Brent Johnson grew up in Broken Arrow, OK and loved sports from an early age. He started out playing soccer at age 5 and was introduced to tennis by his dad at age 12. His dad modeled how to be a gentleman on and off the court and always pushed him to the next level. He was also trained by tennis pros at a local country club, which all helped him to excel quickly. He continued playing both sports through high school and college and worked his way up to the #1 seed his senior year at McPherson College (NAIA) in Kansas.
Brent currently lives in Broken Arrow with his wife, Victoria, and two daughters, Grace and Abigail. He loves working with children and anyone wanting to push themselves to the next level. He’s passionate about using his gifts to help others succeed.
Preston Smith is from Grand Rapids Michigan. Growing up with fellow Tucker Tennis coach, Idris Smith, as his father, a tennis racquet was bound to be in his hands. Preston received a tennis racquet on his seventh birthday and the rest is history.
Preston has competed at all levels in the juniors, in high school and in college. Growing up with a father that coached at the highest level allowed Preston to be around the best and brightest of tennis from a young age. In high school, Preston won a Chicago catholic league city title. The first ever at the 3 singles position in school history. He attended college at the Marion Military Institute. In his freshman year, he qualified to play doubles at the junior college national championships. While Preston was on the team, they held the national rank of 14 and 15.
Preston has been coaching since 2015, when he first worked as a camp instructor at XS Tennis in Chicago. After moving to Wheaton, Illinois in 2017, Preston began coaching junior tennis again during high school at the Wheaton Sport Center. At the Wheaton Sport Center, he helped coach peewee classes, as well as middle to high school aged kids.
Mitch Hallum grew up in Waller, Texas playing competitive baseball. At the age of 15, he started playing tennis and was hooked. Mitch graduated from the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor where he was a three-year letter athlete, served as team captain for two years, and earned honors as an all-conference doubles player. Mitch spent five years as a high performance coach at MAC360 Tennis Academy in Austin, Texas before moving to Tulsa. He also has coaching experience as the assistant coach at a division one school, the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley. Mitch has also served as the director of Texas A&M’s tennis camps for 15 years.
Mitch currently lives in Tulsa, OK where he is the head coach for Oral Roberts University’s men’s tennis team. He is also the assistant director of tennis for the university.
Born and raised in Rosario, Argentina, Tomas started playing tennis at 4 years old. As a Junior, he was ranked #1 in Argentina in the 12U, 14U, and 16U. In 2016, Tomas competed in the Junior Davis Cup in Budapest, Hungary – finishing 3rd place. In 2017, Tomas was ranked #1 in South America and #60 in the ITF Junior rankings. Also, in 2017, Tomas played the youth Pan-American games and won the gold medal in doubles. He has played in ITF tournaments in Europe, Africa, and Asia.
After his junior career, Tomas went on to play tennis at Louisiana State University, where he was named Student-Athlete of the Month several times. He was the captain and leader of the team, and after two successful years at LSU, he transferred to the University of West Florida. During his college career, he was ranked #18 in singles and #1 doubles in the ITA rankings.
Tomas currently resides in Tulsa, OK.
Joao Riquelme Yañez grew up in Villa Alemana, Chile where he started playing tennis at the age of 8. His brother, Reinaldo, surprised him with a tennis racquet and he instantly fell in love with the sport, starting to play in his back yard with his dad.
During his junior career, Joao was top 3 in Chile in all age divisions from 14’s to 18’s, ranked #1 in Chile for U14 and ranked #15 in South America in U16. He turned pro at age 17, making him one of the youngest tennis professionals in Chile and had a ranking of #1400 in the world.
Joao went on to attend college at the University of Texas San Antonio for two years where he led his team to win the C-USA Conference Tittle for the first time in history, qualifying for the NCAA national team championship and reaching the all-time best team ranking for his school (#50). After his sophomore year, he returned to Chile to play tennis for the Universidad Andres Bello where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Physical Education. In 2018, his team won the Chile National Championship, where he played #2, going undefeated in both singles and doubles.
Joao has been teaching tennis for over 8 years in Chile, US and Switzerland, in this last, he worked as an assistant coach at Pro Tennis in the city of Bern. He started his coaching career in Chile in 2013 as assistant coach at the Javiera Carrera’s Club in Chile. In 2015-2016 he worked as an assistant coach for Euro Spin Tennis, in San Antonio, Texas. After coming back to Chile, he founded his own academy, acting as academy director. He was also the tennis director of Club 7 Pinos where he worked for 3 years before deciding to come back to US. He currently lives in Tulsa, OK. He is the son of Reinaldo Riquelme and Marisol Yañez.He has two brothers, Reinaldo and Angelo, and two sisters, Amanda and Nataly.
“Tennis is my passion. I want to teach players that if you put your mind into it, with passion, hard work and discipline you can achieve anything you propose not only in this sport but in life, and to always dream big.” – Joao Riquelme
Born and raised in Argentina, Celeste started playing tennis at the age of 10, achieving a top 10 national ranking as a junior. She then moved to the United States where she played D1 tennis at the University of Mississippi and achieved a career high ranking of #3 in doubles and #6 singles in ITA national ranking. It was there that she obtained a B.A. in Dietetics and Nutrition.
