High Performance Coaching Staff

Head Coach and Tennis Director, Mohamed Badran is originally from Cairo, Egypt, where he was ranked Top 5 in the country as a junior player and won a Gold Medal for Egypt in the Arab Games. In 1995, he received a scholarship to train at an academy in the US, where he trained with other internationally top ranked players.

He earned his Bachelor's Degree in Business & Logistics from the Arab Academy for Science & Technology in Cairo, where he began his coaching career with top juniors at the Heliopolis Club, including Ahmed Ismail, whom he sent to Weil Academy in 2005.

Coach Mo joined Weil's coaching staff in 2006 and immediately began working with the Academy's top national and international junior players. Mo was the first coach to work with the great French American, Maxime Cressy when he first moved to the United States from France. Mo led Max to win his fist USTA tournament in the US and helped him reach many semifinal titles in the ITA Summer circuit in 2014, win the Boy’s 18’ singles title at the 2014 Los Caballeros Junior tournament, Northridge Matador Junior open and many more! Max also participated in Weil’s college placement program and was recruited by legendary coach, Billy Martin for the UCLA Men's Tennis Team on scholarship in 2015! Max reached top 10 in the country and is now top 30 in world according to the ATP (Associates of Tennis Professionals).

Coach Mo also coached:, Ahmed Ismail, who reached Top 5 in Boys 18s in So Cal, represented Southern California on the National Champion Jr. Davis Cup Team, Patrik Fabian (Slovakia, Top 40 ITF); Monica Turewicz (USA, Top 50 ITF/Duke University); Lucas Da Silveira (USA/Brazil, Top 10 So Cal Boys 18s/Brown University); Sasha Solonin (Top 10 So Cal Boys 18s/Pepperdine University); Armando Soemarno (Indonesia, Top 50 ITF Doubles/University of Oregon).

As College placement advisor, Mo has helped place student-athletes in ivy school league colleges every year since 2010

Head Coach Charly Irie joined the Weil Tennis Academy coaching staff in 2008 after graduating from Fresno State University with a Bachelor's Degree in Mass Communications & Journalism (Public Relations). He competed for the Fresno State Bulldogs Men's Tennis Team from 2004-2008 on a tennis scholarship, where he played in the top four of the lineup.

He is originally from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, where he began playing tennis at the age of ten. He achieved a junior career high ranking of #67 ITF and #1 Junior in Ivory Coast. He is also proud to have represented his country as a member of the Ivory Coast Men's Davis Cup team since 2003.

During his junior career, he had the privilege to compete in prestigious junior international tournaments such as Wimbledon, Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl. While a junior, he also compete against top ranked ATP players such as Richard Gasquet, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Rafa Nadal and Marcos Baghdatis. Coach Charly has won several junior championships around the world including an ITF Grade 2 in South Africa and was a finalist at the 14 & Under 2001 African Champs.

He has four brothers and two sisters and is married to Eszter Irie.

Coach Charly can be reached at iriecharles@yahoo.fr.

Coach Juanjo is originally from Cáceres, Spain, He studied Sports Science for five years at the University of Extremadura in Spain. He has his Spanish tennis coach certification from RFET (Spanish Tennis Federation) as well as his tennis fitness certification from ITPA (International Tennis Performance Association). He specializes in tennis training and tennis fitness training.

Coach Juanjo has played tennis since the age of five in Spain. He has worked as a tennis and fitness coach in Cabezarrubia Tennis Club (Spain), Lleida Tennis Club (Spain), Juan Carlos Ferrero Professional Tennis Academy (Spain) and in Schuttler-Waske Professional Tennis Academy (Germany) as an intern. He has a well-rounded background in coaching junior and professional tennis players and he brings his vast experience to Weil Tennis Academy.

Coach Juanjo can be reached at jjclimentr@gmail.com.

Pedro is originally from Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela, where he was ranked in the top 10 in Venezuela from age twelve through sixteen. Pedro came to the U.S. in 2009 to study and play for Ventura College and had great success, winning the 2010 California State Community College Team Championships, as well as taking the state doubles title with his twin brother, Juan.

Pedro was then offered a full scholarship to play at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas, where he majored in International Business and helped his team achieve an NCAA Top 20 NAIA team ranking for the first time in the school's history. After graduating from OLLU, Pedro worked as an assistant coach at OLLU for one year before joining the Weil coaching staff in 2014.

