Ryan Brown was built for Loyola Marymount tennis. A third generation Lion, Brown has played since around the age of six, learning the guidance of Mark McGuire at Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach. After a fine tenure at St. John Bosco HS in Bellflower, the time came to lift his game to the collegiate level, and coach Tom Lloyd knew that Brown had options outside of the family alma mater.

“I’d met his dad, an alumnus, and I’d seen Ryan’s success,” Lloyd says of Brown. “But I had to keep that familiarity apart from our recruiting. It was important that he see other schools, and compare programs.”

In doing so, Brown reaffirmed his interest in Loyola Marymount, and continued the family tradition on the university’s tennis courts. Now a talented doubles player and consistently rising in singles competition, Brown was excited to join LMU’s tennis team, with emphasis on team.

“It becomes something bigger than yourself,” Brown says of competing alongside his LMU teammates. “I’m not just alone by myself at tournaments. Now it’s a team sport.”

Interestingly, the freshman righty started his career as a left-handed player, but at the suggestion of former coach Steve Whitehead, a 12-year old Brown shifted to the right-handed side, and passed every challenge in making the transition – challenges that came from his family.

“I practiced (right handed) with my mom all summer,” he recalls, then having to defeat his grandmother, then his mother, then younger challengers with his racquet on the right. Having success in each, he knew it was time to move forward.

Today, Brown builds his tennis game as a tool for his future in Finance, his LMU major. With interest in business consulting and investment banking, he knows the role of tennis as a business tool, where wheeling and dealing happen on the court in tandem with forehands and backhands.

In the meantime, he’ll continue to reaffirm the Brown name under the Loyola Marymount banner, a team player with a bright future.

Image: LMU Athletics