Jon-Paolo D’Este was hired in February 2024 as the Director of Olympics Sports Performance. He arrived at East Texas A&M after serving as the Assistant Director of Sports Performance at Stephen F. Austin State University.
Spending nearly four years in Nacogdoches, D’Este assisted with the Football team while also being the head strength coach for Women’s Basketball, Women’s Tennis, and Women’s Volleyball.
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). He 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 East Texas A&M 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.