Coach Pedro can be reached at pedro_89@hotmail.com.

Head Coach Dominique is originally from Nottingham, England. She became a volunteer assistant coach at the age of fifteen, for numerous tennis clubs in the Nottinghamshire region. She went on to complete both her Level 1 and Level 2 coaching qualifications from the LTA (Lawn Tennis Association), at the ages of sixteen and eighteen respectively. From 2009-2011, Dominique went on to work at the Nottingham Tennis Center as an assistant coach for ages 2-50+.

She started playing tennis at the age of fourteen and quickly excelled to a higher level. Additionally, she joined after-school clinics, where she was picked up by high performance coaches who saw her potential, which led to her invitation to train at the Nottingham, Tennis Center's High-Performance Academy. Following this, she received a full scholarship to train and study at Morehead State University (Division I) in Kentucky in the Spring of 2012. She earned her Bachelor's Degree from MSU in Exercise Science, followed by a Master’s Degree in Sports Performance & Conditioning from SUU, while working as a personal trainer for various age groups and levels.

After starting as a summer assistant coach & residential counsellor in 2014 & 2015, Coach Dominique has been a full-time coach since 2018 and was promoted to a Head Coach in 2021.

Additionally, Coach Dominique has created an online business platform called Heatwave Performance, that provides fitness and nutrition coaching virtually, to advanced beginners & athletes that are looking to excel through life & to maximize their potential.

Heatwave Performance provides a nutrition program that includes monthly customized plans & shopping lists based on your dietary preferences, 1 to 1 online coaching, with options of in-person sessions, as well as daily logging in your journal or through the app and much more! This program will help you create positive habits & keep you accountable for your food choices. You get to build a healthy nutritious lifestyle, with the support from your very own private coach!

Coach Dominique can be reached at dcmclean@weiltennis.com (Tennis Related).

& dcmclean@heatwaveperformance.com (Nutrition Related).

Website: www.heatwaveperformance.com

Pedro Rodrigues is originally from Leiria, Portugal, where he was ranked Top 20 as a junior player.
Pedro came to the U.S. in 2010 when he was offered a full scholarship to play at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. Pedro received his Bachelor's Degree in Management & Accounting from CU in May 2014. During his four years of playing for CU, he played top 3 in singles and #1 in doubles. He helped his team reach Nationals three consecutive seasons, and helped them reach a #6 NAIA team ranking, the highest in the school's history. Pedro was ranked No. 30 in the nation in singles, 10th in doubles, and earned 2nd Team All-American as a junior. After completing his degree, Pedro worked as an assistant coach for two years at CU, while completing his Master's Degree in Business Administration, before joining the Weil coaching staff in June 2016. He has his coaching certificate from Professional Tennis Registry and a certification from the Global Professional Tennis Association.

Coach Pedro can be contacted by email: prodrigues@weiltennis.com

Julio Pulido is originally from Caceres, Spain where he grew up playing junior tennis and was ranked as high as #5 in Spain under 16s. He received his coaching certification from the Spanish Tennis Federation and Spanish Paddle Federation at the age of 16. He worked at Escuela ACE in Spain as a tennis and paddle coach. He also directed summer camps and worked at Sportime Amagansett for 4 years (3 as Tennis Camp Director). He was also a private coach for several juniors in New York and spent time as a Master Pro at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy in NY.

In his competitive career, he spent 2 years at Oklahoma Christian University where he helped the program win the 2012 NAIA National Championships. After the OCU tennis program was cancelled, he transferred to the New York Institute of Technology. At NYIT, he played in the No. 1 position in singles and doubles. In his junior and senior years, he won two East Coast Conference Championships (2014 & 2015) and was named East Coast Conference First Team and Player of the Year in both years. Julio graduated from NYIT with a Bachelor's degree in Finance in 2015.

Julio continued his graduate studies at Baylor University and was one of the assistant coaches for the men’s team under legendary coach, Matt Knoll, from 2016-2018. The team was ranked as high as #3 NCAA Division 1. In 2018, he graduated from Baylor with a Master's in Sports Science.

Julio joined Weil Tennis Academy in 2018 and will assist in both the tennis and fitness programs.

He can be reached at jpulido@weiltennis.com.

