Mestre Beicola
A native of Brazil and master teacher or Capoeira for over 20 years, he has returned to the Bay Area this year to continue his work building the Capoeira Batuque school. He has been Champion of Capoeira Federation of Rio de Janeiro Competitions and has created several schools of Capoeira in Berkeley, Palo Alto and Rio de Janeiro.

Dara Birnbaum
Dara started Albany Kids’ Corner in 1987 to meet the needs of students and working parents. She has worked in Early Childhood Development for the past 26 years with families from many cultures and serves as the Youth Services Director at the University Village.

Ken Cober
Ken began his study of Kojosho karate in 1990 and received his black belt in 1994. At that time he became an asistant instructor in Kojosho karate. Since 1999 he has been the main instructor of the Berkeley Albany class. He currently holds a third-degree black belt.

Randal Gory
Randal holds a bachelors degree in Physical Education and Human Movement as well as a MA in Sports and Fitness Management from University of San Francisco. A former collegiate basketball player and coach for the past 16 years, Randal is a Tehiyah Day School teacher and Athletic Director.

Jami James
Jami has been coaching both youth baseball and ice hockey for 5 years. As a former collegiate athlete, Jami majored in Child Psychology and was awarded the Male Athlete of the Year Award, for both his academic and athletic excellence. As a Minor League baseball and hockey player, he acquired a wealth of knowledge and experience that he wants to share with kids.

Dawn Martin-Rugo
Dawn has taught and coached gymnastics since 1972. She has worked with Masayuki Watanabe, Muriel Grossfeld, Fritz Reiter among other elite level and national coaches over the years. She served on the coaching staff for the UCB Women’s Gymnastics team with Dan Millman and was one of the founding coaches for Golden Bear Gymnastics. She has directed the Gymnastics Plus program since 1986 and the University Village Recreation Program since 1992.

Teale Matteson
Founder and director of Pacific Soccer Training, Teale has been coaching youth through collegiate soccer for the past 20 years. He played Div I soccer at Cal 1979-1983 on scholarship and later became Cal's Assistant Coach from 1989-90. He played soccer in Germany and for French Div III Club Bercy in Paris. He has coached St. Mary’s College High School in Berkeley for 10 years, reaching the NCS playoffs 7 out of those 10 years. He coaches for the ACCYSL Mavericks Girls' U16 and U14 and Boys' U10 and assists the Mavericks' Technical Director, Robert Sackey of the Ghana Men's and Women's National Teams. He has served as an evaluator for the Olympic Development Program and provided coaches training through the ACCYSL. Teale holds CYSA certification and NSCAA's National Diploma. He recently attended a coaching delegation to Holland with coursework at
AJAX, PSV Einhoven, and AZ Alkmaar with current Polish National Team Assistant Coach Frans Hoek. Teale met his wife, Nanou, at Cal and they have two children, Natasha, 20, and Alexander, 17. Teale is a school teacher at The Crowden School in Berkeley.

Joe Pearse
Joe has more than eight years of coaching and teaching experience. While a Division 1 player at Fresno State for four years, he was elected to the All-West Regional Team in 1998. Known as a motivator and team builder, Joe has been teaching and coaching baseball at Alameda High School for the past 4 years. He was on the Double Diamond staff at University Village from 1998-2004, inspiring players to reach higher levels of excellence.

Matthew Schwey
We'd like to welcome Matt Schwey as our new Head Instructor
for the Gymnastics Plus Program! He came out on top of a field of applicants from as far as Connecticut and Thailand! Matt hails from Florida via the South Bay where he worked with children in
recreational settings as well as gymnastics competitors through Level 10 over the past 13 years. He holds a BS in Recreation and Leisure Services and is USA Gymnastics Safety Certified.

Rick Slettedahl
A former collegiate player with the University of Washington, Rick has been coaching for over 20 years. He directed the YMCA’s Youth Basketball Program from 1993-95 and has been Youth Basketball Director at University Village since 1996.

Kensuke Sumii
Kensuke began practicing Taiko in 1999 and was trained by several teachers including Watanabe Yoichi, the leader of the Tokyo based Taiko group, Amanojaku, between 2003 and 2006; Jimi Nakagawa, a founding member of Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble between 2000 and 2003; and Tanaka Seiichi, the leader of San Francisco
Taiko Dojo in 1999.

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