A&M-Commerce Appoints D’Este as Director of Olympic Sports Performance

By Lion Athletics

Texas A&M University-Commerce has appointed Jon-Paolo D’Este as the Director of Olympics Sports Performance. D’Este began working at A&M-Commerce last month.
 
As the Director of Sports Performance, he will oversee the entire sports performance unit, while working directly with select Olympic sports. D’Este arrived to A&M-Commerce following a four-year stint at Stephen F. Austin. He assisted with the Football team while also being the head strength coach for women’s basketball, women’s tennis, and volleyball.
 
“I am overwhelmed with gratitude for this opportunity to join the team at A&M-Commerce as the Director of Sports Performance,” said D’Este. “The opportunities to develop and expand the athletics program make it a great time to be in Commerce. I would like to thank Jim Curry and Brian White for the opportunity to join Lion U.”
 
During his time at SFA, he helped all his teams achieve new heights in their performance. He was able to assist in helping the Football program make the FCS Playoffs in 2021. With the Women’s Basketball program, he was able to help the team make back-to-back NCAA Tournaments (2020-21 & 2021-22).
 
“We are extremely excited to welcome JP to the A&M-Commerce Lion family. We knew for such an integral role we had to find a high energy, highly knowledgeable and capable person,” said Associate Athletics Director for Health and Performance Brian White.
 
“JP will elevate our Sports Performance space with expertise in movement analysis, great coaching ability, and vast knowledge from his previous experience coaching professional and Division I student-athletes. He truly cares about the teams he trains and takes time to develop plans for the growth and development of each individual student-athlete. We look forward to JP’s contributions to our successes and his plans to grow and develop our sports performance team.”
 
D’Este also helped the Women’s Tennis program make the Conference Tournament for the first time in four years and won their first Tournament match since 2014. After taking over as the strength coach for the Volleyball program in 2022, he assisted in making them back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances (2022 & 2023).
 
Before SFA, D’Este was a part of the XFL working with the Los Angelese Wildcats. As an Assistant Strength Coach for the Wildcats, he worked with former A&M-Commerce quarterback and Harlon Hill Trophy winner Luis Perez.
 
D’Este made the jump to the XFL after working at Stanford for a year. He went to Palo Alto to take part in the Cardinal intern program, but his performance elevated him to join the Football Sports Performance Staff. During his time at Stanford, he worked with the Football team as well as assisting with the training of Women’s Soccer and Light Weight Crew, both won National Championships in 2019.
 
D’Este got his start while attending the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Graduate School. While attending UNLV, he spent two years under the mentorship of Mark Philippi while working at the Philippi Sports Institute. He also interned with the UNLV Football team.