Mark D.

About Me

Hi, my name is Mark. I started playing tennis at the age of 12 years old and was immediately addicted. I began teaching at the age of fourteen to make money on the side as a kid. I had many great teachers in the Syracuse area. These dedicated professional taught me fundamentals that I still possess today. By the time I was 18 I had attained a ranking of 23 in the eastern tennis association. I attained a job at a large tennis camp in Boston during the summers and learned so much about teaching groups and all levels of players that i knew the life of a teacher was in my blood. I eventually rose to the head instructors position helping with the camp scheduling, grouping and managing of the entire camp that consisted of 186 students a week, 50 instructors and 4 head instructors. I also fell in love with New England.
I spent 18 years in Connecticut as an assistant professional and a head professional at four different country clubs and indoor clubs. Many of my students received sectional and national rankings. At this point I yearned to coach in more of a team atmosphere. As the coach at Glastonbury High school I coached several state champion doubles teams ,while coaching national level juniors who were winning state championships at other schools. I also worked with many USTA teams leading them to sectional and regional championships. I needed to go to the next level and became a college coach at the university of Hartford. To this day I am the only coach who has taken them to the NCAA's in their history. I also recruited one of the top juniors in the world in Pedja Zdravkovic who today holds the record for the most wins at 114. During my college coaching I still taught adults and juniors of all levels.
i went on to coach at Bradley University in Peoria Illinois, Hamilton College in Clinton,N.Y and currently am the head men's and women coach at Le Moyne college in Syracuse NY. I have worked at all the indoor facilities in the Syracuse area while coaching at the division II Le Moyne. My true love is working on public court introducing new people to the game and creating an innovative and fun atmosphere that will addict my students the way it did me. I have come home to grow the game and my tennis teaching career has come full circle.

Teaching Style

My teaching style is old school and I believe in classic footwork and form. I treat each student as an individual based on individual needs, strengths and weaknesses.

Teaching Locations = Travel Radius = Preferred Court

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