Coach Beau is originally from Boulder, CO. She moved to California when she was 17 to attend the inaugural year of Weil Tennis Academy. She graduated in the academy’s very first graduating class. She now comes full circle back to Ojai as a seasoned and successful coaching professional. After graduating from Weil, Beau played Division 1 at Boise State on a full scholarship and was NCAA All American. She left Boise to pursue her professional WTA career. Beau was honored to be mentored by Martina Navratilova while on the tour. She achieved a career-high singles ranking of 532 and a career-high doubles ranking of 325. Beau won 8 WTA doubles titles before she went on to coach at Andre Agassi Foundation, Saddlebrook Tennis Academy, and IMG Academy.
At Saddlebrook Beau became the hitting partner for Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, and Justine Henin and went on to coach high performance juniors at IMG Academy for 8 years. She’s had the pleasure of coaching Whitney Osuigue (Junior French Open champion) and Shintaro Mochizuki (Junior Wimbledon champion). She’s been a USPTA P1 certified coach since 2009. Beau is passionate about helping students grow and develop, and is excited to share her passion and skills with the Weil Tennis Academy family.

Coach Beau can be reached at beau@weiltennis.com.

Coach Fanni is originally from Budapest, Hungary, where she was a five-time national champion player and a member of the Hungarian national team.

Fanni relocated to Ojai from Boston, where she worked with several top American junior girls, some of whom have reached national titles and medals. Fanni has been working with the USTA to help national training camps and tournaments and she is a member of the WTA Female Coaches program where she had the chance to work with players like Shelby Rogers, Daria Saville, Caroline Dolheide all WTA top 100.

Prior to that Fanni was a college head coach for 4 years at Southwest Baptist University, where she helped the team to reach Indoor National Final 2021, and NCAA Final 4 2017, alongside with several conference championship titles and 11 All American recognitions.

Fanni has a master’s in sports administration and holds coaching verification from the WTA, PTR, and ITPA/ITF.

Fanni can be reached at Fvarga@weiltennis.com

Fernando Martins, born in the city of Matão in the interior of the state of São Paulo - Brazil. He is 44 years old and has been a tennis coach for over 25 years. As a tennis player, he was state champion and was ranked 3rd in the annual Brazilian infanto-juvenile ranking. He played 1st class tournaments for a few years until he decided to dedicate himself to the study of Tennis. He studied physical education and physiotherapy during the 2000s. He worked in several clubs and gyms and, in the last 06 years, he has been conducting competitive training and preparation in partnerships in the city of São Paulo. Through his company, he performed technical monitoring work in national and international tournaments, performed technical corrections on video, made tactical planning for tennis players and several tennis clinics and lectures in cities in Brazil".

Fernando Martins can be contacted by email: tennisfernandomartins@hotmail.com

Priyank Soni (PK) is originally from India, but he started playing tennis in Indonesia at the age of 9 years. After graduating high school, PK decided to go to Spain to play semi-professional tennis for 2 years.

After Spain, he decided to pursue academics, which led him to Weil Academy for 3 months for its college placement program. He studied at Ashland University, a Division 2 school in Ohio where he majored in Business Management and minored in Entrepreneurship. PK played No. 1 in singles and No. 1 in doubles for the Ashland Eagles. He was ranked Top 15 in the Western region and earned 1st Team All American two times, back-to-back.

While in college PK got into fitness a conditioning and while studying for his undergraduate degree, he took other courses on the side which helped him achieve Fitness trainer certification from NASM ( National Academy of Sports Medicine).

In his senior year PK oversaw fitness for both Men’s and Women’s program from Ashland University.

After graduating from college, PK decided to pursue his passion in tennis which led him back to Weil Academy.

You can contact PK by email at Pk@weiltennis.com

Mitch Weil was born and raised in Ojai, California. Growing up with Weil Tennis Academy as a part of his life, he quickly developed a love for, and a deep understanding of, the game of tennis. He attended Gonzaga University, located in Spokane, Washington, where he majored in Classical Civilizations.

Mitch joined Weil Academy as a part-time assistant coach/summer activities director in 2016. After 4 summers of continuing to develop his coaching techniques, he’s very excited to join the Weil staff for the entire school year.

He wants to put into practice the same incredibly hard work he’s seen his parents, Mark and Jane Weil, employ over the last 22 years. This hard work will be shown coaching on the court, on residential duty in the dorms, assisting with college placement, and even teaching in the classroom.

Coach Mitch can be reached at mweil@weiltennis.com.

