Dena Nicolaou

Head Tennis Coach
903-894-5000 ext. 5000903-894-5000 ext. 5000

Constandena (Dena) Nicolaou was born and raised in London, U.K. with Greek Cypriot roots. Her parents still live in London and her sister, brother-in-law, and niece live in Sydney, Australia. In 2017, she started her collegiate debut as an immediate starter on the tennis team at the University of Houston and by her sophomore year reached the Top 50 NCAA. Her senior year, she transferred to Sam Houston State University and after going 13-0, was awarded All-Conference Second Team Singles, and helped lead the team to the program’s first Division 1 Conference Championship. She had to retire for the rest of the season due to injury.

After graduating in Kinesiology from Sam Houston State University, she stayed on as an Assistant Tennis Coach and a Graduate Assistant S&C Coach while completing her Master’s in Sports Management. Her main responsibilities included managing the tennis team’s health and wellness for practice and matches, strength & conditioning, gameday nutrition, and assisting the Head Coach with competition coaching, while also heavily involved with assisting strength & conditioning coaching with football, softball, volleyball, and soccer outside the tennis schedule.

While a student-athlete at SHSU, she was plugged in with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) which played a huge role in being part of a community that encouraged student-athletes to use their athletic platform to honor God. As a coach at SHSU, she developed into a Huddle Leader and served within the local community and FCA Camps. Her life verse is Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Her passion for coaching spans internationally as she has worked with developing British juniors competing at the national and international level and acting as a travel tournament coach to junior and professional tennis players. As of 2024, she had the competitive itch and picked up her racquets again to begin competing in professional tennis tournaments and desires to continue to do so outside of the academic and athletic schedule at Brook Hill. If she’s not on the tennis court or in the weight room, she can be found enjoying cooking (and eating!) Mediterranean food, finding a new trail with her dog, jet skiing in the summer, and watching a movie in the winter.