Greensboro, Ga. (June 18, 2021) – Lake Oconee Academy is pleased to introduce David Paradzik as the new head of the tennis program. He will become the head varsity coach in the 2021-22 school year. He also has plans to build a K-12 tennis program to be offered to all students at LOA. He will be an English and Language Arts teacher at the school.
David Paradzik was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, where he attended University College Preparatory School as a scholarship student. While at University School, David won the Ohio State Singles Tennis Championship and was a semi-finalist at the National Indoor Championships. He matriculated to the University of Michigan on a full tennis scholarship where he was a member of the 1996 Big Ten Championship team, All Academic Big Ten Recipient, #1 Singles Player, Captain, and the 1996 National Amateur Champion Gold Ball Recipient. David graduated from the School of Language, Science, and the Arts at the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English.
After a brief stint on the ATP tour, David established the Paradzik Institute of Tennis where he was a high performance coach, advisor, and hitting partner for several Top 10 WTA and ATP players in Los Angeles. He developed numerous National Junior and NCAA Champions. Most notably, he worked with players such as Nicole Gibbs (#68 WTA, 2X NCAA Champion at Stanford), Lauren Davis (#38 WTA), Clay Thompson (NCAA Champion at UCLA, #408 ATP), Kyle McPhillips (NCAA Champion at UCLA), Tommy Marx (Gold Ball Recipient, #1 Butler), and DJ Spice (#1 Wake Forest).
David possesses over 20 years of teaching, mentoring and coaching experience at all levels. He was fortunate to have the opportunity to teach and coach at several top Independent schools such as Sierra Canyon, The Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences, and The Quarry Lane International School. David attained his Master’s in Education from Loyola Marymount University in 2018, and he is a member of the Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society of Education.
David is an avid reader and author who enjoys composing book reviews and published his first book “Virtuous Tennis: Preserving American Tennis One Virtue at a Time.” Moreover, David believes in fostering a holistic approach, influencing youth to lead an all-inclusive life-long pursuit of academic excellence, intellectual curiosity, mindfulness, and overall well-being.
Chris Ingle, LOA’s Director of Athletics and Activities said, “We are extremely excited about Coach Paradzik joining our team. His passion for teaching both tennis and English is infectious. His background in coaching tennis at the highest level is tremendous. I could not be more thrilled to welcome him to the LOA family. After a great year in tennis under Coach David Sloan in which our boys team won the Region Championship and the girls team progressed to the Elite 8, we have high hopes of where Coach Paradzik will take our program.”