Team Managers:
From the Sidelines
This week, the Daily Bruin dives into the stories of current and former UCLA Athletics’ team managers to shed light on an often-overlooked role.
Brandon Choe / Daily Bruin senior staff
Grant Chen, now a UCLA men’s tennis assistant coach, once served as a team manager for the Bruins. He stayed two additional years at UCLA to take a lighter class load and dedicate more time to the tennis team.
Grant Chen
BY EMILIO RONQUILLO
Among receipts and handwritten tennis lineup drafts on Grant Chen’s desk sits a silver clock set one hour behind. Chen never did feel as if he had to punch a timecard during his many years calling the Los Angeles Tennis Center his workplace.
He operated on a schedule and at a pace of his own over his more than decade-long ascent from UCLA undergraduate team manager to assistant coach. In the process of living moment-to-moment, Chen built for himself a second tennis life, of which he relished every minute.
Grant Chen, a team manager at the time, poses front and center,
fingertips touching the NCAA championship trophy, as the Bruin men’s
tennis team captured the 2005 title.
Courtesy of Lisa Cates
***
Chen’s chance at a long-term relationship with UCLA tennis came about in part because he gave up a beloved aspect of his life.
Had the four-time high school all-league selection enrolled in a number of schools with smaller programs, including UC Davis and UC San Diego, Chen would have touched his tennis rackets more than once during his first academic term in college, the fall of 2000.
Instead of extending his playing career, Chen attended his dream school. But he would not leave behind the game that he sacrificed to come to Westwood.
The one day Chen did play tennis in the fall, he spent 30 rusty minutes on the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center courts with fellow freshman Tobias Clemens. Chen walked away from his time with Clemens, an eventual three-time No. 1 player for UCLA, longing for the sport he had played throughout his life.
“Played tennis one time fall quarter freshman year. … It was with one of the top guys that year … (and it was) one of the most thoughtful things anyone has offered me. … I realized how much I missed tennis.”
Acting on his urge to return to the courts, he introduced himself to Bruin men’s tennis coach Billy Martin during his second quarter at UCLA.
Martin, now in his 21st season in the position, still remembers walking by the backcourts and first meeting Chen by the LATC’s elevator.
Chen explained to Martin that while he couldn’t make the team as a player, he wanted to contribute as a team manager. Martin granted Chen something of an audition: working as a counselor for several sessions of the coach’s summer tennis camps.
The unteachable excitement of players ranging from ages six through 18 invigorated Chen. Seeing the initiative and energy Chen brought to an annual event that Martin considers to be among the most demanding of any given year, he named Chen team manager after the summer.
“He’s always … doing things before they need to be done,” Martin said. “Quite honestly … you don’t come across those kinds of people too often, and he was able to show me that right away.”
Chen earned the opportunity, which he said was a rare privilege for team managers at the time, to travel with the team to all road and postseason matches. His responsibilities included the logistical tasks of managing everything from equipment to groceries and laundry, as well as continuing to work summer camps.
Working with coaches and players who treated him well provided Chen adequate compensation for workweeks often surpassing 40 hours.
Luben Pampoulov, the Bruins’ No. 1 player during its 2005 men’s national championship run, took notice of how Chen never regarded anything as too difficult or impossible to provide for the team.
Grant Chen (middle row, far left) and the UCLA men’s tennisteam are pictured with then-president George W. Bush at
the White House after winning the NCAA championship in 2005.
UCLA Athletics
“He always felt like somebody who will be there for you,” Pampoulov said.
***
No job offer, such as gigs in sales and finances, away from UCLA fit quite right for Chen upon graduation.
The former mathematics/economics and sociology student remained onboard as Director of Operations, a title that tasked him with organizing and managing games and events for the men and women’s programs, as well as scheduling road trips and dealing with boosters and alumni.
“Grant has so much energy, it makes you work hard. That’s a big thing, motivation. I’m grateful for the guy.”
In 2007, Chen’s tennis experience began to expand into international territory. Former No. 1 world player Pete Sampras offered Chen an associate position at his Los Angeles County-based marketing agency Pure Sports Management.
Working with some of tennis’ best at fundraisers, exhibitions and tournaments around the world opened Chen’s eyes to how meticulously professional athletes went about the details of their career, from their diet and training regimens to their handling of media.
Though Chen cherished his time spent enriching his mind on the pro circuit, his heart never left Westwood and collegiate tennis. Chen was in the middle of his five years coaching the UCLA club tennis team when he decided to return for a second, three-season tenure as Director of Operations.
Martin noticed changes in his former team manager after Chen’s two years on the pro circuit. Chen demonstrated an expanded knowledge of the game that supplemented the enthusiasm that captured Martin some 10 years earlier.
When Martin approached Chen with an assistant coaching spot in August 2012, Chen jumped at the opportunity to turn his “passion project” of coaching into a profession.
A higher designation on the court changed little in Chen’s approach to his work. Chen saw his elevated job status as an extension of his past, behind-the-scenes responsibilities. Martin often finds himself texting his younger counterpart around midnight, worrying about loose ends that Chen has already addressed.
“Grant keeps taking on more and more. Sometimes I think he’s got to prioritize, always wanting to help out people,” Martin said.
Looking back on the 13 years since he joined UCLA tennis, Chen found beauty in the team’s collective elation in times of glory, as well as its agony after the most bitter defeats.
“There’s always something on the horizon. We’re right at the end of our season, but right around the corner is summer camp. … It’s a groundhog year. You’re always preparing for something.”
“You go through the trenches with these guys. You win a match, you’re there with them. If we lose a match, we lose together,” Chen said.
“Losing is painful, and it’s difficult sometimes, but knowing that the team is all there going through the same pain … there’s nothing like it. Everyone’s feeling that same joy or misery.”
***
Chen had no idea 14 years ago that he could become a leader for UCLA tennis. He hardly ever thought far ahead with regard to a life that he loved.
“I think it happened pretty naturally, it wasn’t something I really planned out. … I believe things fall into place,” Chen said.
Six years would pass before Chen earned his bachelor’s degree from UCLA. He forewent commencement at the end of his undergraduate career, in part because nearly all of his peers had moved on. Walking on a stage offered no closure.
But a man already with a step, if not his eyes, on the future was far from behind. Chen began living out his life’s calling long ago.
