{"id":393781,"date":"2026-07-31T18:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/393781\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T18:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:53:10","slug":"game-set-hallum-mitch-hallum-takes-over-lcu-tennis-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/393781\/","title":{"rendered":"Game. Set. Hallum&#8230; Mitch Hallum Takes Over LCU Tennis Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                &#13;<br \/>\n                    Story Links&#13;<br \/>\n                    &#13;<\/p>\n<p>                 LUBBOCK, Texas (July 31, 2026) \u2013 Lubbock Christian University Director of Athletics <a href=\"https:\/\/lcuchaps.com\/staff-directory\/andrew-sorrells\/155\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"155\" target=\"_blank\">Andrew Sorrells<\/a> announced the hiring of Mitch Hallum as the university&#8217;s new Director of Tennis and Head Coach of the Chaparrals and Lady Chaparrals tennis programs.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nHallum becomes just the third head coach in the history of LCU&#8217;s NCAA-era tennis programs and succeeds <a href=\"https:\/\/lcuchaps.com\/sports\/womens-tennis\/roster\/coaches\/hutton-jones\/605\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"605\" target=\"_blank\">Hutton Jones<\/a>, who resigned earlier this summer after serving parts of two seasons as the leader of both programs.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nHe\u00a0arrives in Lubbock following a year as associate head coach at Highland Park High School, where he helped oversee one of Texas&#8217; premier Class 5A tennis programs. Prior to that, he served as assistant director of tennis and head men&#8217;s tennis coach at NCAA Division I Oral Roberts during the 2023-24 season. His coaching r\u00e9sum\u00e9 also includes stops as an assistant coach for the men&#8217;s and women&#8217;s tennis programs at NCAA Division I UT Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), assistant director at the nationally recognized MAC 360 Tennis Academy and more than 15 years of involvement with the Texas A&amp;M Tennis Camp, where he currently serves as a summer camp director.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n&#8220;Mitch Hallum is exactly the type of leader we were looking for,&#8221; Sorrells said. &#8220;He has the character, work ethic, and vision to build on the success of our tennis programs, and we&#8217;re excited to see what the future holds under his leadership.&#8221;<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nHallum inherits a pair of programs coming off historic seasons.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe Chaparrals completed one of the finest campaigns in program history in 2025-26, finishing 23-6 with a No. 6 national ranking after advancing to the NCAA Division II National Quarterfinals. LCU posted a perfect 8-0 Lone Star Conference record and compiled a 13-4 mark against nationally ranked opponents. The Chaparrals&#8217; only losses came against two NCAA Division I opponents and four nationally ranked Division II programs, including three ranked inside the nation&#8217;s top 10.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe Lady Chaparrals also continued their rise on the national stage, earning their second consecutive NCAA Division II postseason appearance while finishing 15-7 and ranked No. 48 nationally. LCU&#8217;s seven defeats included two against NCAA Division I competition and four against nationally ranked Division II opponents.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n&#8220;I am honored and humbled to be given an opportunity to continue to help grow the legacy of the Lubbock Christian tennis program,&#8221; stated Hallum. &#8220;I will work tirelessly to\u00a0add to prestige that this program has both on the court and in the community.&#8221;\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nHallum has built a reputation for developing players and fostering championship cultures throughout his coaching career. At Oral Roberts, he directed all aspects of the NCAA Division I men&#8217;s tennis program, including recruiting, scholarship management, budgeting, scheduling, player development, academic oversight and community engagement.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nDuring his two seasons at UT Rio Grande Valley, Hallum assisted with both the men&#8217;s and women&#8217;s programs, coordinating recruiting efforts, practice planning, match strategy, travel logistics and NCAA compliance while helping develop student-athletes on and off the court.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nAway from the collegiate ranks, Hallum spent six years with MAC 360 Tennis Academy in Texas, where he managed day-to-day academy operations while coaching numerous high-performance junior players, including athletes who earned top state rankings and later advanced to NCAA Division I programs. His extensive experience in junior tennis has allowed him to build strong recruiting relationships throughout Texas and beyond.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nA native of Belton, Texas, Hallum was a three-year letter winner and team captain at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. He earned All-American Southwest Conference honorable mention doubles honors before graduating with a bachelor&#8217;s degree in history and a minor in education.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nFollowing his playing career, Hallum spent two seasons as a volunteer assistant coach with the Crusaders before beginning his full-time coaching career.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nHallum and his wife, Rebecca, will relocate to Lubbock ahead of the 2026-27 season.<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Story Links&#13; &#13; LUBBOCK, Texas (July 31, 2026) \u2013 Lubbock Christian University Director of Athletics Andrew Sorrells&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[168,170,169],"class_list":["post-393781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}