Brett Caldwell

Brett grew up in Asheville and graduated from Enka High School.  Brett left Asheville to attend UNC Chapel Hill where he majored in Sports Administration.  He has been teaching adults and children in Asheville for over 10 years and is a certified USPTR Pro.  Brett and his wife Sara enjoy hiking in beautiful Western North Carolina.  

Fun Fact: Brett is a Rock Star! He plays bass guitar in a band named Summer Wars.

Tanner Cheek

Tanner Cheek is a lifelong tennis player. He grew up in Florida, moved to Colorado and married his husband Stephen, and eventually made his way to Asheville in 2020 (in classic, mid-pandemic-life-crisis style). He has enjoyed coaching the Asheville High School boy's tennis team since 2022 and has experience running junior and adult clinics alike. An all-around sports enthusiast, racquet-based games and volleyball are among his favorites. Coach Cheek is a middle school science teacher and enjoys exploring Asheville's beautiful hiking trails, kayaking the nearby waterways, and of course, playing the beautiful game!

Fun Fact: Tanner was SCUBA certified when he was 16 and has spent time underwater in the Florida Keys, Cozumel, the Virgin Islands and some freshwater springs in Florida. He hopes to dive the Great Barrier Reef and the waters near Indonesia and Thailand someday!

Contact: tanner5094172@gmail.com

Alex Diez

Alex has been engaged in the western North Carolina tennis community playing local USTA league tennis since 1992, and coaching the varsity boys' and girls' tennis teams at A.C Reynolds High School 2014-2024. She currently serves as vice-president of the Asheville Tennis Association and chair of the Junior Programming Committee. She coordinates the annual WNC High School Invitational Tournament for local public, private and homeschooled players.

Alex also serves as President of the Buncombe County Schools Foundation board and is a member of 100 Women Who Care Asheville.

Fun Fact: Alex is married to an Olympic fencer. Her husband Ed competed in the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, CA.

Bob Graeme

Bob grew up in Winter Park, Florida. He attended Western Carolina University where he majored in Political Science and played collegiate tennis. After college, he became a high school social studies teacher and coach. He has been very involved in teaching and studying United States History. He has coached football, soccer and tennis. For the last ten years he has been the tennis coach at North Buncombe High School. He also works with tennis players of all ages. Besides tennis, Bob also enjoys hiking, walking, golf, disc golf and gardening in the Western North Carolina mountains!  He is married to the choral director at the high school.

Fun Fact: Bob has a very active one year old granddaughter who he is trying to determine if she is going to be a right handed tennis player or a left handed tennis player.

Contact: robertfgraeme@gmail.com

Lisa Klepper

Lisa grew up in Knoxville Tennessee and graduated from UT with a BA in sociology. She met her husband Bob during her senior year there. They moved to Asheville after traveling the world with their 4 children. Lisa developed her love of tennis while living in Bermuda with her family. She had been active in athletics throughout her life and quickly fell in love with the sport! She has been a teacher, has been very active in an orphanage in Bolivia and loves working with children.

Fun Fact: Lisa has played competitive tennis in 4 different countries! She played in Bermuda, Singapore, England and the USA!

Sarge Luke

Sarge grew up in Cleveland, OH and spent most of his childhood winters on skates playing hockey and summers playing tennis. While attending boarding school in Connecticut he played 4 years of varsity hockey and tennis, and taught tennis camps in the summer. After one year of playing Division Three college tennis he transferred schools and wound up at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

Sarge moved to Asheville in 1995 where he has raised three amazing girls (now accomplished women) and he has been involved in the WNC tennis community since. He is a USPTA certified Elite Pro and a 5.0 player.

Fun fact: Sarge plays guitar in a rock band called Human Nip. It’s like cat nip for people!

