Meet the Speakers
Dave Brown: Port Huron Tennis. David has been and continues to be a respected tennis coach. He is a USTA High Performance Coach and a member of the Midwest Coaches Commission. He was named USPTA Michigan Pro of the Year.
He has trained many players who later played at the collegiate level: 65+ Division I, 50+ Division II, and 25+ Division III. He coached multiple players ranked as high as 1 in the Nation in their age group. He has had the pleasure of coaching many USTA Regional and National Camps, SEMTA Cup Teams in the 12’s, 14’s, and 18’s age divisions, and several Zonal Teams.
Coach Dave has been the SEMTA USTA Competitive Training Center Coach for 20 years. He was the Tennis Director at Port Huron Tennis House for 21 years and is currently teaching at Peachtree Tennis Club.
Jorge Capestany is one of only 12 people worldwide that is a Master Professional with the USPTA and an International Master Professional with the PTR. He is a 6-time Michigan Pro of the Year a 2-time Midwest Pro of the Year and was inducted into the USPTA Midwest Hall of Fame in 2012.
Jorge has been named the National Pro of the Year by BOTH the PTR and the USPTA. He has coached hundreds of ranked juniors including 3 national champions. He is an internationally recognized speaker and author. He is the founder of the Hope College Professional Tennis Management (PTM) program and works in developing the curriculum for the PTM program.
Jorge may be best known for developing two leading tennis industry websites. One for tennis coaches and one for players. Both websites can be found at… CapestanyTennis.com
Dr. Michelle Cleere: Helping others overcome their performance challenges and tap into their maximum potential is Dr. Michelle’s passion, mission, and promise.
As a global performance coach, she helps top athletes, musicians, and executives in competitive fields unlock the power of the mind and create the mental toughness to be the best. Having struggled most of her life with her own performance hurdles, she is driven by not wanting others to experience the same battles.
Dr. Michelle helps her clients release performance anxiety, gain more confidence, and build resilience. With a PhD in Clinical Psychology, a Masters in Sports Psychology, and years of hands on research, she is well grounded in theory and expert knowledge. As many clients attest, their experience with Dr. Michelle is exactly what they needed and more than they expected, “It was life changing.”
Adam Ford: USPTA & PTR, Adam is the Director of the Hope College Professional Tennis Management (PTM) program. He was the men’s and women’s varsity tennis coach at Hope as well as being a teaching professional at the DeWitt Tennis Center.
Adam is a USTA high-performance certified coach and has developed many nationally ranked players. He was a two-time state champion at Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central High School. He played tennis for four years at Division I Northern Illinois University. Often recognized by his peers, Adam is in a unique position to lead the College’s PTM program.
Adam was named the Michigan pro of the Year and is certified as a Etcheberry Speed & Agility coach. Adam is also certified as a Mental Toughness Specialist through the Human Performance Institute (HPI) the program developed by Dr. Jim Loehr.
Kati Gyulai: is the Director of Racquets at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, MI. She is a USPTA Elite Professional, USPTA-Platform Tennis Elite Professional, USPTA Padel Head Coach, USTA High Performance Coach and PPR certified Pickleball coach. She is a former NCAA Division 1 Head Men’s and Women’s Tennis Coach with an overall record of 175-144. Coach Kati served as the Head Women’s Tennis coach at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX for 8 seasons, at the University of Wyoming for 4 seasons and as Head Men’s and Women’s Tennis Coach at the University of Louisiana for 3 seasons. She is the USPTA Intermountain College Coach of the Year.
She is a former live broadcast commentator at the Texas Open Pickleball Championship, guest appeared At the Net Podcast and presented at the USPTA Texas Division Annual Conference. She holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Louisiana. She is fluent in English, Hungarian, and Romanian and is proficient in Spanish and German.
Chris Michalowski: is currently the Director of Experiential Learning at the USTA National Campus in Orlando Florida, a position he accepted in the summer of 2016. Chris is a member of the United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA) for 35 years and was the Director of Tennis at Grand Traverse Resort and Spa. He also was the Varsity Coach for Traverse City West Girls from 2008 – 2016.
Michalowski received 5 major awards as Director, which include: The USPTA Michigan Tennis Professional of the Year Award, the USTA Midwest Junior Team Tennis Organizer of the Year Award, the USPTA National Star Award, the USTA/USPTA National Community Service Award, and the Northern Michigan Tennis Association Volunteer of the Year, all in 2006.
Jim Harp: PTR Master of Performance, USTA High Performance Coach, USPTA Elite, ITPA , TPT, CTPS, PTR and USTA Coach Developer. He is the owner of the Harp Performance Tennis Academy. The program has a reputation of being a highly technical and innovative development center for tennis talent and performance. The Harp program boasts a 100% placement rate for players wishing to pursue collegiate tennis. Jim is a USTA High Performance Coaching Program Graduate.
Jim also holds a Certification in sports science with the International Tennis Performance Association as a Certified Tennis Performance Specialist. Jim has worked with players of all ages and skill sets from all over the world. Jim is t he current personal coach of Robin Anderson (WTA, career high 137)
Bill Riddle: is a veteran with over 30+ years of college, junior and club coaching and management experiences and is recognized as a High-Performance Tennis Specialist by the PTR, USPTA & USTA. He has helped to develop and coach a number of local, sectional, national and international junior tennis players both on and off court through direct involvement as well as through camps and training blocks. He found his way back into college coaching in 2019 and serves as the Men’s & Women’s Head Tennis Coach at The University of Tennessee Southern. Bill spent nine years coaching tennis at the collegiate level previously at Belmont University (Men’s & Women’s Assistant), Fisk University (Men’s & Women’s Head Coach) and Cumberland University (Men’s & Women’s Head Coach). His college teams and players have had success both on and off court at the national levels. He has coached 6 All-American players and numerous with national singles and doubles rankings.
Tom Walker: is the Director of Tennis Operations at GR Racquet and Fitness. With 35 years of experience as a coach and program developer, Tom’s students have and continue to win titles at every level of tennis. His passion remains in junior development where he has sent over 200 players into college on tennis scholarships.
Nationally, Tom has served on the National Junior Competition Committee for the United States Tennis Association. Locally, he is the Western Michigan Tennis Association president and past Junior Competition Committee Chairman. Accredited by the USPTR and USPTA as a national high-performance coach, his extensive coaching and travel background provides our organization with a vast external tennis network.
Frank Wu: is the owner/operator of Precision Stringing and Best In Game (a full- service custom apparel company), he works full-time at a membership wholesale company. In his spare time he serves as the boys and girls Varsity Tennis Coach at Fraser High School. He has been honored by over a dozen Coach of the Year Awards during his 20+ years of service as a high school coach. From playing competitive tennis in his early years, to serving as Director of Tennis, to his many years of coaching, Frank has been a professional in the tennis industry for over 30 years.
His credentials are from the USPTA and he has held the Master Racquet Technician certification for the USRSA since 1996. Prior to his high school tenure, Frank coached and trained high-performance athletes around the nation in multiple sports.