Bio

Coach Brandon Lupian enters his 16th year as head coach of the San Diego City College men's tennis program in 2020-2021. He is the longest tenured head coach in the history of the tennis program. In 2017, he was named the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference Coach of the Year and the Wilson/ITA Region I California Coach of the Year after leading his team to an undefeated season and the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference Championship.

The Knights earned state rankings of #11 in 2017, #12 in 2018, and #6 in 2019, while making the dual team state playoffs all three of those years. City was ranked #7 in 2020 after a season cut short due to COVID-19. Prior to 2017, his teams have consistently earned state rankings: #21 in 2009, #19 in 2011, #20 in 2012, and #23 in 2015.

During his tenure at City, Lupian has consistently qualified players for the Regional Championships at Ojai. He has coached four PCAC All-Conference players: Daniel Villa Rosas (2016 & 2017-singles), Dale Gutierrez (2016-doubles), Logan Rinder (2016-doubles), Manuel Cardona (2018-singles), Alejandro Zatarain Ramos (2019-singles/doubles), Jonathan Park (2019-doubles), and Manual Cardona (2019-singles).

Several of his players earned individual state singles and doubles rankings including: Rafa Martinez (2013- #39), Rafa Martinez/Alex Torres(2013-#36), Logan Rinder/Dale Gutierrez (2015-#38, 2016-#26), Daniel Villa Rosas(2016-#32, 2017- #45), Dale Gutierrez(2016-#32), Logan Rinder(2016 #72), Patrick Meier(2017-#69), Ivan Martinez (2017-#72), Daniel Villa Rosas/Patrick Meier(2017-#30), Ivan Martinez/Jose Ruiz(2017-#37), Shane Griffin/Shawn Tran (2017-#46), Manuel Cardona(2018-#26), Shawn Tran (2018-#74), Manuel Cardona/Jose Ruiz(2018-#34), Shawn Tran/Rafael Martinez(2018-#37).       

Coach Lupian competed at Southwestern College where he was a two-time All-PCC selection. He then moved on to play at U.S. International University, earning a B.A. in Sociology in 2003. Lupian holds a master’s degree in Coaching and Athletics Administration from Concordia University. He feels that his own experience in taking the community college pathway helps him relate to his players and gives him insight into what they need to do to be successful student athletes at San Diego City College as well as what it takes for them to succeed at the next level.

For this reason, Lupian focuses on all aspects of his players’ development in his program. In both 2015 and 2016, his teams earned ITA Academic All-American Honors (combined team GPA of 3.2 or above). Several of his players have earned individual ITA All-American Honors as well: Donald Stiles (2014), David Lin (2014/2015), Cuong Nguyen (2015), Daniel Villa Rosas (2015/2016), Dominic Villamor (2015/2016), Logan Rinder(2015/2016), Patrick Meier(2016/2017), and Christian Baiza(2016).

In 2017, Shane Griffin was named to the All-PCAC Sportsmanship Team and in 2018, Manuel Cardona was named to the All- PCAC Sportsmanship Team. Rafael Maniego earned PCAC Player of the Month for February of 2019. In 2020, Nik Speshilov was named PCAC Player of the Month for February and also earned ITA Rookie of the Year, while Colin Palmer was selected as ITA Player to Watch.

He is extremely proud of the fact that several of his players have gone on to four-year universities such as UC Berkeley, San Diego State, UCSD, San Jose State, Cal State Northridge, Cal Poly Pomona, Kansas Wesleyan, Hope International, and UCLA. SDCC Men’s Tennis standout, Rafa Martinez, graduated from Holy Names University where he played for two years on a tennis scholarship. Martinez is currently the Assistant Men’s Tennis Coach at Sonoma State University. Another SDCC Tennis standout, Sergio Navarro, attended Kansas Wesleyan University on a tennis scholarship. Other former Knights who continued their tennis careers at four-year colleges include: David Munoz (Hope International), Alex Torres(Concordia), and German Ziella (San Diego Christian College), Alejandro Zatarain Ramos (Hope International). Most recently, Logan Rinder graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Biological Anthropology.

Prior to taking over as the Knight’s Head Coach, Lupian was the Men's Assistant Coach at Southwestern College from 2003-2006. During the same time, Lupian was the Head Coach of the Otay Ranch High School Boy's and Girl's Tennis Teams. The boys won the South Bay League in 2004, 2005 and 2006. The girls’ team won the South Bay League championship in 2005. Lupian is single and has a son, Joaquin.

Coach Lupian’s favorite coaching quote, "I think when you enjoy what you're doing, you get to where you want to go....”