Bio

Coach Brandon Lupian enters his 20th year as head coach of the San Diego City College men's tennis program in 2025-2026. 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 conference season and the PCAC championship. Most recently in 2025, he was named the Inland Empire Athletic Conference (IEAC) Coach of the Year after another undefeated season that led to the IEAC championship.

The Knights have achieved remarkable success under Lupian's leadership, earning consistent state rankings throughout his tenure. The team has achieved top-10 rankings in recent years: #5 in 2022, #18 in 2023, #14 in 2024, and #8 in 2025. Earlier achievements include rankings of #11 in 2017, #12 in 2018, #6 in 2019, and #7 in 2020 (shortened season due to COVID-19).

Prior to this exceptional run, his teams 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 state championships at Ojai and has developed numerous standout players. Notable recent achievements include Andrew Suver earning All-American honors in singles (#5) in 2022, and the doubles team of Hunter Lynch and Thomas Lynch achieving All-American status (#4) in 2025.

Lupian has coached numerous all-PCAC players throughout his career, including Daniel Villa Rosas (2016 & 2017-singles), Dale Gutierrez (2016-doubles), Logan Rinder (2016-doubles), Manuel Cardona (2018 & 2019-singles), Alejandro Zatarain Ramos (2019-singles/doubles), and Jonathan Park (2019-doubles).

His players have consistently earned impressive individual state singles and doubles rankings. Recent standouts include Andrew Suver (#5 singles, 2022), Brian Espinoza (#26 singles in 2022, #18 in 2023), Eduardo Castillo (#38 singles, 2023), Hunter Lynch (#12 singles, 2025), Thomas Lynch (#35 singles, 2025), and Abel Martinez (#37 singles, 2025).

In doubles, notable rankings include Andrew Suver/Nikita Speshilov (#15, 2022), Brian Espinoza/Eduardo Castillo(#10, 2023), Hunter Lynch/Thomas Lynch (#4, 2025), and Abel Martinez/Julian MacKinnon (#23, 2025).

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. 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), Christian Baiza (2016), and Andrew Suver (2022).

Throughout his tenure, Lupian has emphasized sportsmanship and character development. Shane Griffin was named to the All-PCAC Sportsmanship Team in 2017, and Manuel Cardona was named to the All-PCAC Sportsmanship Team in 2018. Rafael Maniego earned PCAC Player of the Month for February 2019. In 2020, Nik Speshilov was named PCAC Player of the Month for February and also earned ITA Rookie of the Year nomination, 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 was an 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), German Ziella (San Diego Christian College), Alejandro Zatarain Ramos (Hope International), and most recently, Andrew Suver (Pt Loma Nazarene University).

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 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..."