OUR COACHES
Who We Are
JEFF ALZINA
Head Coach
Jeff Alzina is the Santa Clara Bronco’s Beach Head Coach. Jeff is the winningest coach in AVP Beach Volleyball history, with more than 1,000 match victories on tour. Some career highlights include:-2004 Olympic Games in Athens-NCAA National Championship with UCLA in 2018-2015 Pan American Games-more than 50 NCAA All -Americans-more than 30 Olympians worldwide-2017 U21 FIVB World Championships-2018 U19 World Championships
LANCE MURET
Head Coach
Lance Muret is joining us from San Diego where he coached at WAVE Beach for the past 4 years. He is the volunteer assistant coach at Santa Clara University for the beach volleyball team. Lance graduated from UC San Diego where he played club indoor and trained on the beach year-round. He is a AA rated player and won the annual King of Spring tournament in San Diego this past year. We are super excited to have him on our coaching staff.
JULIA KALLEN
Assistant Coach
Assistant Beach Volleyball coach for Santa Clara University in their D1 Beach Program. Having dedicated the majority of her life to playing volleyball, she has first hand experience of what it means to be a part of a team and thrive in a competitive environment. In addition to Mandala, she has coached at WAVE in SoCal and was a D1 beach player for Fairfield University.
KELVYN DE LEON
Assistant Coach
Kelvyn was a 4-year varsity athlete at Madera High school. He played at Triumph Volleyball Academy. Currently he is also the volunteer assistant coach at De Anza college and is attending SJSU.
FAITH BARTLETT
Assistant Coach
Faith coaches for us during the summer months in Santa Cruz. She is currently a beach player at Cal Poly in their D1 Beach Program. She didn't start playing beach volleyball competitively until she was 16 ... but played indoor volleyball on varsity as a freshman and competed in track and field her senior year.
JACQUELINE HELER
Assistant Coach
Jac is a professional athlete with 5 years of experience playing at the NCAA Division I level, WAC and WCC conference honors, and 5 years of pro volleyball in the top leagues of France and Switzerland.
She spent 4 years as Content Editor and Performance Coach at Vivamea.com SA, an online and in-person self-coaching system at l'EPFL in Lausanne. Worked with multinationals such as AON, Unilabs, and the CHUV (in French and English).
She was the Founder and Director of Spikers Volleyball Camp, an annual international volleyball camp in Switzerland.
And she has been a volleyball coach for over 20 years. She was the head coach the Castilleja high school's Varsity program for 8 years and earned league and CCS championships. And she was the former Head Coach for the LNB VBC Fribourg team, University of Fribourg volleyball team, Varsity/JV programs at the International School of Lausanne, Assistant Coach at West Valley Junior College, and head and assistant coaching experience at nationally ranked Vision Volleyball Club in northern California.
TAYLOR FORD
Assistant Coach
Taylor attended Monte Vista High School for all four years … lettered one year in indoor volleyball as an outside hitter, then started the beach volleyball team at MVHS and was captain for two years … competed on USA High Performance U17 in summer of 2021 … also part of USA NationalTeam Development Program (NTDP) U19 in winter, spring, and summer of 2022 and spring 2023 and the NTDP U20 in summer of 2023 … placed first at AAU Nationals in 2021 and first at AVP Nationals in 2021 … played club volleyball for Kleos and Golden Gate Beach Volleyball Club (for beach) … won an AAU National Championship with partner Kaley Mathews (who also attends UCLA). Taylor coaches for us in Walnut Creek during the summers.
BRYAN CASH
Assistant Coach
Bryan is the assistant volleyball coach at St Francis, the head volleyball coach at Bellarmine and the head beach volleyball coach at Bay to Bay. We are excited to have him.
ELENA RADEFF
Assistant Coach
Currently a senior at Santa Clara University in their D1 beach volleyball program. She is a 2x WCC Commissioner's Honor Roll Silver Honors (2020-21, 2021-22) WCC Commissioner's Honor Roll Bronze Honors (2022-23) AS A SOPHOMORE (2021-22): Had a 6-26 overall record ... played at all spots of the lineup except No. 1 ... went 1-8 at No. 2, 3-3 record at No. 3, 2-12 at No. 4 and 0-3 at No. 5 ... had the most wins while paired with Alexie Epstein with three winning a match at No. 2, 3 and 4.
RYAN LI
Assistant Coach
The recent grad of NYU was a starting setter for the #1 ranked Violets and averaged nearly 1 ace per set and was second on the team in assists. An avid beach player is also coaches for Bay to Bay.
HUNTER ZENG
Assistant Coach
Hunter began his coaching career while attending UC San Diego for his undergraduate degree. Working as an assistant coach at Coast VBC, he learned not only what it takes to coach in tryout, clinic, practice, and tournament capacities, but also how a club at the highest level manages logistics, coach development, and customer experience.
After his move to Santa Cruz during the 2020 pandemic, he began coaching for Main Beach. He fondly remembers the days of grass volleyball and ball sanitization. He prides himself on the effort he makes each season to be a better coach, mentor, and human than the one before it. Hunter’s favorite part of coaching club volleyball is serving the athlete and parent community within the club, and seeing the growth of the sport in the region.
While attending UC San Diego, Hunter received his B.S in Cognitive Science, better known as User Experience Design. He learned principles of how we learn from the world around us, through interaction with technology (anything developed by us that evolves over time) and culture (our intangible world of rules and meanings).
He is pursuing an M.S in Coaching and Exercise Sciences from Concordia University in Irvine. Some big takeaways from his studies so far have been the importance of modeling and teaching character to athletes, learning about the human body in kinesiology, and reading material such as “What Drives Winning” by Brett Ledbetter and “Teaching Character Through Sport: Developing a Positive Coaching Legacy” by Bruce Brown.
Hunter attributes his knowledge of the game to the experience of playing every position at some point in his volleyball journey. He encourages players to develop an understanding of all the skills required to play volleyball in order to succeed. Hunter takes on many private lesson clients within the club, helping athletes break down important skills and improve decision-making. For individual or small group private lessons, please email hunter@mainbeachvolleyball.com.
When he isn’t coaching, playing beach, or watching volleyball, he enjoys cooking and getting nine hours of sleep. In 2024, Hunter is focused on spending more time with friends and family, and managing his screen time.