Certified USPTA Elite Pro

Diana Pavlick

Diana Pavlick is a "half-back", moving from western Pennsylvania to south Florida before settling in the beautiful Asheville area. An entrepreneur at heart, she has founded over 12 businesses including producing handmade greeting cards, raising world champion horses, pavement sealing, several florist shops and many more.

Although she played numerous sports over her career, racquet sports are her passion now. Racquetball, Pickleball and of course, Tennis keep her very busy. "I love introducing beginners to the sport of tennis and helping them to master the basics while developing a lifelong love for the game."

Fun Fact: Diana became a vegetarian 40 years ago. Over the years she has collected an extensive library of meatless recipes and cookbooks.

Contact: diana.pavlick@yahoo.com

As a lifelong fan of tennis, Krysten started playing when she was 10 and kept at it through high school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her first coaching job as a senior in high school was working with younger kids for the Albuquerque Parks and Recreation. Her racquets gathered a lot of dust over the next 3 decades while she pursued a career in the financial industry, switched gears to medicine, got married and raised 3 children.

Her family eventually moved to Asheville in 2011 where she started playing tennis again at Saturday clinics at the Grove Park. She started playing USTA league at the 3.5 level and worked her way to the 4.5 level. With the return to in-person learning following COVID in the Spring of 2021, her son's middle school needed a tennis coach to make the season happen. She had recently retired so took the job and stuck with it for four seasons. She has also coached a Rusty Rackets session with the ATA, volunteered with Terminettors as well as a local wheelchair tennis group (Wheelserve).

For the past two seasons, she has been the Assistant Coach for the TC Roberson Boys' team and just one season helping with the girls' team. My favorite part of coaching is the smile that follows when a player nails a new skill.

Fun Fact: She loves feeling strong and healthy and spend a lot of time at the gym, on the courts or helping others to enjoy being active. She has completed numerous obstacle course races, several marathons, a few triathlons and a handful of CrossFit events. She has been lucky enough that her husband and three children have joined on many of these adventures.

Caitlin Van Hecke

As a native North Carolinian who grew up dancing and preferred picking flowers over kicking a soccer ball, she went on to teach yoga and continued not caring about sports (though her family bleeds Carolina blue). It wasn't until well into adulthood that she discovered her deep love for the game of tennis. She prefers teaching both the 5-6 yr olds and novice adults, in hopes that they will become avid fans and players of this lifelong sport. She's excited that her son has taken an interest, and plans on hiring him out as a ball boy as soon as he's old enough to reliably throw the ball back. She's been lucky enough to attend the US and French Open, and is looking forward to future family trips to Wimbledon and the Australian Open - checking off her bucket list of attending all 4 Majors!

Fun fact: Her favorite food group is Dukes mayonnaise. If you're a fan of the other, she would appreciate you not mentioning it. When Dukes' mascot, Tubby, came to Asheville for a visit she had the opportunity to teach him yoga. While he was not very flexible, she believes with enough practice anything is possible!

Bob Wernet

Bob grew up in Texas playing multiple sports, mostly ones played with a ball. He received a Bachelor’s Degree from Texas A&M University and a Master of Science Degree in Gerontology from the University of North Texas. He spent his career in Retirement Community management and development.

He retired from his job in September 2022 after serving in management roles in senior living communities for the past 40+ years. He now enjoys playing tennis, golf, boating and a variety of outdoor activities in Asheville. Over the years, he has especially enjoyed coaching youth sports and serving as a Boy Scout leader.

Bob regularly teaches Juniors tennis clinics at Aston Park and Rusty Racquets for Adults. During the off-season he teaches tennis for Asheville and Buncombe County schools in their afterschool program. He loves to help individuals of all ages elevate their tennis game. He also is available for private sessions and clinics. Bob is a member of Asheville Racquet Club South and routinely plays in the USTA league.

Fun Fact: Bob has been a devout fan for over 50 years for the Dallas Cowboys, St. Louis Cardinals, and Texas A&M Aggies.

Contact: wernetbob@gmail.com

Certified USPTA Instructor