Meet Our Staff

A Memphis native, Jay Walpole has of USPTA certification of Elite Pro. Prior to joining St. George’s, Jay was the director of junior tennis at The University Club of Memphis from 2011-2023. While at Christian Brothers University, Coach Jay was the top ranked player in singles and doubles. He was named to the All Gulf South Conference in 1997.

As a junior player, Jay achieved a top ranking of number three in the state of Mississippi. In 1993, Jay was nominated for The Commercial Appeal Best of the Preps. In 2001, he was part of a 5.0 USTA team that won the Southern Sectionals.

He now spends most of his time on court teaching others how to fall in love with the game of tennis.

Daniel Shidler has been a certified USPTA coach since 2007. Prior to St. George’s, he was the director of the Tennessee Tennis Academy and partner of Vtennis Academy, where he was responsible for helping multiple junior players play at the collegiate level in D1, D2, and D3 universities, as well as having juniors ranked as high as top 100 nationally in USTA. In 2021, he was selected as the Southern Performance “Coach of the Year.”

As a junior player, he was a top player in Mississippi and represented the state in the Southern Cup. He was runner up in the Mississippi High School state singles and won the state doubles title with his brother, Matt Shidler. Daniel played at the collegiate level at the University of Memphis under Paul Goebel and at Letourneau University in Longview, TX. He was freshman of the year and chosen as First Team at Letourneau University. 

Daniel and his wife Laura have two young children, Olivia and Logan.

MC Blaizel has been a USPTR Teaching Professional since January 2015. She and her husband, Jean-François (“JF”), moved to Memphis in 2007 from Montreal, Canada. MC speaks fluent French.

MC has been an elementary and early childhood school teacher since she graduated from the University of Montreal in 1995. She has played tennis since she was 8 years old and loves that the sport brings so many lifelong benefits.

As a teenager, MC played in a competitive Interclub league in Montreal for six years, and won a few tournaments. She helped coach the St. Agnes tennis team for three seasons. She loves to share her passion of the sport with kids (and adults) and teach them how to love tennis too!

An avid athlete, Joe Shidler played for Northwest Community College of Mississippi, where he finished ranked 27th in his conference, while his team ranked as high as 20th in the nation.

After graduating with an associates degree, he moved to Moody Bible Institute, where he studied Sports Ministry and played for the school’s basketball program. After three years of playing for Moody, he began serving in the non-profit area of the medical field during the pandemic.

He has been coaching full time across the city of Memphis for two years, helping both adults and juniors on a regular basis.

Grace Anne Dunavant played on the varsity tennis team at Hutchison School as an 8th grader and was a doubles State Champion. She won 22 USTA junior tournaments, and was ranked in the Top 2 in Tennessee and Top 50 in the Southeast. She was a “Player of the Year” finalist by the Commercial Appeal. 

She played Division 1 tennis at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she played both singles and doubles. In December 2022, she graduated on the Dean’s List as an ITA scholar athlete with a B.S. in Biology.

She is USPTA-certified and is now working towards getting into medical school, while continuing to play the sport she loves. She enjoys helping prepare students, physically and mentally, to play at the collegiate level and loves helping players progress in their skill level and love for the game.