Walter Giacometti
Owner and Founder
From Tiger Tennis Academy
Walter is a native New Yorker who has lived most of his life in Fresh Meadows, New York. He’s always loved sports, playing baseball and soccer before taking up tennis at the age of 15. A year later, Walter taught kids at his high school coach’s tennis camp. He became a scholarship player at St. John’s University.
Following a career on Wall Street, Walter returned to his passion — tennis — and taught people of all ages. While he thinks it’s important to develop coordination skills and technique, he believes that it’s even more important at an early age to have FUN. This gives a child the best chance of succeeding at the game. Walter founded Tiger Tennis Academy in 2011 and became the head coach of the Division II LIU Post University women’s tennis team.
For four years, while coaching at LIU Post, Walter ran a summer tennis camp. He’s now taking this to the next level by partnering with squash legend Simone Rocca to co-host Oltremare Racquet Camp in Italy.
He’s looking forward to spending another summer in Italy — his home away from home.
Simone Rocca
Camp Director
From SquashRX
A squash legend in his native Italy, Simone dominated the sport for nearly a decade, winning eight national championships and representing his country at 17 world and European championships.
He holds the top Italian coaching certification and served as head coach of the Italian Junior National Team from 2007 to 2011. Before that, he was head coach at squash clubs in Turin, Florence, and Prague.
Known for his innovative teaching techniques for beginners, Simone is particularly effective at imparting his champion mindset to his more advanced students.
He has a passion for squash and especially loves working with juniors.
With SquashRX, Simone successfully led summer squash camps for kids aged 10 to 14 in Riccione, Italy, and Porto, Portugal (2021 and 2022). In addition to squash training and international competitions, the campers participated in cultural and recreational activities.
Seven years prior to that, Simone led the TOG summer camp in Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands, which included squash instruction and tournament play.
Riccione holds a special place in his heart because his son Marco was born there.
Daniela Padalino
Partners on and off the squash courts, Daniela and her husband, Simone Rocca, co-owned and co-managed Mondo Squash Riccione for seven years, serving children after school and adults at night. Every Friday night, there was a tournament and a meal together afterward (the most important part, according to Daniela).
She is Torinese, which is to say that she was born in Torino, Italy (Turin), where she lived for 30 years. Daniela and Simone moved to Florence for two years and then to Riccione, where their son, Marco, was born. Later residences included Prague and Boston and New York.
Daniela spent 10 years actively practicing yoga, aiming to become a teacher. Though she tried her hand at squash, it was not her chosen sport.
Consider Daniela the camp mom. Just as she’s done with prior summer camps for kids in Riccione, Italy, she will manage Oltremare Racquet Camp, supervising the kids, making sure they are doing well, and keeping everyone’s laundry straight! “Basically what a mom should do!” she says.
Renzo Andorno
Following in the footsteps of his esteemed photojournalist father, Renzo Andorno became a photographer and video maker.
Early on, he covered the war in the former Yugoslavia, specifically in the besieged city of Mostar, and his work was published by the Italian newspaper “La Stampa.”
Since 1995, Renzo has run one of the first digital video production studios in Italy, producing corporate, nature, and sports videos. He photographs food, news, travel, and culture.
Renzo and his father, Renato, filmed and edited all of Silvio “Gnaro” Mondinelli’s eight-thousanders (14 mountains standing at more than 8,000 meters tall). Renzo also filmed and edited the “Jamboree 2007,” a World Scout Camp in England. He has shot for sport magazines such as “Sciare” and “Tennis Italiano.”
He lives near Lake Como and travels frequently to Nepal, where he has photographed the Nepali people and culture and coached the Nepalese men’s and women’s national teams as well as children in squash. He is president of the NGO SOS Nepal, which — since 2000 — has helped build a school in the Everest Valley, a hospital in Maleku, and an active shelter for poor children in Kathmandu. Soon, Renzo will open the first squash academy in Nepal.
A Level 2 squash coach, Renzo trained under squash legend Simone Rocca (now a friend of 20+ years). He will join Simone in coaching the kids at Oltremare Racquet Camp in July 2025.
It’s not every day that your squash coach is also a professional photographer and video maker.
That’s what we call the icing on the cake! Or panettone, as it were.