RLA Staff

Myron Grunberg, Director
Myron Grunberg is from Toronto, Canada. He has coached numerous players in the top 100 ATP and has served as a touring coach for Tennis Canada. He received 2 Tennis Canada coaching excellence awards and was a Coaching Course Conductor for Tennis Canada Levels 2 & 3.

As the head coach of the 1996 Mexican Davis Cup team, his team defeated Cuba, Peru, Spain, and Brazil to qualify for the World Group. He also coached the 2006 Canadian Davis Cup Team.

Myron is USPTA Professional Level 1 and Tennis Canada Level 3. He has been a Director at the academy for 3 years and in 2007 coached 3 players in the top 10 ITF Juniors including Vladimir Ignatik, Henrique Cuhna, and Alexey Grigorov. Myron is currently the coach of Johanna Konta, ranked 260 WTA, and Vladimir Ignatik ranked 280 ATP.

Leonardo Lavalle, Director
Leonardo Lavalle is from Mexico City, Mexico. As a junior player with a world ranking of #2, he won the Junior Wimbledon singles title in 1985 and the US Open doubles junior championship in 1985. As a professional player, Leo was the Premio Nacional del deporte in 1986 and a 13-year member of the Mexico Davis Cup team. He had 6 ATP tour titles between 1986 – 1995 including Tel Aviv, Scottsdale, Palermo, Rotterdam, and twice in Mexico City. He was a doubles finalist at Wimbledon in 1991 and a Wimbledon doubles semifinalist in 1989 & 1990, as well as a quarterfinalist in the Barcelona Olympics. With an ATP best singles ranking of 49 and ATP best doubles ranking of 23, his career wins in singles included Jim Courier, Stefan Edberg, Pat Cash, Henry Leconte, Emilio Sanchez Vicario, Michael Stich, and Brad Gilbert. Doubles wins included John McEnroe, Peter Fleming, Ken Flach, Boris Becker, and Robert Seguso.

Leo is a USPTA Professional Level 1 instructor for RLA. He has served as the Head Pro at Club de Golf Mexico and Club France from 2000-2008 and has developed 5 National Juniors Champions. He also works part time for TV Azteca and ESPN, for whom he has covered numerous tennis championships including the Sydney Olympics, Bejing Olympics, and the 4 Grand Slams.

Trace Fielding, Director
Trace Fielding is from Ft. Worth, Texas. He played for Texas Christian University from 1997 - 2001 and served as team captain for 3 years. During that time, TCU was ranked in the NCAA top 10 and reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament in 2000 and the semifinals in 2001. In 2001, he was All-Conference in the Western Athletic Conference and an NCAA All-American. As a professional player, he was ranked in the ATP Top 400 for singles and ATP Top 200 for doubles.

As a coach, Trace started as a volunteer assistant coach at TCU for 2004-2005 while finishing his degree. He was the Head Pro at Mira Vista Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas from 2005-2007. Trace has been at Roddick Lavalle Academy since 2007. He has worked with top juniors in the world as well as professional level players. He has been a USPTA Professional Level 1 coach since 2006.

Michael Castillo, Director
Michael Castillo is from the Dominican Republic and has competed in over 20 countries worldwide. He received a full scholarship to attend Laredo Community College and the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio and won two National Championships at Laredo. He was on the Heartland Conference All Conference First Team Men’s Tennis 2007-2008.

Michael has coached at Tenafly Raquet Club in New Jersey and the Washington Heights Tennis Association in New York City. He is USPTA Certified and has been coaching at RLA since 2007.

Alex Gajic, Director
Alex is from Toronto, Canada, where he coached with co-director Myron Grunberg for 5 years. Alex was the coach for his two daughters -- his eldest was ranked #2 in Canada and now plays for Boston College. His younger daughter is currently in the ITF Top 250. Alex is a USPTA P1 Certified Professional. He is certified in Dartfish video software technology used for videography and side-by-side biomechanical stroke analysis. Alex uses Dartfish video software to help students integrate kinesthetic and visual learning processes.

Esteban Carril, Coach
Esteban Carril is from Gijon, Spain. He developed as a player in the Spanish Tennis Federation before attending Texas Christian University. At TCU, Esteban was an All-American and ranked in the NCAA Top 10 for 3 consecutive years. He won the NCAA clay court championship in 1998. As a professional player, Esteban reached a top ranking of 451 in singles and 291 in doubles with wins against such players as Gael Monfils, Albert Costa and Paul Henri Mathieu. Esteban is currently coaching top Juniors in Spain and Texas.

Francisco Leon, Fitness Director
Francisco Leon has a masters degree in sports science (kinesiology) and a bachelors in psychology. A native of Peru, Francisco competed in the pole vault throughout South America, the United States and Europe. He still holds the Peruvian national record with a leap of 17’0”.

Francisco has been coaching Track & Field for Trinity University of San Antonio since 2005 where he has trained multiple conference champions and two NCAA national qualifiers – Todd Wildman (hurdles) and Julie Lowstetter (pole vault). In his work with RTA since 2008, he has trained NCAA DI players, ITF players and professionals.

Kevin Heinze, Director of Academics
Kevin Heinze is a certified secondary teacher in Texas with a State Board Educator Certification (SBEC) for Secondary Classroom grades 8-12. He is a graduate of Texas Tech University.

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