We strive to offer quality tennis and academic programs run by professional and highly-qualified coaches. Our team of professional coaches is dedicated to making these programs into instructive and live-enriching experiences. They bring their vast experience and expertise to Weil and create a unique and engaging environment for each student.
Coach Mark grew up and played junior tennis in New Orleans, Louisiana, reaching the No. 2 ranking in New Orleans in his senior year. He followed his private coach, Donald Losman, PhD, to Northeast Louisiana University where he played on the NLU’s team under legendary coach Johnny Robinson.
During his college years at NLU, Weil discovered his love of American Literature and American Theater and majored in both, winning Best Actor at Northeastern LA University in 1980 as well as achieving a special Internship to Britain’s National Theater. Weil also was a staff writer for NLU’s school paper, and ran for Student Body President in 1981. After graduating in 1982 with a BA in English and two minors in Journalism and History, Weil moved to New York City and enrolled in the Neighborhood Playhouse, an acting and directing conservatory in Manhattan. Weil was also accepted to the Boston College Graduate School into the Master’s English Program, but chose to remain in New York to pursue coaching and theater.
Head Coach Mo 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, while in college.
In 1999, he began coaching some of Egypt's top juniors at the Heliopolis Club in Cairo, 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, including his student, Ahmed Ismail, who reached Top 5 in Boys 18s in So Cal, represented Southern California on the National Champion Jr. Davis Cup Team, and was recruited by legendary coach, Billy Martin for the UCLA Men's Tennis Team. Coach Mo also coached: 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); Max Cressy (USA/France, Top 10 So Cal Boys 18s/UCLA); Armando Soemarno (Indonesia, Top 50 ITF Doubles/University of Oregon).
Coach Mo was promoted to Weil Head Coach in 2010 and in 2014, he joined Mark Weil's College Placement Team.
Coach Mo can be reached at mohamed@weiltennis.com.
Head Coach Ogi Katsarov is originally from Bulgaria. He worked for the Bulgarian Fed Cup Tea, as an assistant coach from 1999-2003 and as a head coach in 1995, 1996 and 2004. Coach Ogi has worked with the likes of Magdalena Maleeva, three Top 150-250 WTA players, ten Bulgarian National Chamlions and a Semi-Finalist in the Orange Bowl.
He graduated from The Higher Institute of Physical Education, specializing in Tennis & Pedagogic Profile. As a tennis player, he participated in the National Team of Bulgaria, ranked fifth place in the Men's National Team and placed first in Tier 1 Doubles in national tournaments.
His coaching career began in 1980 in his home city of Plovdiv, where he also lectured from 1983-1989. He coached for the Locomotiv-Stad Tennis Club and in 1991, he became a coach for Bulgaria's National Women's Team.
He is married to Veselina Katsarova. Their son, Bozhidar Katsarov, was Top 20 ETA and went on to play for UC Berkeley.
Coach Ogi can be reached at ognyan55ka@hotmail.com.
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.
Head Coach Ozaki, originally from Tokyo, Japan, was ranked #3 in his section while a college student in Japan. He coached in Tokyo for six years and was the Director of Lavoy Pacific College (sports college) from 1990-1993. He also developed the BETA (Briscoe Eisendrath Tennis Academy) in Washington, where he served as Director for eight years. Before joining Weil Tennis Academy, he directed the Pacific Tennis Academy.
In addition to coaching, Coach Ozaki travels to Japan regularly to recruit students for a new Asian Training Program at Weil Tennis Academy.
Coach Ozaki can be reached atsmash@takeshiozaki.com.
Coach Patrick is originally from Colmar, France. He began working at Weil Tennis Academy in 2006. Patrick studied Sports Science for five years and graduated with a Master's Degree in Strength & Conditioning from the University of Strasbourg, France. His main focus was sports performance and he specialized in strength, speed, endurance, agility and flexibility training.
He has played tennis since he was very young and he has coached tennis as well. He completed several internships in the Strength & Conditioning field before coming to Weil. He has worked with professional soccer and rugby teams in France and top juniors in basketball and badminton. Patrick began his tennis career with an internship in the French Tennis Federation with the top six 14/16 year old players. He also worked as an assistant Strength & Conditioning coach at Evert Tennis Academy in Florida.
Coach Patrick can be reached at patrick@weiltennis.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.
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.
Magdalena "Maggy" Smejova is originally from Czech Republic and played college tennis at Hawaii Pacific University where she was granted a full scholarship. She finished her HPU career with an overall 49-7 record, was named Most Valuable Player at HPU during her 2012-2013 season, and earned All-Pac West honors in singles and doubles. Maggie began playing tennis at the age of six, and during her junior tennis career, she played in the Czech Republic's highest team league and in the German 2nd highest team league. She has played many international tournaments (ETA 14, ETA14, ITF and Women’s ITF). She was the runner-up at the 16& under ETA in Slovenia in 2005. Before joining Weil Tennis Academy, she worked at Future Stars Academy in New York, coaching players between 4 to15 years of age.
Coach Maggy can be reached at maggy@weiltennis.com.
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 and worked as a personal trainer for various age groups and levels.
In 2015 and 2014, Dominique spent her summers at Weil as an assistant coach and residential counselor.
Coach Dominique can be reached at dominique.chante10@gmail.com.
Go Shinoda was born in the U.S., but grew up in Tokyo, Japan. He attended Tokyo University of Pharmacy & Life Sciences where he majored in pharmacy, but he couldn’t forget his homeland, so he decided to move back to the U.S. in 2016.
He joined Weil as an assistant coach in Summer 2018. He learned the techniques and theories of coaching from PTR certified coach, Takeshi Ozaki, who has been a head coach at Weil since 2003.
He wants to do his best to support his students mentally and physically on court, while being a mentor to them in their private lives as well as a residential live-in coach.
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.
Stacy Margolin Potter, M.A., C.E.D.S., was a professional tennis player from 1977-1987. With victories over many Top 10 players, she reached a world ranking of No. 18. While attending USC, she won the National Collegiate Singles Title as a freshman. She was also a member of the USC team which won the NCAA title the following year, playing the #1 singles position. Coming off the tour, Stacy coached the women's tennis team at Pomona College. She then completed her studies at UCLA and received her Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University. Stacy worked at Rader Institute for 12 years as an Eating Disorders Counselor and is now a Certified Health Coach.
Presently, Stacy resides in Ojai, CA and operates Balanced Eating & Lifestyle Coaching, specializing in nutrition, eating and exercise behavior, weight loss, stress management, body image, lifestyle and motivation. She also performs body composition testing, weight training sessions and fitness consultations.
Stacy continues to be involved in the tennis world through occasional coaching and charities. She enjoys yoga, running and living the Ojai life for eighteen years.
Stacy can be reached at stacy@stacypotterhealthcoach.com.