The Coaches

Meet the Coaches (or learn something you didn't know about them!)

The coaches at Seminole High Performance are arguably the best staff in all of Florida. Each and every one has played a high level of college tennis. Let's meet them.

Dwayne Hultquist 

Dwayne is pictured here with his girls, all of whom play tennis. Dwayne is the current head coach for the FSU men's tennis team, and commits himself to the players from the High Performance Tennis family in addition to the players on the team. His accolades include:

• Seven Straight Trips To NCAA Championships 
• 2005, 08, 09 NCAA Round of 16
• 2005 NCAA Elite Eight 
• Highest Ever Final School Ranking (No. 7, 2008) 
• 2006 & 2008 National Indoor Championship Bid 
• 2006 Preseason No. 11 Ranking 
• ITA Regional Assistant of the Year, 1997 & 1999 
• South West Conference Champions 1993, 94, 95 
• Big XII Champions 1997, 98, 99 
• 2002 & 2003 ACC Doubles Champion
• 2003, 04, 09 ACC Player of the Year
• Three Singles All-Americans
• .605 Career Winning Percentage   

FUN FACTS

Dwayne is a big fruit guy- throw him a fruit and he'll gladly take it over anything sweet (I wish I had that trait!). He also enjoys a good steak now and again. Dwayne didn't play competitively in tennis until he was 16 because he was playing multiple different sports, including soccer, basketball, and baseball. He walked on Penn State's tennis team, but after continued to play for them for four years, making nationals as a senior. He's traveled to twenty countries because of tennis, the furthest away being South Africa (he liked it!). 

Nick Crowell 

Nick is the assistant head coach of the FSU's men's tennis team and is the leader of Seminole High Performance. Nick has worked with USTA junior teams multiple times, coaching both the USTA 18's team, leading them to an indoor national championship in 2010, and the USTA Team Florida, leading them to an impressive final showing. Because of his efforts, he has been nominated and has won the USTA Junior Coach of the Year. At FSU, his expertise in doubles lead multiple teams to victory time and time again, including some of FSU's greats, Jean-Yves Aubone and Vahid Mirzadeh. After receiving a bachelor's degree from Texas in Sports Management, Nick went on to play futures and challengers on the ATP pro circuit, ending only due to an injury. He is pictured with his daughter, Brooklyn, and next to that is Cash, his son, working on his backhand volley technique! :)

FUN FACTS
Fun facts about Nick:

• He is a true family man
• He loves taking his adorable daughter, Brooklyn, to get yogurt and Newberry. Okay, little digression because Brooklyn is so cute: she once told me that her favorite food was "macowoni and cheese," and that her brother was her "favorite thing."
• Nick is a golf man in his spare time 
• He grew up in Amarillo, Texas playing mostly indoors, and his father was his coach growing up (me too!)
• He traveled to Europe at ages 16, 17, and 18 with the USTA National team
• Nick was ranked #1 in college doubles with two different partners (shout-out to Paul Martin and Michael Blue!)
• He got engaged to his wife Lindsey in Paris in 2007

 

Katie Rybakova

Sooo it's a little odd to talk about myself in the 3rd person. I am working on the Seminole High Performance coaching team and if you want to learn more about me, you can always check out the tab on The Blogger, aka me. But, I can add a few things here. I played for FSU for four years at the number one and two position, reaching as high as #16 in the nation in singles and top 40 in doubles. I also was top 150 in juniors in the ITF rankings, and am the second all time winning singles player in FSU's history (Federica Suess, my teammate with whom I entered as a freshmen and graduated with as a senior, was the number one winning singles player!). And I'm done. 

FUN FACTS

• I have a brother named Alex Rybakov- he's pretty awesome, and a pretty awesome tennis player! (And he's cute! he's pictured below, and he's bending over to not embarrass me as to how short I am)
• I was born in Moscow
• I'm a major, major book nerd (I've read 37 books in the past 6 months, and am reading The Fault in Our Stars as I am typing this)
• I completed virtual school in 11th and 12th grade so I could travel playing tournaments
• I can eat a whole lemon, and enjoy it
• My 2nd toe is longer than my first 

Urska Dobersek

Urska is the team's sports psychologist. She currently is working on a PhD in Sports Psychology. Urska adds to the Seminole High Performance team with her knowledge of the mental conditioning and strength necessary to grow into a competitive tennis mindset, and also has the knowledge of the tennis game that makes her an incredible addition to the coaching staff.  She has multiple certifications, including USPTA (professional tennis coach certification), CPR, and a NCAA coaches certificate. She is also a certified sports masseur, and has been the assistant coach at McNeese for the women's tennis team and has been the appointed tennis director in Slovenia. 

FUN FACTS:

• Urska is currently training for a 50K (it is in December, 2012).
•  She says she is living her dream (doing a doctorate in sports psychology, teaching tennis and doing mental conditioning).
•  She did not know much English when she first came to the USA (2004).
• She did not like to brush her teeth and bath when she was little (unless you've had a child or babysat, you wouldn't understand how hard bath time can be with a four year old!)
•  Because she didn't like school, she constantly told her parents she'd be a housewife!
• Urska taught her little brother how to walk at seven years of age (his chronological age is now twenty-seven, but mentally he is like four year old boy).
• She had her first (and hopefully her last) car accident on the parking lot with no cars around.

Christian Kuehne

Christian is one of the new additions to the Seminole High Performance Team starting during the fall 2012 season. An enthusiastic and energetic personality fronted by serious tennis skill: Christian has played college tennis at several top tier Universities, including University of the Pacific for one year and the University of South Alabama for three. He lead the team to a team high ranking of 42 in his years of Alabama. He also was all conference doubles in the Big West Conference for Pacific. He was runner up at the Sunbelt Conference Championship for South Alabama in 2012, was named ITA Scholar Athlete for all four years at the university level, and was named team captain for three years in a row at the University of South Alabama.  

With his skill level clearly noted above, let's move on to the fun stuff:

FUN FACTS:

Christian is from Germany (Pretzels! Bratwursts! All other American stereotypes!).

He hates it when people call him Chris, so get it right folks!

Is crazy about soccer (Getting up at 8 to watch the game over sleeping in-- now that's committment).

Speaks German, English, and French (Oui!).

He has snowboarded since he was seven years old, and is pretty dang good at it too.

During an internship in Germany, Christian worked as the team mascot and had to get dressed up everyday.

Christian has many talents, including tennis, handball, basketball, and soccer. 

On a culminating note, Christian is a die hard Dirk Nowitski (?) and Dallas Mavericks fan! 

 

Eddie Matthews

Another addition to our staff in fall 2012, Eddie comes with multiple years of leadership experience as well as ample tennis experience that helps students of all ages gear up and  get motivated to be on the court. Eddie started playing when he was in 8th grade, played as a starter all four years of high school, played on junior tennis teams for three years, and coached two junior team tennis teams. Since the age of 15, Eddie has been delving into the experience of being a tennis coach, with several years of experience coaching for Seminole High Performance and in tandem with the FSU club tennis team. He played on the highest level for FSU's club tennis team. 

FUN FACTS:

Eddie loves to fish and hunt and is a huge country music fan. 

As a young kid, Eddie thought the sand on the beach was a large ant pile and refused to walk on it!

"I love me some good ol' BBQ"

Eddie's brother is trying to make it on the PGA tour. 

His family used to run three Sonny's BBQ joints in his hometown!