D. Curtis Lawson is the Associate AD, Director of Tennis, and Head Men's Tennis Coach at North Carolina Central University (NCCU). He has over 35 years of tennis instructing, coaching and officiating experience to his credit. In 2025 Coach Lawson entered his 25th season at NCCU (1990-96 and 2006- Present) and his eleventh year as President of the MEAC Tennis Coaches Association.
Lawson is a member of the United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA), Professional Tennis Registry (PTR), ITA Regional Committee (Carolinas) and a former member of the NCAA Division I Men’s & Women’s Tennis Committee. He is a Life Member of the American Tennis Association (ATA), a Life Member of the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and serves on the Board of Directors for the Durham-Orange County Tennis Association.
In the past ten years, Lawson has produced four conference Players of the Year, two conference Rookies of the Year, numerous first and second team All-Conference honorees and numerous All-Scholastic recipients. In 2025, Coach Lawson also produced the program’s first Division 1 Nationally Ranked player (Hugo Hidalgo Vega).
Throughout his coaching career, Lawson has placed a special emphasis on the academic component of being a student-athlete. Accordingly, his teams have excelled academically and their hard work has
consistently been recognized (locally, regionally and nationally). In 2025, his team achieved the highest recorded Team gpa in school history with a 3.88 gpa on a 4.0 scale. His 2024-25 team maintained a 3.85 Cum gpa which was also a first.
Coach Lawson is very proud of his players and he is always eager to share their countless success stories. A few examples of those that have continued their education at some of the top schools in the country; Tamina Kienka (currently in the MD/PhD program at Harvard), Dillon Strepay (currently a MD completing his Residency at Indiana University), Alejandro Espitia- (completed his JD, University of Pennsylvania Law School), Jack Waissen (completed his JD, University of Alabama), John Stephenson (completed his JD/MBA, NCCU), Stephen Allsop (completed his PhD at MIT, MD at Harvard and Residency at Yale) and Louis ‘Skip’ Perkins (completed his PhD at Howard University). In 2022 Skip returned to the Eagles Nest to lead NCCU Athletics as the Athletics Director…..’indeed a full circle moment’.
Coach Lawson also has two former players that are currently playing professionally (Miles Clark, Sebastian Pino).
A two-sport athlete in college (Basketball/Tennis), Lawson graduated from North Carolina Central University with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology, a Master's degree in Bio-Chemistry and he completed a Research Fellowship at Duke University. In addition to his role at NCCU, Lawson was a Research Biologist and subsequently a Senior Health System Administrator prior to retiring from the VA in 2022. Lawson is a member of the American College of Health Care Executives and he is a published Researcher.
He and his wife, T. Michelle, are the proud parents of two sons, (Tory and Curtis Jr) and three grandchildren (TJ, Isaiah and Sophia)
Lawson is a Life Member of North Carolina Central University National Alumni Association, a Life Member of North Carolina Central University Alumni Association Durham Chapter, and a Life Member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.
Mission:
To build and sustain a championship caliber program while preparing our student-athletes to be successful in the game of life. Quite simply, we strive for "Excellence without Excuse.
Accountability, Responsibility, Discipline.”
