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
Sophomore team manager Casey Crampton has held his role on the track and field team for the past two years. On the same team is his twin brother, sophomore high jumper Cody Crampton, and the shared experience has helped bring the two closer together.
Casey Crampton
“Everyone’s like, ‘What?’ Everyone’s shocked, like no way you two can be twins. Some people on the track team just found out this year we are twins, and I get called Cody and he gets called Casey sometimes on the track.”
BY DERREK LI
Even when walking side by side and decked out in identical UCLA track and field warm-ups, no one would ever think that the two are twins.
Cody Crampton stands at 6 feet 4 inches, a high jumper.
Casey Crampton measures in at 5 feet 7 inches, a team manager.
Cody jumps and could possibly compete professionally. Casey is team manager and has his sights set on medical school. Though twins, the two have found themselves on different, splitting paths.
Casey Crampton (back left) and Cody Crampton (back right)
have roomed together their two years at UCLA, something
that they haven’t done since elementary school.
Courtesy of Casey Crampton
But over the past two years, rooming together and being on the same team has kept those two paths as close together as possible.
“I found that the boys became more compassionate towards each other,” said Kevin Crampton, their father. “That’s probably the most important thing I’ve seen. They’re becoming much more compassionate, more understanding to the other’s wants, wishes and needs.”
Kevin is a witness to the changing relationship every day; it started with the two as inseparable kids, and now they are young men whose goals aren’t dependent on each other.
“Since I’ve watched (Cody) compete all throughout high school and college … I know what he’s going to do during a meet, I know he’s going to get stressed out. I know how to calm him down (and) I know his pre-meet rituals.”
When they first learned to talk, one would answer for the other or finish sentences for the other. Eventually, in elementary school, that close and tight bond began to loosen up.
“Being fraternal twins, they just so happened to be born on the same day, but they have two very different minds,” Kevin Crampton said.
In middle school, the gap between the two grew larger when they stopped sharing a bedroom together and moved to rooms on opposite ends of the house.
Even though the two twins would regularly be in each other’s rooms, by high school, extracurriculars began to run their lives. Casey was into all kinds of sports, including water polo, swim, soccer and even one year of running hurdles. His brother instead just focused on the high jump. The two twins would hardly see each other after school, too busy with practice.
When the subject of colleges came up, both weren’t exactly sure what they would do, but knew they wouldn’t go to the same school for the sole reason of staying together.
“It was kind of like an unspoken thing that we’re probably going to end up going to some place close to each other,” Cody said. “But we never thought both of us would come here.”
But each twin realized that UCLA was indeed his top choice, one for track and the other for the pre-medical route.
When Cody verbally declared to UCLA, Casey began leaning toward becoming a Bruin as well.
“I think the anxiety of separation became overwhelming,” Kevin Crampton said. “I think that they both just wanted to stick together.”
“Twins’ bond fortified through UCLA track and field”
Rebeca Rankin / Daily Bruin
Cody Crampton, a high jumper on the UCLA track and field team, and Casey Crampton, a team manager for UCLA track and field, may be twins, but their personalities, interests and even appearances are far from identical. The two brothers share how UCLA has brought them closer and how the relationship they have developed as Bruins will carry over into the future.
After the closest the twins have come to actually separating after 18 years together, Casey and Cody moved out of their separate rooms at home into the same dorm room at UCLA.
A love for sports is what attracted Casey to becoming a team manager at the beginning of his freshman year, but he still sometimes catches himself wishing that he could be out on the field as an athlete.
Though twin brothers, Casey Crampton
(right) and Cody Crampton (left) have
very diferent interests.
Courtesy of Casey Crampton
“I would like to go back to just competing, but there’s not much I can do now, and I’m just worn out,” Casey said. “I wouldn’t want to be in Division I athletics. It’s just too much time.”
On the track, though, he feels very much part of the team. In Casey’s first year, he helped primarily with the high jump, and so he would be there filming his brother on an iPad and giving advice throughout practice.
“Sometimes I’m jealous (of not being able to compete), sometimes I’m not. Depends on the situation. During practice, I’m like, ‘Oh, I wish I could be out there with them, hanging out, laughing.”
This year, Casey mostly works with the heptathletes, but still keeps an eye and ear out at meets whenever Cody competes. And when Casey notices the subtle hints that his brother is feeling stressed pre-jump, he knows exactly how to calm him down.
For Casey, watching his twin compete on the track has never been a point of jealousy or resentment. They may compete with each other, but they don’t compare themselves to each other.
His brother may jump, but he has his own job to do. Setting up, filming and making sure that all the plane tickets are checked in before the flight are all within Casey’s job description.
Even during a meet, Casey and Cody hardly see each other. After Cody competes, he’ll be able to spend the rest of the day watching the events. Casey won’t be done until the entire meet is over.
But at the end of the day, Casey and Cody will walk back into the same dorm room, and they will both be wearing the same UCLA track and field warm-up.