Mitch Vechione is in his second year as head coach for the Lakeland University men's and women's tennis programs in 2025-26. He also is head coach for the Muskies men’s and women’s golf teams.
Vechione came on board at Lakeland in Sept. 2024, finishing the women’s tennis season and then leading an abbreviated season for the men’s program in the spring of 2025. He is the first full-time coach at Lakeland dedicated to the tennis programs in more than 85 years of the school participating in the sport on the intercollegiate level. Vechione handles all aspects of coaching both the men's and women's programs, including recruiting, coaching, and also building relationships within the local tennis community.
Vechione came to Lakeland with head coaching experience at the collegiate level and also as an instructor. The native of El Paso, Texas, recently was the head men's and women's tennis coach at Weatherford College in Texas, where he took over the women's tennis program upon arrival in 2022 and also presided over the launch of a men's tennis program a year later.
Vechione also was the head tennis coach at Seward County Community College in Kansas for two years from 2020-22, where he worked under current Lakeland athletic director Dan Artamenko. Vechione led the Saints to the 2022 NJCAA men's tennis national championship, and that same year the Seward women's team finished third in the national championships.
Vechione also was previously the head coach at New Mexico Military Institute. Besides coaching positions, he also has served as an instructor for a number of years, providing private lessons and also working for several private facilities and clubs, teaching children and adults at a variety of skill levels.
Vechione played tennis collegiately at Texas A&M University at Texarkana, where he was a team captain, and at Southwestern Christian University in Bethany, Okla. He also was a co-team captain at SCU and received the NAIA Student-Athlete of Character award from the national governing body in 2018.
Vechione received his bachelor's degree in business administration with a minor in biblical literacy from Southwestern Christian in 2017. He also received his associate's degree in general studies from Seminole State College in Seminole, Okla., in 2014.
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