Sports, Women's Sports, Women's Tennis

Hannah Grady Feature

Assistant women’s tennis coach Hannah Grady will leave Long Beach State this summer to take a swing at life.

Grady, 24, is an international student from Coventry, England and is leaving the Beach with her MBA. She is looking for a career in city management or work with a non-profit organization.

Despite the challenges students face when they leave universities looking for real-word jobs, Grady is keeping her chin up and is ready to face those challenges head-on.

“Hopefully I find a job,” Grady said. “Everything from will be challenge from here, but I’m prepared for it to be different.”

Grady has faced other challenges outside of looking for a career. After spending her earlier years in England, she had to make the difficult choice to move to the United States in pursuit of a better education.

“With my family back home, it was a difficult transition from the start,” Grady said. “Balancing school with tennis and coaching was a challenge, but a good challenge because it prepares you for things outside of tennis.”

Grady has learned many lessons to help her in her future endeavors simply by playing tennis, coaching and studying here at Cal State Long Beach.

“As a player, I’ve learned to work hard and compete with a team,” Grady explained. “As a coach, I’ve learned how to understand people. I’m not a coach that likes to yell at people. You pinpoint how other people work because people respond differently. It’s interesting.”

Grady has been playing tennis since she was five years old and the sport has come to her naturally since the day she first picked up a racquet.

Her ability was on show when she played for the 49ers. She was named Big West Player of the Year from 2005 to 2009 and is the only athlete in Big West history to have received the award in four consecutive years of competition.

As Grady entertained the idea of graduate school, the assistant coach position became vacant and she was approached with the opportunity to take the job.

“I was really lucky,” Grady said. “The old assistant left for another position and [head coach] Jenny [Hilt-Costello] offered me the position as I worked on my masters.”

As Hannah leaves coaching, she does not intend to leave tennis behind. She will keep tennis around as a hobby but won’t be playing at a competitive level.

“Hopefully I find a job and will be more involved with that,” Grady said. “I’m just saying that right now, who knows if in three to six months I change my mind because I don’t like being in an office all day.”

As Grady gradually makes the transition to the real world, her legacy will continue to live on at Long Beach State. In 2010, the No. 1 court at the Rhodes Tennis Center was named in her honor. It was a way for the school to “retire her number” since tennis players do not wear numbers and she is the No.1 women’s tennis player in school history.

If you’ve ever been to the Rhodes Tennis Center, it’s hard to miss the large poster that recognizes her achievement. When asked about the recognition, Grady talks about it modestly.

“It’s really cool,” Grady said about having the court named after her. “I forget about it a lot of the time.”

Grady has taught the players many things while coaching the women’s tennis team and she is leaving them with one last coaching tip: “Work hard every day and ask yourself what you are getting from this experience. Enjoy it. Embrace it.”

Grady’s coaching duties are not entirely over though. The women’s tennis team will kick off the NCAA tournament at 10am tomorrow at UCLA, when it will face Arkansas in the opening round.
 

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