Hispanic Heritage Month: Julio Godreau

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Julio Godreau has served as the Director of Junior Tennis at USTA Texas since 2016. He’s experienced the ins and outs of tennis at multiple levels - as a competitive player, a widely-recognized coach and facility director and ultimately as a leader in organizing tennis through the USTA. For Hispanic Heritage Month, Julio shared a few of his thoughts and experiences as part of the tennis community. 

Q: What do you do at USTA Texas?

JG: My role is to oversee everything related to the junior tournament world and other aspects and areas that involve children in our sport throughout the entire state of Texas.

Q: What do you want people to know about the Hispanic community? 

JG: They’re fighters, they’re workers, they’re achievers. They just want to be able to see their families succeed and live. And when they get to leave this [world], to have it be better than when they came into it. 

Q: What is a moment that stands out in your tennis journey? 

JG: As a coach, seeing the dots connect for the player. And the day that we worked countless hours toward accomplishing a skill, or a certain shot selection and understanding, that becomes an automatic reaction from them. That moment when the dots connect and it happens and they look at you with the look in their eyes like... [shows surprised, excited look on face] and they look behind them like ‘who just did that’ and they realize they did it. Nothing is more rewarding than being able to impact somebody that way.

Q: What does Hispanic heritage mean to you? 

JG: What Hispanic heritage means to me: the responsibility that I have to those that came before me and about carrying on where they got us through and where we’re going to go next.