It was a normal summer afternoon in Manhattan Beach, with the sun out in full force and students crowding the beach without a care in the world.
Yet on this gorgeous day, Kerry Bradley was sitting indoors with her mother and sister.
The men in the household were visibly absent. Suddenly, all three women started running around the room and screaming at the top of their lungs.
“I think the neighbors must have thought we were being murdered,” Bradley said.
What could have initially been perceived as screams of terror were actually shouts of excitement. The U.S. men’s national soccer team had just defeated Spain, which was No. 1 in the world and had not lost a game in more than two and a half years. The Americans’ 2-0 victory in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in June went on to win an ESPY Award for best upset of the year.
“They shocked the world that day, and I was literally left speechless,” Bradley said. “It was a huge day for soccer in America.”
While many Americans similarly celebrated the win, victory tasted much sweeter for Bradley, a third-year communication studies student and the student manager of the UCLA women’s soccer team.
Her father, Bob, is the coach of the national team, and her brother, Michael, started as
midfielder on the squad.
While Bradley’s father and brother trotted the globe for their professional career, she shows her love of the sport back home.
Bradley started playing soccer at the young age of four and continued with the sport for the next 14 years. Even though she hung up her soccer cleats after graduating from high school because of a recurring knee injury, she is nowhere close to leaving the game behind.
As manager for the UCLA women’s soccer team, she is responsible for organizing schedules, ordering gear and equipment and accommodating travel arrangements for road games.
To members of the team, Bradley stands out far beyond the workplace.
“Kerry is the glue to our team,” junior midfielder Taylor Cochran said. “Not only is she the greatest manager ever, she is one of our best friends.”
Among her many duties, Bradley works to minimize the logistical problems faced by student athletes in having to balance sports and academics.
“Every day she goes above and beyond her job description to make sure everything runs smoothly,” junior midfielder Elise Britt said. “She basically organizes all the players’ lives so we only have to worry about soccer.”
In addition to managing the team, Bradley worked as the UCLA liaison this summer for Inter Milan and FC Barcelona, two internationally renowned elite soccer clubs that practiced in Westwood in August to prepare for exhibition games in the Los Angeles area.
Bradley admits that her life does indeed revolve around the world’s most popular sport.
“Soccer has been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember,” she said. “There are even pictures of my brother, my sister and I basically learning how to walk out on the fields where my dad coached at the time.”
Bob Bradley was the coach of the Princeton men’s soccer team for 11 years before he made the transition to Major League Soccer in Washington D.C.
Over the next 12 years, he went on to coach MLS teams in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, winning two Coach of the Year honors during that span.
When Bob was chosen as the coach of the national team, Kerry said she was “overwhelmed with pride.”
“Obviously I am biased, but I have always grown up thinking my dad is the absolute greatest ““ just like any kid,” she said.
At the same time, she acknowledges that her family’s success in the soccer world has had a great effect on her.
“It has been an exciting journey, but those changes in teams meant moves for our family,” she said. “Moving to a new place is never easy, especially when you are young, and it means starting at a new school.”
Bradley and her family lived in four very different cities over 12 years.
“But each move has brought my family even closer together than we already were, and the strength of my family made it easier,” Bradley said.
She admits that a huge challenge for her family was the times that her dad and brother, who plays professionally in Germany, had to be away from home. Despite the separation, Bradley understands and appreciates what her family members are doing.
“At the end of the day, both my dad and my brother are getting the chance to live their dreams, and I am so proud of them,” Bradley said.
With a major in communication studies, Bradley is aiming to achieve her own dreams: a career in the sports managing world, an industry in which she will look to apply her passionate knowledge of the game.
For now, she is content with simply enjoying a normal college life, as she is also involved with her sorority, Dance Marathon and training with the club soccer team.
“It is easy for me to feel overwhelmed with everything, especially around midterms and finals, but I try to take a step back and remember that I’m at UCLA ““ I need to enjoy every second,” she said.
Next up on Bradley’s plate is the 2010 World Cup.
“I am most definitely going to South Africa,” she said. “I’ll be there decked out in red, white and blue from head to toe. I can’t wait.”
While many of her friends are aware of Bradley’s sports fanaticism, her sister Ryan Bradley, a freshman student manager for the UCLA women’s tennis team, knows it best.
“I look up to her in so many ways,” she said. “(Kerry) is so dedicated, hard-working and really has a passion for soccer.”