When children are born, mothers always start planning how great
of a doctor or a lawyer their child is going to be. This was not
the case for Carrie Forsyth.
Barely a month after her twin boys, Luke Russel Forsyth and
Tyler James Forsyth, were born, she imagines them instead playing
beach volleyball as they grow up.
This is because young Luke and Tyler do not have a typical mom;
instead, they have Carrie Forsyth, coach of the UCLA women’s
golf team.
Forsyth had devoted her whole life to golf until Sept. 21 at
11:29 p.m., when she became responsible for two new human
beings.
Before her two sons were born, Forsyth was one of the most
competitive coaches in the NCAA, and she does not plan on changing
that.
“I still feel competitive. That’s why we’ve
been successful,” Forsyth said.
In fact, she has been very successful. Not only has she played
for the Bruins, but she has coached the Bruins to three consecutive
conference championships. And if you ask her, she is planning on
keeping that up, babies or not.
During Forsyth’s maternity leave, the Bruins have been
going strong under first-time assistant coach and former Bruin
Alicia Um,
When Forsyth found out that she was pregnant in the second half
of last season, she knew she had to find someone new to take care
of the team.
“I was so worried; I needed to find somebody who knows me.
(She) has to run the program right off the bat ““ get through
the fall with some sense of organization,” Forsyth said.
Forsyth was able to find all that and more in her former golfer
Um. She remembers how Um “was the team mom (when she played
for the Bruins).”
Due to pregnancy complications, Forsyth was forced to remain on
bed rest much earlier than expected. Um had to take over the day
she attained the title of assistant coach.
“It was really hard, but I talked to her a lot. She helped
me through it,” Um said.
“Alicia has been a godsend,” sophomore Tiffany Joh
said.
Um has managed to keep the Bruins in top form.
However, Um and the rest of the team await Forsyth’s
return. After all, most of the players decided to attend UCLA
because of her.
“(Forsyth) was super-competitive, super-intense;
that’s why we loved playing for her so much,” said Joh,
who played under Forsyth last year as a freshman. “We knew if
we played for her, then we’d be on the winning
side.”
Aside from her superb coaching abilities, Forsyth has been able
to make a mark on her players’ personal lives in a way that
only a mother could.
“She’s like our mom,” Joh said.
“Honestly, I mean she’s one of those coaches that
you’re just so close to. You form a bond so quickly that even
in between classes we’d just go up to her office and hang
out, because she seriously was like our second mom when we got to
school.”
Sophomore golfer Ryann O’Toole echoed Joh’s
sentiments.
“She is really good at stepping out of being (in) a coach
position, (to) be your friend and be there,” O’Toole
said. “Also like another parent, because I mean you come to
college and you don’t have your parents and sometimes you
just need another adult figure. … She’s good in that
sense.”
Although Forsyth gives so much to her players, she also receives
a great deal in return.
“Coaching and being around young women has taught me so
much,” Forsyth said.
She plans on using the parenting skills she has developed as a
coach in her new job as a mother.
In addition, she is very thankful to all the players’
parents who have showed her how a parent should and shouldn’t
act.
Forsyth has long since been a nurturer, but now she has the
opportunity to really be a mother.
“It’s such a different perspective,” Forsyth
admitted, while adding with a sense of accomplishment,
“They’re just great. They’re really, really
good.”
Since the birth of her twin boys, Forsyth has been concentrating
on making sure they are healthy and that she can return to the team
as soon as possible.
She is currently hoping to return in January in order to coach
the second half of the season.
Her players have been supporting her every step of the way.
They visit her at home and she comes to school sometimes,
bringing her boys with her.
The team is almost like a big family who just admitted two new
members.
Forsyth and the players have spent a lot of time together
discussing the obvious, Joh said.
“I knew that she wanted kids, (and then when) she was
pregnant … there was all this anticipation like, what (are) you
going to name them? What sports are they going to play? Am I going
to babysit? How are you going to dress them? You know, the
important things.”