Coaches

Umran Ali Director and cofounder of Be Active started playing tennis as a junior in the late 1970s.  During his extensive coaching career he has worked at venues including The Harbour Club in Chelsea, Ferndale and from 2001 to 2007 at Telford Park where he finished as Head Coach.  He joined Southwark City Tennis Club as Head Coach in 2007.  He is a licensed Senior Coach with the LTA.  Umran was selected for a prestigious Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Award visiting the US and Spain to study community and performance tennis programmes. He leads the work with our stronger players thanks to the support of the charity BOOST.

Milton Gayle has worked in community tennis since the 1970's and trained thousands of people, including many who are now coaching themselves.  His work was key in getting Burgess Park Tennis Centre built in 2004 attracting over £800,000 of investment.  He plays and teaches to a high standard, has an LTA Level 5 coaching badge, the highest level, and was London Champion in the 1980's  winning the title on the Wimbledon courts.  In recognition of his work Milton was Barclays Unsung Hero for 2012 and part of the presentation party for the ATP Tour Finals won by Novak Djokovic.  He also works on the Barclays Ball Kids programme.  Now in his 60's and still teaching and playing every day Milton embodies the spirit that tennis is a game for life. In 2016 Milton received a lifetime achievement award from LTA Tennis Surrey.

Alex Kaminski leads our sessions at GMH Park and Colombo and is a licensed LTA Level 4 Senior Coach.  Alex represents Wilton's mens first team in the Aegon Leagues competing at a high level and won the mens Club Championship in 2014 and has a current rating of 4.1.  He was also non-playing team captain of our Southwark City Tennis Club’s men’s team in 2018 which won promotion where he brought through a number of the younger players.  At Colombo Tennis Centre in Blackfriars he is helping to build a community programme from scratch in conjunction with Coin Street social enterprise.   Alex studied Economics and Criminology at Kingston University and helped his community by serving as a special constable for several years.   

Guillermo Zoilo is a Level 4 LTA licensed Senior Coach having learnt as a junior in Madrid.  He has a major role coaching on the junior sessions and squads at Burgess Park working six days a week.  He coaches a range of adults including the popular Tennis Tuesday sessions. 

He has competed at martial arts with a world ranking as well as coaching in his native Spain.

Denis McMillan is a Level 3 coach with the LTA.  He grew up in the area and is well known and respected in the local community.  He has done a significant amount of work coaching at local schools and venues in the north of the borough.  Denis is enthusiastic, determined, and most importantly, dedicated. There is clear evidence for his hard work in recent years with a number of players coming through to win tournaments.  

In recognition of his work he won a Leader's Award from the Jack Petchey Foundation.