Tennis Lessons

The Southern Village Club is excited to add Josh Collins, Tennis Director, to our team! Josh joins us from the lively Brier Creek Country Club racquets program, where he has served as a long time tennis professional and Director of Junior Tennis. Josh has been a staple of the Triangle tennis community since the early 2000s. An avid player, Josh played collegiate tennis and served as the team captain for the North Carolina Central University tennis team from 2004-2006. Since his collegiate career, he has continued to compete at a high level, taking several USTA teams to compete at sectional championships.

Josh has served as the head coach of the Voyager Academy’s girls and boys teams, and in 2017, he coached BCCC’s 14u JTT team to a 2nd place finish in the USTA JTT National Championships. During the pandemic, Josh launched the Social Tennis League, a Triangle-wide social tennis league, to provide adult players with opportunities to play and compete when local USTA league play had been halted.

Coach Mike joins the SVC professional team from Wilmington, NC. Mike recently graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BA in English and Comparative Literature. Mike has played competitive tennis since he was 12 years old. He has been a competitive national and state tennis player and competed at the highest levels of the Junior USTA circuit, achieving top 10 rankings in the state of North Carolina, top 75 rankings regionally, and top 175 nationally. Mike played varsity tennis in high school (NCISAA and SCISAA), winning a total of 3 state championships. He was also selected to the NCISAA All-State Varsity men’s Tennis Team.

Mike has been a private tennis instructor, high-performance tennis coach, and professional hitting partner. Mike has also worked as a high-performance tennis coach and professional hitting partner at the Rick Macci Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, Florida. In addition, he has been trained under Rick Macci and Dr. Brian Gordon, Ph.D., (the international swing coach/biomechanics expert).

Mike enjoys working with players of all ages and skill levels and excels at inspiring passion for the game of tennis. He lives to serve others and to make an impact on people’s lives both on and off the court.

Strickland Parks grew up in Colorado and found a home in North Carolina after graduating from Brevard College. Settling in Durham, he worked over 15 years in software sales and account management. With teaching as his new life path, Strickland, a 4.5 rated player, is now on track to USPTA certification.

Although skiing will always be Strickland’s first love, he points to tennis as having the most impact on his life for the past 30+ years. Tennis plays a major role in maintaining his overall health. Moreover, many of Strickland’s close friends and lifelong connections have developed through the sport of tennis.

“I have come to realize how much I love passing on the joy of tennis to the next generation of players!”

Coach Cal has been working at SVC since 2017, first working as a stringer, then a camp assistant, and finally a full tennis assistant. Cal has lived in the US for about 10 years now and has been playing tennis since he was 4 in Scotland. He started competing in USTA tournaments when he was 10 and has played competitively in tournaments and school ever since, reaching top 30 in NC and winning two NCHSAA high school championships before focusing more on coaching and school. He is currently a student at UNC Chapel Hill and is working towards a BS in Physics and a BA in Mathematics. Cal enjoys working with players of all ages and levels and loves to help them work hard to achieve their goals.