By Bill Sheehan
Ask rookie college head coaches to name their biggest challenge and they might say things like building trust with players, juggling a lineup or recruiting.
For Trang Huynh-McClain, it's been dealing with Mother Nature.
"Our biggest hurdle has been the weather," said Huynh-McCain, who was hired as Cal State Fullerton women's tennis head coach in August. "We've had to cancel three matches and add two more because of the rain. But it's something we can't control. We just need to be ready when we can play and compete," she said.
So far the Titans have weathered their shifting schedule. The team has won five straight matches and are 11-5 overall and 3-1 in Big West play.
Natalie Duffy, a junior from Hemet, and Zoe Olmos, a transfer junior from Freemont, have been sharing the No. 1 singles position for the Titans, who will face visiting Long Beach State on Friday at 1:30 p.m.
When rainstorms keep the team from practicing on the courts, Huynh-McClain conducts workouts in Titan Gym.
With upbeat music filling the 2nd-floor volleyball gym, the Titans sprint, jump, toss medicine balls and execute other drills aimed at improving their footwork and agility.
"We do our best to prepare and embrace the challenges, understanding that we always can't be perfect. We are getting better as a whole team. It's wonderful to see the progress," said Huynh-McClain, who previously was an assistant coach at Washington State and Kansas State,
Greg Paules, senior associate athletics director and chief operation officer for Titan Athletics, said Fullerton is fortunate to have Huynh-McClain on board.
"Coach Trang has stepped right in and made an impact. Her positive energy, relentless work ethic, and competitiveness has made her an ideal fit to lead our tennis program," said Paules.
"Credit to our student-athletes for welcoming her and buying in to her coaching style. We are seeing the team play for one another and continue to get better each and every week," he said.
One of Huynh-McClain's top priorities was to create strong doubles teams. "Doubles is about players complementing each other and developing chemistry and communication. Two great singles players will not necessarily form good doubles teams. A lot of it is trial and error."
Her players voted to forego naming captains. "They'll have to individually step up and hold each other accountable," Huynh-McClain said,
Five of the nine Titans are international players, and the coach said the diverse backgrounds contribute to the team's symmetry.
"We have a good mix. Our European players are used to a slower game, having grown up with clay courts. And our domestic players have played primarily on hardcourt surfaces. They hit harder."
"As coaches, we try to learn a lot about our international players and their culture, how they deal with things. The more we can connect with a student-athlete, it helps her understand what we are asking her to do."
Mariia Nikitash, who hails from Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, is in her second year at Fullerton. She said Huynh-McClain has an open-door policy and has stressed punctuality and fitness. "She is really open to conversations, whether it's about strategy before a match or analysis afterward," said Nikitash, known as Masha by her teammates and friends. And she wants us to do things on time and correctly.
"There has been an emphasis on fitness and endurance. We've done a lot of running, which helps us hang in there during long rallies," said Nikitash,
whose mother and other relatives have remained in Ukraine since it was invaded by Russia last year.
Camilla Garcia, a senior from Lisbon, Portugal, has played for three different head coaches in three years. She said the team has advanced since last fall. '[Huynh-McClain] has a been very patient with us as we adjust to her style of coaching. And she has a big heart."
Like Nikitash and Garcia, Huynh-McClain left her native land to play Division 1 tennis in the United States. Born and raised in Ho Chi Minh City the righthander began playing tennis at age 5. By her 16th birthday, she was the No. 1-ranked player in Vietnam, a spot she held for the next five years.
By her 16th birthday, Trang Huynh was the No. 1-ranked player in Vietnam, a spot she held for the next five years.
As she was graduating from high school in 2013, Huynh-McClain received a scholarship offer from Troy State University in southeast Alabama. A Clemson women's assistant coach had been recruiting her. But when he took a job as head coach of the Troy men's team, she felt comfortable choosing the Alabama school.
In two seasons at Troy, Huynh-McClain was twice selected to the All-Sun Belt First Team and was the 2015 Sun Belt Player of the Year.
She transferred to Washington State University as a junior. "I had a good time in Alabama, but I wanted to be a little closer to home," she said.
In her lone season competing at Washington State, Trang Huynh-McClain had 32 wins in singles and 22 in doubles.
Huynh-McClain began her lone season at Pullman with 14-straight wins. She finished with 32 victories in singles, 22 in doubles and earned Intercollegiate Tennis Association Scholar-Athlete and All-Academic Team honors.
"On the court, Trang was the ultimate competitor. She was very hard to beat because she was willing to try anything until she found a strategy that worked. Off the court, she has an infectious and charismatic personality," said Lisa Hart, who coached Huynh-McClain at WSU before becoming Nebraska's associate head coach in 2021.
Lisa Hart has been a friend and mentor to Trang Huynh-McClain. Hart, now at Nebraska, coached Huynh-McClain at Washington State and later hired her as an assistant.
After finishing her junior season, a rotator-cuff injury forced Huynh-McClain to give up competitive tennis. "I was traveling a lot representing Vietnam
during my time in college. One year, I was training a lot and overdid it a bit," she said.
