the decision to leave his comfortable head pro teaching position at the Arcadia Tennis Center two years ago and return to his roots.

“What brought me home was that I wanted to be part of the Hispanic tennis community,” Reyes said. “That’s what really brought me back. I grew up here so it’s kind of been like a dream for me to return.”

The 28-year-old Reyes is currently responsible for all the tennis programming at Mountain View Sports and Racquet Club in San Diego and manages their NJTL. A schoolteacher by day, Reyes also runs junior and adult tournaments, social events, as well as junior and adult tennis leagues out of Mountain View.

The San Diego resident Reyes said the Ramos brothers were an inspiration to him as a young player, and he recalls being inserted into high performance clinics with the former Mexican Tennis Federation coach Antonio as early as age 12. “Because of them, I was able to play four years in high school at East Lake High in Chula Vista,” Reyes said. “Because of my Mexican heritage I have always had a passion for teaching in the Latin community.”

Reyes recently ran a Latin American Tennis Foundation event for International Tennis Hall of Famer Rosie Casal and said he is looking forward to bringing more events to Mountain View, where a majority of the membership is Hispanic. On Oct. 5, the club hosted a Latin American Tennis Festival with games and food and even a Mariachi band from Southwest High School performed.

Reyes was assisted at the festival by one of his top teaching pros Jesus Osuna, who is a former No. 5 ranked junior in Mexico with a UTR rating of 12. Fluent in Spanish, Osuna trains many of the top adults and junior players at the club.

“The biggest difference I see being at a place like Arcadia, which is very affluent, and here is a lot of the young players lack confidence,” Reyes said. “I try to instill in them self-confidence and let them know they have what it takes to succeed.”