Growing up in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, senior men’s tennis player Jose Catala had a complicated relationship with the sport. Once unsure of pursuing tennis, Catala is now entering his second season as the cornerstone and captain of the Marist tennis team with an All-MAAC selection under his belt.
Catala began playing tennis when he was eight years old at Club de Tenis Santa Cruz, where his father, Jorge, was the academy director and his coach. Jorge Catala was a former tennis professional himself; he most notably represented his home country of Cuba in the Davis Cup, the tennis equivalent of the World Cup, in 1998.
“I have always looked up to my father,” said Catala. “Whatever he would do I wanted to do because I wanted to be like him.”
Along with admiration for his father, Catala idolized Swiss icon and 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer. Catala respects two of Federer’s traits the most: his classiness and his effortlessness.
Despite wanting to be just like his father, Catala’s development of his love for tennis took time. Day in and day out, he was forced to go to training and would even receive gifts just for attending.
“I remember I hated [tennis],” said Catala. “I had an aunt that bought me dinosaur toys and that would encourage me to go to training.”
In addition to tennis, Catala played soccer growing up and took kickboxing lessons. Soccer is Bolivia’s most popular sport, so Catala was naturally inclined to play. Kickboxing, on the other hand, was a fun alternative that Catala discovered.
Catala continued training with his father and, as he began maturing, he realized that he had some serious potential. At 13 years old, Catala started winning most of his matches and making friends at the academy, igniting his passion for the sport.
“I was scared at first because I was a very shy person,” said Catala. “I started to really enjoy playing tennis when I met new kids and made friends.”
As soon as Catala began forming friendships, he became more motivated to train at his father’s academy. At this stage of his tennis career, Catala began to travel all over the Americas for International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournaments in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Ecuador and Chile; Catala even went to Panama and as far north as the United States.
“I won a few of those tournaments and I was like, ‘all right, [playing tennis in college] is definitely attainable,’” said Catala. “I stopped playing soccer and training kickboxing.”
After Catala decided to focus solely on tennis, he started getting in contact with universities such as Southern Mississippi, Abilene Christian (ACU) and Hofstra. Similar to many student-athletes in his class, Catala’s recruiting process hit a snag due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“[The recruiting process] was so hard because some of the schools told me that I had to wait two or three weeks because of the pandemic and issues with scholarships,” said Catala.
This was just the start of what was a tumultuous process for Catala. Initially, he was drawn to Abilene Christian because his cousin attended the school and he preferred having the ability to know one person on campus.
However, this endeavor came to a halt when the coach who offered Catala a scholarship got fired. Catala’s cousin provided a steady presence for him during this difficult time, ensuring him he would find somewhere to go.
“When the coach at ACU got fired, my cousin told me that she did not think I should go there because he was the one that offered me the scholarship,” said Catala. “She kept telling me that I should trust this coach because he is going to get me into another school.”
Lo and behold, his cousin ended up being correct. The coach Catala spoke with at ACU, Hutton Jones, and his assistant coach, Julia Mongin, landed jobs at Oklahoma Wesleyan University, which heavily influenced Catala to sign there.
COVID-19 continued as an obstacle for Catala, now delaying his eventual signing with the Eagles. It took until August 18, 2020, to be officially welcomed to the program.
“I got to school a month late and my computer was broken, so it was definitely really tough at first,” said Catala.
Catala was naturally introverted, so during this transitional period, he leaned heavily on his friends and family back home in Bolivia for support. When Catala began opening up to others on campus, he formed relationships with men’s soccer team players because they had many Spanish speakers present.
Becoming more comfortable on campus allowed Catala to see individual success on the tennis court. With no season in 2020-2021 due to the pandemic, Catala’s collegiate career did not begin until his sophomore year.
When the sophomore season began, Catala immediately burst onto the scene. Catala’s play earned him a Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) Player of the Week nod and was named to the All-KCAC First Team. Catala also finished as the second-best player in the region and 38th nationally.
Despite personal success, Catala was frustrated with the lack of team success. In his first full season as an Eagle, the team finished 7-13 overall, going just 3-6 against KCAC foes.
“We had three good players that wanted to win, but the rest of the team did not play much tennis in high school…maybe they played for one year,” said Catala.
At the conclusion of his sophomore season, Catala entered the transfer portal and was determined to approach it with a different mindset.
Catala researched the Universal Tennis Ratings of different schools and was far more diligent in finding a school that fit what he wanted academically, socially and athletically. Compared to his previous recruiting cycle, Catala was speaking to schools on the East Coast because his family moved to Long Island and he wanted to be close to them.
“As I was talking with the schools and I got their offers and scholarships, they were good, but they were not what I wanted,” said Catala. “However, right when I was about to sign with another school, the former director of tennis got the job, so he called me and wanted me to come visit Marist.”
On his first visit to Marist, Catala was in awe of how beautiful the campus was and liked how it was bigger than Oklahoma Wesleyan. Catala also toured Siena and Hofstra, but “loved the campus at Marist way more.”
Last season, Catala’s first year in Poughkeepsie, he was named a captain and earned an All-MAAC Second Team selection. Being team captain was not something Catala necessarily envisioned for himself, but he was more than willing to assume the role.
“[Being named captain] was something that the old coach asked the other guys, ‘who do you want as a captain,’ and they said my name,” said Catala. “More than anything, I think that showed how the other guys rely on me.”
Catala believes that his ability to stay calm in pressurized moments and lead by example are valuable skills he uses as a leader.
Nathaniel Horner, the new director of tennis as of last September, believes Catala has had a tremendous influence on the rest of the team and is a great leader.
“We spent the fall semester just letting things play out and it was very clear that Jose was the leader of this team,” said Horner. “I haven’t even given Jose a captain badge yet, but he is clearly the captain.”
The Red Foxes are entering this season as a very young team. Horner expressed that Catala has been nothing short of fantastic building a foundation for the program and integrating the younger players into the culture they are trying to build.
Edited by: Ryan Eichem and Aidan Lavin
Graphic: Eugene Barbieri; Photo: Marist Athletics
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