Meet the PTM Staff

PTM Director: Derek Ameel

Director, PTM Program &Manager, Racquet & Fitness Club

ameeld@ferris.edu

Derek Ameel serves as the director of the Professional Tennis Management program and manager of the FSU Racquet & Fitness facility. He is a USPTA P1/PTR Professional, Certified Speed, Agility and Quickness Instructor, Professional Tennis Training Consultant and also holds a USTA High Performance Certification as a specialist in Competitive Player Development.

Derek has 25 years in the tennis industry as the Tennis Director at the James Creek Tennis Center in Cumming, Georgia and Owner/President of Tennis N' Training, Inc., where he worked with dozens of tennis academies, college teams, state through ITF world ranked juniors, the USTA Player Development Program and professional players.

Derek played collegiate tennis and graduated from the Professional Tennis Management program at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. In 1994, he received the prestigious PTM "Student of the Year" and Ratioula Scholarship.

He has worked for the Southern Tennis Association as a Zonals coach for 8 years, a coach for the National Championships 12's, 16's and 18's as well as the Mills/Redgrave coach 2001, 2004 and 2005. From the years 1999-2006, Derek represented Georgia as a coach for their Junior Davis/Fed Cup undefeated team. He has been the Georgia Competition Training Center coordinator and head coach since 1998.

Derek completed the USTA Level I and II sport science courses and in 1999 he co-authored a three volume video series on training tennis players called "Explosive Power Training for Tennis", available at On Court Off Court, Inc.

For the last 12 years he has been a featured speaker at numerous local, state and sectional USPTA, GPTA, USTA and fitness conventions.

Alex Palladino

Head Men's & Women's Tennis Coach

pallada@ferris.edu

The Ferris State University Athletics Department appointed Alex Palladino as the school's head men's and women's tennis coach prior to the 2007-08 campaign. A United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA) Certified Tennis Professional, Palladino has worked as a tennis instructor in West Michigan for the last 20 years since his collegiate playing career ended in 1987. As part of a reorganization plan, he took over both the men's and women's tennis coaching positions in a joint role.

"Alex is well-known across West Michigan and throughout the Midwest in the tennis industry," Kirinovic said. "We are extremely lucky to bring someone with his tennis knowledge and ability to our university.

"Personally, he was an NCAA champion and understands the work that is necessary to prepare oneself to reach those heights," added Kirinovic. "He also understands how to teach the skills needed to improve the level of play on our teams. With all this being said, I am happy to have Alex leading our tennis programs."

Palladino, who competed at the NCAA Division III level for Kalamazoo College from 1984-87, led the Hornets to back-to-back NCAA-III National Championships his final two years under head coach George Acker. He captured NCAA-III national titles in doubles play while teaming with Jim Burda as both a junior and senior. Twice, he reached the NCAA-III championship match as a singles player at Kalamazoo.

While at Kalamazoo College, Palladino earned four varsity letters and also claimed the school's Most Accomplished Athlete Award as a senior. He competed at both the top singles and doubles flights as a collegian. In addition, Palladino was a four-time All-Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) selection and named league MVP his final campaign.

Since finishing his collegiate career, Palladino has served in a variety of tennis roles. He spent two years as a teaching professional in Chicago and five years at the East Hills club in Grand Rapids. In 1986, Palladino became the Director of Tennis at the Michigan Athletic Club in Grand Rapids where he worked until 2001 when he moved into a similar role with the Champion Health and Fitness Club in Rockford. He's also worked as the tennis director at the Kent Country Club in Grand Rapids.

"I'm extremely excited about the future and the opportunities presented here to build our program at Ferris State University," said Palladino.

As a professional player, Palladino has won the adult men's Midwest Indoor Championship seven times, traveled on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Satellite Circuit and earned victories over players ranked as high as #145 in the world. He has twice been honored as the United States Professional Tennis Association's (USPTA) Midwest Player of the Year and been recognized as the West Michigan Adult Player of the Year several times.

Palladino began playing competitive tennis at the age of 11 in Kalamazoo and entered his first tournament one year later. He qualified for the Midwest sectionals as a 15-year old and advanced to the USTA Junior Nationals when he was only 16 years old. He was twice ranked in the Midwest section's top five players and finished among the top 24 players nationally prior to his collegiate career.

A 1984 graduate of Kalamazoo Central High School, Palladino was an all-state player and team Most Valuable Player Award recipient during his prep playing career. The three-year letterwinner placed among the top eight finishers at the state meet his junior campaign for the Maroon Giants. He graduated from high school a semester early to enroll and play that spring at Kalamazoo where he advanced to the NCAA-III singles national championship match as a 17-year old freshman.

Palladino continues to play men's "open" events and has recent wins over top graduating players from both Michigan State and Western Michigan University.

Besides playing tennis, Palladino's hobbies also include playing the guitar and creating stained glass windows. He graduated from Kalamazoo with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and art in 1987.

Palladino is married for the former Mona Bidwell. He has a son, Jordan, and two daughters, Bailey and Leah.

Amy (Jing) Sun

Head Tennis Professional, FSU Racquet & Fitness Center

sunj@ferris.edu

Jing "Amy" Sun was named Ferris State's 12th head women's tennis coach Aug. 16, 2005. Sun, also serves as co-head tennis professional for Ferris' Racquet and Fitness Center, the school's Professional Tennis Management (PTM) program and assistant director for summer camps. Prior to Ferris State, Sun most recently served as an assistant women's tennis coach at her alma mater Brigham Young University-Hawaii in Laie, Hawaii, during the 2004-05 athletics season. She has served as a summer tennis specialist at Camp Walt Whitman in Piermont, N.H., since 2001 and was the assistant director in 2005 along with working as a fitness center supervisor at BYU-Hawaii from 2002-05. Sun, a certified USPTA P-1 teaching professional, also has experience as a tennis club professional in Beijing and previously attended Beijing Sports University. She earned a bachelor's degree in exercise and sports science from BYU-Hawaii in 2005.

A native of Beijing, China, Sun was a member of China's National Women's Team from 1993-95. She played collegiate tennis from 2001-04 at NCAA Division II power BYU-Hawaii where she helped lead the Lady Seasiders to three consecutive national championships (2002-04) and posted a four-year singles record of 123-0 in dual match competition. BYU-Hawaii has presently claimed six national titles and earned two runner-up showings in the last eight years while compiling a 233-2 dual match record during that span. The squad was 137-1 during Sun's four-year playing career. Sun concluded her collegiate career ranked second and fourth in the West Region doubles and singles rankings, respectively.

Collin Cadwell

Administrative Assistant

cadwelc@ferris.edu