Chapter 12 School Teammates
Unfortunately, Gao Wen and MacDonald's batting practice was not able to continue. The arrival of assistant coach Grant-Chen also announced the end of the "two-person world". Only then did they remember -
They came to the stadium early today to prepare for winter training.
"Hey, man, don't be so diligent. You'll cause us to get a warning letter from the association." Grant looked at the two young men who were sweating profusely, and joked with a smile, then quickly clapped his hands, "The training equipment hasn't been moved out yet, we need to speed up. On my way here just now, I saw the coach buying coffee at Starbucks."
The practice had to be temporarily suspended. Gawain and MacDonald remembered their business and quickly got busy.
Seeing this, Grant did not stand idly by, nor did he ask what had happened this morning, but just joined in the fun.
The University of California, Los Angeles has always been one of the traditional sports schools of the NCAA, with glorious historical traditions in football, basketball, swimming and other fields, and the same is true for tennis.
Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe, who were inducted into the World Tennis Hall of Fame early on, are both legendary superstar players from the Bruins. They once created an entire era and brought professional tennis to an important new peak, leaving their own glorious mark in the long river of history.
In the NCAA, the Bruins have always been a team with stronger men than women. In the honor roll of the National Championship, the women's team only won one team championship in 2008; while the men's team has won 16 National team championship trophies, ranking third in the number of championships after the University of Southern California and Stanford University.
The current head coach of the UCLA men's tennis team is Billy Martin, who joined the Bruins as an assistant coach in 1984 and became the team's head coach in 1994. This year he is about to enter his 20th year as a head coach.
In 2005, Billy Martin became the third head coach in the history of the Bruins to be inducted into the school's Hall of Fame, and he then led the team to its best record in the same year.
In that year's NCAA championship, the Bruins competed with Baylor-University for the championship in the team championship for the second consecutive year.
In the previous year's competition, Baylor University swept the Bruins 4-0 to win the championship, and then created the second longest team winning streak in NCAA history with 57 games; in 2005, it ranked first in the league with an undefeated record and entered the defense battle unstoppable.
Facing such a strong opponent, who had just lost the championship the year before, the Bruins completed an incredible revenge battle, and finally won the game with a total score of "4:3" and won the US championship! This is also the first time the Bruins have won the US team championship trophy in 20 years since 1984.
Last year, under the leadership of Billy Martin, the Bruins made great strides and returned to the NCAA National Championship finals for the first time since 2005; standing across the net was the University of Virginia, which had reached the championship game for three consecutive years, and the two sides engaged in a fierce battle.
In the end, the University of Virginia defeated the Brown Bears with a score of "4:3" and won the championship.
Although they unfortunately missed the 17th U.S. team championship trophy in team history last season, the Bruins are still a well-deserved strong team. They not only have two current players in their peak form, but also many young players with unlimited potential, and are very strong.
The Bruins are also a contender for the championship in the spring season, which kicks off in two months.
It is worth mentioning that in Los Angeles, a city of immigrants, it is common to see Asian faces on tennis teams.
Assistant coach Grant Chen and team manager Evan Lee are both of Chinese descent, while another team manager, David Vu, is of Vietnamese descent.
Among the players, in addition to McDonald and Gawain, there is one Indian, one Chinese and two Japanese players. In addition, there are many players from different Latin American countries. The whole team is very diverse and rich, and you can feel the comfortable atmosphere during daily practice.
With Grant's help, the training preparations soon came to an end, and then the players arrived at the scene one after another, greeting each other warmly and familiarly.
"Hey, Marcos, why are you late today? Be careful, there are a lot of people eyeing your position. Mike and Gao Wen were secretly practicing this morning."
Marcos-Giron had just entered the stadium when he could hear a group of older boys laughing and making a lot of noise.
Jilong slightly raised the brim of his royal blue tennis hat, revealing a pair of bright eyes sparkling in the shadows. Then he raised the corners of his mouth slightly, raised his chin slightly, and said casually, "Come on, I'm waiting."
Without too many words, one can already feel the confidence coming towards him.
"Roar, roar, roar! Roar, roar, roar!"
A group of older boys stomped their feet and clapped their hands. Whistles could be heard among them. They all seemed to be there to watch the fun - in fact, Marcos was not late at all, just like McDonald and Gawain had never targeted Marcos.
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Jilong also revealed a hint of helplessness in his eyes, but he didn't say much, as if he knew that this group of friends just loved to joke around.
Jilong just nodded slightly to McDonald and Gawain as a polite salute, then put on his tennis bag and prepared to start today's training step by step.
(End of this chapter)