/ Academy / Coaching staff

Five coaches. USPTA-certified, every one.

Every full-time coach on staff carries a USPTA Professional certification or higher. Most played D1 or higher college tennis. A few competed on the professional tour. All of them now teach kids — which is the harder job, and the one they each chose deliberately.

/ Full-time coaching staff

The five who'll be on court with your player.

USPTA EliteCert
/ Director of tennis · founder

Mariella Castellano

CertUSPTA Elite
CollegeD1
TourWTA 287
Coaching17 yrs

Founder. Came to coaching after a four-year college career and a brief WTA tour run that crested at world number 287. Started Topspin in 2011. Runs Performance and Elite squads personally, leads tournament-team travel six weekends a year. Twenty-eight college commits placed in the last six years.

"Talent is the part you don't control. Compete-ability is the part you do — we coach the second one."
Apply → Elite squad
USPTA Pro1
/ Performance squad · technical coach

Ezekiel Olamide

CertUSPTA P1
CollegeD1
SpecialtyStroke tech
Coaching11 yrs

Played Division I tennis at SEC level, captained his college team his senior year. Joined Topspin in 2017 from a developmental academy in Atlanta. Runs the Performance squad with Mariella and is the staff's go-to for stroke-mechanics rebuilds. Patient with regressions; sharp with the players in a hurry.

"A regression is a sign you're working on the right thing. The kids who never regress aren't growing."
Apply → Performance squad
USPTA Pro1
/ Future Stars & Developmental lead

Yumiko Tanaka-Reyes

CertUSPTA P1
CollegeD2
SpecialtyJunior foundations
Coaching14 yrs

Runs Future Stars and Developmental — the two groups where most of our families first meet the academy. The reason we keep them. Yumiko is the kind of coach who can hold the attention of eight seven-year-olds on a Tuesday afternoon for an hour and have them asking when they get to come back.

"The job at seven is to make sure they want to come back at eight. Everything else follows."
Apply → Summer camps
USPTA Pro1
/ Tournament team · travel coach

Felix Ó Ceallaigh

CertUSPTA P1
CollegeD1
SpecialtyMatch-play
Coaching9 yrs

Travels with the tournament team six weekends a year. Specializes in between-point and match-play coaching — the conversations that happen on the bench during the changeover. Charts every Performance and Elite player's tournament results in a notebook he refuses to digitize. Excellent.

"Tennis is the only individual sport where coaching during the match is illegal. The work has to happen before the kid walks on court."
Apply → USTA travel team
USPTA Pro2
/ Strength & conditioning · sports science

Beatrix Magyari

CertUSPTA P2 + CSCS
CollegeD2 sport sci
SpecialtyPeriodization
Coaching8 yrs

Programs the Performance and Elite strength blocks in the on-site fitness bay. CSCS-certified, with a sports-science background and a quiet preference for slower, sustainable load progression over headline-grabbing in-season peaks. Three-year periodized cycles. Kids respect her without trying to.

"The best junior strength program looks boring. The best junior strength outcomes don't."
Apply → Performance squad
/ Part-time staff & volunteer coaches

The folks who round out the program.

/ Mental performance

Dr. Alicia Whitestone

Sport psychologist on retainer. Monthly group sessions for Elite squad, individual sessions available for any tournament player.

/ Stringer

Quentin Persaud

On-site stringer two days a week. Strings every Performance and Elite player's frames. Handles racquet-customization conversations.

/ Volunteer match captain

Penelope Riggs

Former parent, current volunteer. Runs the Saturday in-house ladder. Knows every player's first-round opponent before they ask.

Meet the panel at try-outs.

Every quarterly try-out features the full coaching panel — all five full-time coaches on court for the same ninety-minute window. Your player meets each of them, and each of them weighs in on placement. The panel format is how we get level placements right the first time.

Apply for try-out → Parent info night