Huynh-McClain, who received a psychology degree with a biology minor at WSU, served as a senior student assistant coach in her final semester. That's when she first got the coaching bug. "I fell in love with it."
She moved on to Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, where she received a master's degree in management information system. She also continued her tennis ties there, working as a graduate assistant for NIU's team.
Huynh-McClain, who earlier wanted to become a dentist, now had her sights set on a career in information technology. If fact, the Anaheim Ducks wanted to interview her about a data analyst position.
But just before leaving for California, Huynh-McClain got a call from her former WSU coach Hart, who was looking for an assistant coach. Huynh turned down the interview with the Ducks and headed back to Pullman.
"No matter how I tried to get out, tennis kept coming back. I couldn't imagine sitting in front of a computer and working like that. I need to move around. I love the connections with the players, and all the ups and downs we experience as a team," Huynh-McClain said.
Her mentor Hart was elated to have Huynh-McClain back in the fold. "When Trang left after graduation and served as a graduate assistant at Northern Illinois, I knew she'd either love coaching or not. I was so excited that she loved it, and I jumped at the opportunity to hire her into a full-time job."
"She understands the game extremely well and can communicate effectively and simply to student-athletes, which is hard for a lot of coaches. Trang always believes her players can win. That belief transfers to them and elevates their physical and mental levels."
Huynh-McClain spent three seasons (2018-21) in her second stint at WSU. In 2019, she helped guide the Cougars to 44 wins and the school's first trip to the NCAA in seven years. The team's 19 wins that season were the second-most in school history.
She moved to Kansas State in 2021. During her year there as an assistant coach, the Wildcats finished the regular season as the No. 53 team in the country. Huynh-McClain was offered and accepted the Fullerton head coaching position last summer. She started on Aug. 1, her birthday.
"I had an introductory Zoom meeting with the team on my first day. And I met them on the first day of school," said Huynh, who also chatted with two of her Fullerton predecessors – Ellie Edles Williams, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's head coach, and Dianne Matias, who is director of junior tennis at U.S. Tennis Association Southern California
Landing in Fullerton was a bit of a homecoming for Huynh-McClain. Her husband, Joseph McClain, is a Cal State Fullerton alumnus. They met in 2019 when she was in Las Vegas with friends for the July Fourth weekend and married later that year.
McClain is employed by Verathon Inc., a global medical device company and Roper Technologies subsidiary. He is an accounts receivable supervisor and works remotely.
Her mother, Anh Nguyen, emigrated from Vietnam to Orange County 10 years ago. She owns and operates Pho Kingdom, a Vietnamese restaurant in Anaheim. Tung Huynh, her father, lives in Vietnam.
Huynh-McClain's brother, Peter Huynh, also lives in Orange County. Peter received undergraduate and master's degrees in hospitality management in Switzerland. He manages Pho Kingdom and works at a second Orange County restaurant.
While growing up in Ho Chi Minh City, Huynh-McClain tagged along when parents and brother played tennis. Nguyen gave her daughter a racket for her fifth birthday. Although Huynh-McClain participated in swimming and soccer, she concentrated exclusively on tennis as a 10-year-old. Two years later, she was traveling all over the globe, representing Vietnam in tournaments. And at age 16, she rose to the nation's No. 1 player.
Nguyen owned multiple restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City but began focusing more time and money supporting her daughter's rising tennis career. She also became her daughter's travel companion.
"I spent a lot of money for travel and training at places like the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida. But I told Trang, 'If you don't keep excelling in academics, you can't keep playing tennis.'
"Trang worked very hard to succeed in school and competitive tennis. And now she is very happy to be coaching at Fullerton," said Nguyen. Huynh-McClain and her husband bought a house in Buena Park, and her mother lives just a few blocks away.
Trang Huynh-McClain is joined her brother Peter Huynh, left, mother Anh Nguyen and husband Joseph during the holidays.
In addition to speaking Vietnamese and English, Huynh-McClain learned conversational Mandarin Chinese by watching subtitled Chinese TV dramas and listening to pop music from China and Taiwan. She has not traveled to Vietnam since the pandemic hit but hopes to return and hold tennis clinics someday,
Fullerton's team will have just one roster opening next year. Huynh-McClain has signed recruit Seha Yu of South Korea.
But for now, Huynh-McCain's focus is preparing the team for the Big West Championship to be held April 27-30 at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.
"Our conference is very deep. Any team can beat another team," she said. "We are looking forward to competing in the Big West Championship and enjoying every moment we get to be on the court.
Huynh's McCain's main goal is getting her student-athletes on a path to success on the court and off. "Tennis is transferrable; it relates to anything in life. As student-athletes, they are putting in a strong effort and learning how to react to things. And they'll be doing that when they enter the job world."
#TusksUp pic.twitter.com/vE8vLyZy85
— Titans Tennis (@FullertonWTEN) April 6, 2023
Mariia Nikitash feature story: https://www.fullertontitans.com/sports/w-tennis/2021-22/releases/20220422qm2e4z