Jopas Sports Academy

Dalé Duró, Hitting Hard in Hillsborough

Jose Padilla can still hear his father’s words from the batter’s box growing up. “Dalé Duró,” he’d call out, Spanish for “hit it hard.” It became more than encouragement. It became the question Jose spent years trying to answer for himself, and one he now spends his days answering for other players.

That answer didn’t come easily. Jose was already a serious student of the game when he reached college, but it took a coach and a mentor named Dave to show him that talent on its own wasn’t enough. Dave pointed out that Jose’s hardest hit balls were still just flares, not the kind of contact that makes a distinct sound off the bat. Learning to turn on his back hip instead of pushing his hands through the zone changed the way he hit, and it became the foundation of how he now teaches others.

Jose’s path to Hillsborough started with family, not baseball. A move to be closer to relatives who could help with childcare put him within reach of a local gym, where he began working as a personal trainer. It was there that a colleague noticed Jose’s baseball background and suggested adding batting cages to the space. That idea grew into Jopa’s Sports Academy, now rooted in Hillsborough as its own training facility for baseball and softball players.

Coaching at Jopa’s is a shared effort. Noah Cheskis, who stepped away from baseball for a stretch before finding his way back through former coaches and mentors, now coaches alongside Jose using the same program Jose built, so the instruction stays consistent no matter who a player works with. Both describe their approach as hands on and direct. If something in a swing isn’t right, they’ll say so, aiming to build players who understand the why behind the mechanics rather than just hearing that they look fine.

Jose brings that same intensity to his own training, at one point building up from a taped bat to swinging a full sledgehammer to strengthen his swing. He’s open about the fact that people have questioned the method, and just as open about not letting other people’s doubts set limits on what a player, including himself, can become. It’s the same message he tries to pass on to the kids and adults who walk through his door, to work hard and trust the process rather than let anyone else define their ceiling