Upon graduation in 2001, Celeste began her coaching career as the Assistant Women’s Tennis Coach at UMass Amherst and was awarded the 2006 ITA Assistant Coach of the Year for the East Region. It was there that she also obtained a M.S. in Sport Management.
For the past 14 years Celeste has coached at Manchester Athletic Club, where she also held the position as Academy Manager. She played a huge role in designing and implementing one of the best programs in that area. A certified USTA High Performance coach, as well as a USTA faculty coach, Celeste has helped develop numerous highly ranked sectional, regional, and national USTA camps since 2012 while also spreading the USTA Coaching Philosophy across the country. She has gone through many USTA Continuing Education programs including the All-Women symposium, Hispanic symposium, and participated in the Mental Toughness Training Certification with Jim Loehr.
Celeste works with players of all ages and skill levels and is our Director of 12U’s.
Kelly began playing tennis at the young age of nine in New South Wales, Australia. After a successful junior career she was recruited to play tennis at Oklahoma State University where, as a four year letter winner, she earned a Bachelors Degree in Recreation Management.
With more than 25 years of coaching experience, she has shared her passion for the sport with our members over the last eleven years and continues to do so as the Director of Adult Tennis.
She says, “I love helping a player to improve so they can enjoy playing the game of tennis. Teaching strategy is something I love doing with beginners as well as advanced players.”
Owner of SciO 3D Sports- SCiO manufactures the ARIEL Computerized Exercise System or ACES. Additionally, SCiO uses 3D motion analysis that measures invisible technique deficiencies impossible to see with slow motion video or the naked eye. Once we know that exact speed and range of motion of the deficiency, James Shaughnessy programs a player specific- velocity specific-tennis specific program for the athlete on the ACES machine.
Education and Experience:
Doctoral Candidate United States Sports Academy
Masters in Sports Science United States Sports Academy
BS Exercise Science Oklahoma Baptist University
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist CSCS
USPTA Master Professional
USTA High Performance Coach Certified
4 years full tennis scholarship Midland College (1) and OBU (3)
Oklahoma 6A high school State Champion
USTA top 20 National ranking 1993,94
Teaching Pro, Vic Braden Tennis College, Los Angeles, CA
Head Pro, Rancho Bernardo Inn Tennis College, San Diego CA
Head Pro, Aspen Club, Des Moines, IA
Tennis Director, Oakwood CC, Enid, OK
David Cunningham is one of our new personal fitness trainers for RH91. David comes to us with a passion for helping clients achieve personal goals. He currently holds certifications in TRX suspension training, is on the national council of personal trainers, certified in weight loss management, kettle bell and body weight workout course certified, Do-fit nutrition certification and is certified in mixed martial arts fitness.
David has been working with youth athletes as well as adults of all levels of fitness for the past six years. He has recently engaged in tennis specific tennis training to add to his already impressive resume. Currently he is working with Tucker Tennis players on and off the tennis court as part of their group fitness program.
David has been a manger of a large gym in the Tulsa area before joining RH91 where he was responsible for training clients as well as managing operations and staff. As a proud father of a little girl David has learned to sing songs, paint toe nails, and braid hair. He also loves the OKC Thunder, Dallas Cowboys, and Chicago Cubs.
Camilo came to the Tucker Tennis Academy at Racquet and Health 91 with 15 years of high-performance coaching experience. Prior to relocating to Tulsa, OK from Connecticut, he was the High-Performance Director at Kings Highway Tennis Club and also the Director of Tennis at Sterling Farms Tennis Club during the spring and summer months since 2016.
Originally from Colombia, Camilo grew up traveling to and playing competitive junior tennis tournaments to pursue a future college education in the United States. From 2001-2005, he attended the University of Mount Olive in North Carolina where he played collegiate tennis and obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration.
In 2008, Camilo moved to Bogota, Colombia where he founded his own tennis academy acting as the Academy Director and General Manager. After 6+ years, he became the Director of Tennis at Club Los Lagartos, which is one of the most prestigious country clubs in Bogota, Colombia. In addition, Camilo served as a National Coach for the country of Colombia for 5 years. It was at this time that Camilo traveled around the world with many top juniors from Colombia and South America who reached the top 100 ITF world ranking.
In 2015, Camilo obtained his Master’s Degree in Sports Management and Leisure from EAE in Barcelona, Spain. From there, he made the transition to Connecticut.
As a world traveler and someone who has developed players of all levels from all over the world, Camilo is joining TTA with a wealth of knowledge.
“I like to inspire players to reach their goals and dreams but that’s only possible when there is discipline, hard work, desire, and a whole team pushing towards the same target.”
Camilo is the Head Tennis Professional at our club. He now resides in Tulsa, OK with his wife, Raquel and two children, Matias and Alana
