New Albany Tennis Center Staff

Meet our staff

The New Albany Tennis Center and Kobelt Tennis Academy is proud to have 7 Certified Coaches, 2 with Masters Degrees; Our Coaches Include a USTA High Performance Specialist, a Collegiate National Doubles Champion, a 4-Time ITA College All-American, 3 Current World Ranked (ATP/WTA) Players and a USTA Net Generation Youth 10 & Under Specialist

USPTA and PTR Certification demonstrates the highest level of commitment to coaching and customer service in our sport. Certification requires passing a series of rigorous on-court skills tests, group and private lesson tests and written exams.
USPTA & PTR also offer extensive continuing education programs through their web sites,
on-line courses, conferences, workshops and monthly trade journals and e-mails,
exclusively to their members. Certified coaches stay current with all of the changes in the game and are best able to provide students with the most up to date advice and techniques.

Paul Kobelt, USPTA High Performance Specialist

Owner/Director of Tennis/General Manager
Certified Tennis Professional
Current GCTA Board Member, Current Ohio Valley USTA Board Member/VP
Master's Degree in Business Management
Former General Manager of Bollettieri Tennis Academy - Paris, France
Former Director of Tennis for 18 years at New Albany Country Club

KTA’s unique teaching system is based on Coach Paul Kobelt’s 43 years of teaching experience which includes positions as Director of IMG/Bollettieri Tennis Academy, Paris, France and 27 combined years as a Country Club Head Pro/Tennis Director at the Milwaukee Country Club, New Albany Country Club and currently, Columbus Country Club. In 2005, Paul founded the New Albany Tennis Center, which is a famiy owned and operated year-round tennis facility open to the public.

During his 30 years as a USPTA Elite Professional, Paul received extensive training by the USTA’s National Coaches as a Competitive Training Center Coach and also while earning their “High Performance Specialist” Designation. He has also attended over 1500 hours of continuing education and, over the years, has had the great fortune of learning from dozens of very talented co-workers, college coaches, WTA/ATP players and coaches and from organizing and conducting clinics with over 25 former Grand Slam Champions.
Eric Spohn, PTR, Certified Head Tennis Professional

Eric started playing tennis when he was 14 years old, and has been in the tennis industry for over 15 years. He currently has an NTRP rating of 4.5, and still actively plays in World Team Tennis and USTA. He is also an accomplished tennis photographer, doing work for the ITA, Tennis Week Magazine, Ohio State University, Wright State University, Toledo University, and Ohio Dominican University, as well as our very own New Albany Tennis Center. Eric works at the Western & Sourthern Open Tournament in Cincinatti each summer as a staff photographer, having his work featured daily on their website. Eric aslo enjoys watching old matches of tennis legends.
Ryan French, PTR, Certified Head Tennis Professional and Head Varsity Coach at Westerville South

Ryan started playing tennis when he was 13 years old, and has been in the tennis industry for over 5 years. He currently has a NTRP ranking of 4.5, and still actively plays in USTA matches. Ryan played Varsity tennis for Reynoldsburg High School for 4 years, was an OCC Champion, State Doubles Qualifier, and got an honorable mention All State.

Over the past 11 years, Ryan has been the Lead Pro and creator of our innovative highly successful QuickStart High Performance Program. This innovative program, the only of its kind in Ohio, is an accelerated high performance program for rapidly advancing 2nd thru 4th graders.
Tristan Kaye, High Performance Specialist and High Performance Director

NATC/KTA is pleased to announce that Tristan Kaye has recently completed his USPTA/USTA High Performance Certification course led by USTA National Coach Jose Higueras in Los Angeles. Only 3 other coaches in Central Ohio have ever been invited by the USTA to take this prestigeous course (Coach Paul passed it in 2004).
Tristan is originally from England and spent his high school years in Florida. He just graduated
from Kenyon College where he played all four years on the Men's Tennis Team and helped lead the team to the National D-3 Indoor Team Championships and the #1 ranking in the country in 2013. Tristan was the Team Captain in 2016-2017.
In 2016, Tristan was the Division III NCAA Mens Tennis Doubles Champion and finished the year ranked #1 in doubles. He was named to the ITA All-Star Team and was also named NCAA All-American in Doubles.
Tristan's teaching background includes 4 summers as a full-time Tennis Professional at the Harbour Island Athletic Club. He also brings a very unique european training background and perspective to our program. Tristan works with all of our adult and junior players and is focused on helping our middle and high school players.
Patrick Ohanian

NATC/KTA welcomes former Ohio Dominican, Patrick Ohanian, to our full-time staff.
Patrick played at ODU for four years and brings a great deal of enthusiasm and experience
onto the court for every lesson.
After completing his MBA at ODU, he became one of the most popular Pros at Scioto Country Club
over the past four summers.
We are very fortunate to have Patrick on our team. He is available for private lessons and is teaching
many of our adult and junior clinics.
Dylan Merle, USPTA Certified Coach

Dylan Merle is a USPTA Certified
Julie Wood, PTR Certified 10 & Under Specialist and USTA Net Generation Provider

Julie Wood is a PTR Certified 10 & Under Coach and PPR Certified Pickleball Coach
Brian Hutter, USPTA Certified Recreational Coach

Brian earned his Certification in 2018 and began working at NATC in November of 2018. Brian plays on our mens 4.5 and 4.0 USTA teams and co captains the mens GCTA team in the summer. Brian began playing tennis at age 5 in Kalamazoo Michigan home of the USTA boys 16 & 18 National Junior Tennis Championships. He was a ball runner at the tournament where his passion for tennis was born ball running for the likes of Stan Smith, John McEnroe, Michael Chang, Paul Annacone and Bjorn Borg. Brian played on his high school tennis team which qualified for the state tournament 3 years and were runner up at the state tournament 2 of those 3 years. He played 1 year in college and graduated from Michigan State University. Brian works part time evenings and weekends as he works full time during the day at Big Lots on the ecommerce planning team. Brian plans to eventually work full time as a tennis instructor.
Coming Soon

USPTA Specialist