SKIP GRIESE'

CLASS OF 2020
 

 

 

Skip Griese' was born in Stuttgart, Germany, into a military family that provided him the opportunity to travel throughout his youth, living in Colorado, Ohio, New York, Kansas, and Virginia.

He arrived in Norman, Oklahoma, his senior year of high school.  He attended East Central University in Ada where he played tennis for four years and earned a degree in education.

After graduating from ECU, he accepted a job at Healdton High School where he coached football, basketball, baseball, and track.

In 1980 he returned to East Central to be the Men’s Head Tennis Coach.  During the four years at ECU, his teams won three Conference Championships.

In 1984 he became Ada’s Boys and Girls Head Tennis Coach.  He remained at Ada for 35 years as a coach and classroom teacher.  During that time, his girls’ teams won five State Championships and seven Runner-Up titles.  His boys’ teams won nine State Championships and ten Runner-Up titles.  During his career at Ada, Skip coached 73 Individual State Champions and 53 All-Staters.

In 2013 he received the National Boys’ Coach of the Year Award.  He has also received the Oklahoma Tennis Coaches Association Coach of the Year Award ten times,  two Oklahoma Coach’s Association Coach of the Year Awards, two Oklahoma District and two Missouri Valley Coach of the Year Awards.  In 2016 he was an inaugural inductee into the Oklahoma Tennis Coaches Hall of Fame.

Skip and his wife Debbie have two children and five grandchildren.