Catarina Zheng is originally from Porto, Portugal where she was ranked top 20 as a junior. She came to the US in 2017 when she was offered an athletic scholarship to play for Goldey-Beacom College in Delaware where she played #2 singles and #1 doubles. They won the conference and reached the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2019. During her junior year, she transferred to Southwest Baptist University in Missouri which was ranked Top 10 in NCAA Div. 2. There, she was ranked top 10 in ITA National double ranking and was an ITA All-American as well as the ITA Midwest Regional Doubles Champion beating the #1 seed. During her senior year, she made the finals of the ITA Indoor National Championships in 2021.

After completing her bachelor's degree in International Business, Catarina coached at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy in New York. In 2021, she completed her master’s in business administration while competing for the University of Louisiana.

Coach Catarina can be reached at catarinazheng@gmail.com

Omar (known as Dibo), a native of Cairo, Egypt, was ranked in the top 10 in both the Boy's 16s and 18s divisions in his home country as a junior. He came to the US to play tennis for Southwest Baptist University, with the team making the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight and Final Four in the National Championship Playoffs during his time there. Omar completed a bachelor’s degree in business marketing and later received a Master's in Business Administration from SBU. Omar has been coaching for almost 10 years. During the summers of 2016, 2017 and 2018, Omar coached at Advantage Tennis Academy in Irvine, California in their high-performance program then he moved to the East coast and worked for two years of 2019 and 2020 at John McEnroe Tennis Academy.

During the pandemic, Omar returned to Egypt and worked at one of the top private clubs Heliopolis Sporting Club for three years from 2020 to 2023 with the top players of all ages from 8 years old to men and women level. He was also invited to Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in Malaysia for coaches training to learn about their tennis philosophy and methodology. Omar joined the Weil Tennis Academy for the 2024 Spring semester and looks forward to further developing Junior student athletes.

Omar can be reached at okdiab1994@gmail.com

Antoine Richard is originally from Laval, a city just outside of Montreal in Quebec Canada, and recently joined the Weil Tennis Academy Coaching staff in 2021. He currently represents the Academy as a professional player competing on the ATP/ITF pro circuit as well as being an assistant coach, helping the up-and-coming players on the court here at Weil. Antoine started playing tennis at the age of 12, became one of the top-ranked juniors in Canada, and eventually achieved an ATP ranking of 1008 in singles and 963 in doubles. Antoine also competed at Xavier University of Louisiana for two seasons, where he played #1 in singles and doubles, reaching the NAIA Nationals Finals as well as being ranked among the top five players in the Nation in 2017-2018.

Aside from competing and coaching on the court, Antoine is also a Licensed Practitioner of NLP and Hypnosis and has studied personally with Dr. Richard Bandler, the Co-founder of NLP himself and one of the most recognized Hypnosis teachers in the world. Antoine is very passionate about mindset, performance, and personal well-being and is applying those principles in his coaching to help younger players thrive on and off the court.
Antoine can be reached at arichardcoaching@gmail.com

Originally from Israel, Sean Pesin moved to the United States in 8th grade to attend Weil Tennis Academy, where he trained and competed at a high level. He graduated from Weil in 2020 and went on to play Division III college tennis at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. During his college career, Sean achieved national rankings as high as No. 29 in singles and No. 14 in doubles, regularly appearing at the top of the ITA and NCAA weekly national rankings throughout his junior and senior years.

Sean holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Psychology. In 2024, he joined the coaching staff at Weil Tennis Academy, where he shares his extensive playing and training experience with students, before beginning graduate school in the fall of 2025.

Sean can be reached at pesinsean@gmail.com

Coach Samantha Echevarria is originally from Lima, Peru where she was ranked Top 10 as a junior. She came to the US in 2014 when she was offered an athletic scholarship to play for Mars Hill University in North Carolina. There, she played #1 singles and #2 doubles. During her junior year, she transferred to the University of West Florida in Pensacola which is ranked Top 5 in NCAA Div. 2. There, she played #4 singles and #2 doubles, and they made it to the finals of the NCAA Div. 2 National Champs in 2018.

Samantha received her bachelor’s degree in psychology in May 2018 and completed her master’s degree in clinical social work in August 2021 all the while, still competing in tennis for UWF.

During her time as a college athlete, Samantha earned 2nd Team All-American in her freshman and senior years. During the summer of 2021, Samantha coached at the Roger Scott Athletic Complex in Pensacola, and immediately after completing her master’s degree, she joined the Weil coaching staff in September 2021.