“The first year can go either one of two ways: either great or a total disaster,” Bradley said. She seems up to the challenge, however, as she coached the women’s tennis team to its first undefeated Ivy League season in 10 years.
Bradley is the daughter of Phil Bradley, a former professional baseball player who played with the current head coach of Princeton’s baseball team, Scott Bradley (no relation). While it may seem that Megan Bradley was destined to play softball, Scott actually exposed her to tennis, she said.
“Scott Bradley gave my dad a tennis racquet for me, so he gave me my first racquet,” Megan Bradley said. “There were fliers that were passed out at my elementary school about tennis lessons at the local club, so I decided to try it and I picked it up.”
It was the right choice, and she soon experienced immense success at the collegiate level. After being named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Rookie of the Year while playing for the University of California, Los Angeles, Bradley transferred to the University of Miami, where she compiled a 98-17 singles re cord and climbed the ITA rankings to No. 1 in singles as a senior. Though she won many significant tournament matches, one match in particular was especially memorable.
“When we were playing Florida State, our biggest rival at Miami, I started cramping really badly,” Bradley said. “I never cramped in college — that was the first time I ever cramped. It was a series of ridiculous events: My coach brought over a party sub — one of those 6-foot-long subs, with lettuce and mayonnaise falling all over the place — and she said, ‘You need to eat this.’ My grandma was there — she’s this tiny, 5-foot-2-[inch] woman, but she’s a firecracker — and she was yelling, ‘Stop the match!’ I sprained my ankle, but I ended up winning the match. Just with my grandma yelling and the party sub, it was a pretty memorable match.”
Bradley said she is proud of the changes that the Miami tennis program underwent while she played there.
“When I got to Miami they were ranked in the 30s or so, and the year after I graduated they were in the finals of the NCAA tournament,” Bradley said. “So I feel I was part of the group that built the program up to what it is today, so I am pretty proud of that.”
After a stint playing professional tennis, during which she was ranked in the world’s top 200, Bradley decided to take a break from tennis and pursue a different direction. She completed her master’s degree in journalism and media studies at the University of South Florida and entered the sports media world, covering the Tampa Bay Lightning and the US Open. When given the opportunity to coach her alma mater, however, Bradley soon discovered her passion for coaching.
“It was nice for me to get away from tennis for a while, but I wasn’t in anything stable — I was just bouncing around,” Bradley said. “My former coach at Miami called me and asked if I wanted to help as an assistant coach. I got on the court the first day with the girls and realized that this was it; this was what I wanted to do. There’s something special about being a college coach — it fits my personality. I like helping the girls on the court and helping navigate them through college. It’s a very influential position and I don’t take it lightly. It just kind of fit; it was sort of a wakeup call. And I get to wear sweatpants to work.”
After serving as an assistant coach at Miami, Bradley came to Princeton to replace Sell as head coach. While Bradley recognized that Princeton was quite different from Miami, she quickly felt at home.
“Obviously it’s a lot different from Miami,” Bradley said. “The student-athlete experience is a lot different here, from what the girls tell me and from what I experience myself. The eating clubs and bicker and living on campus for four years is a lot different. I was kind of surprised in a good way about how well I fit in here. I love all the people I work with, and the girls really have made it so easy on me. They’re such a great group of girls. It was all pretty seamless.”
The transition does seem to be going smoothly, as the women’s tennis team stormed through the regular season this year, reaching a ranking as high as No. 28. Winning the Ivy League in her first season has already afforded Bradley many memorable moments.
“On the 18th [of April], when we won the outright title and we all jumped in the Woody Woo fountain — I mean that was one of the highlights of my life, not just coaching,” Bradley said. “It was better than any of the moments from playing. It was great to see the girls, assistant coaches and parents so excited. It was really cool.”
Bradley’s coaching style and background have already affected the team.
“I have really enjoyed playing for Coach Bradley this year,” junior Blakely Ashley said in an e-mail. “She has provided us with a very different outlook on our success and season. Coach Bradley has taught us that we should treat every match the same and no match is more important than another one. This is why I believe we were able to be undefeated in the Ivies this year. Her outlook took the pressure off certain Ivy matches, and we really just went out there and competed.”
“It is great to have a coach who not long ago was also a college athlete, because she can relate to our lives and hectic schedules,” she added. “Coach Bradley is very straightforward, and I believe she has brought our team closer together because each girl communicates better with the coaches and each other.”
Despite bonding well with the team, Bradley still hasn’t been given a nickname.
“I guess when I was a kid, my parents called me Meggie Moo, but I don’t have any [nickname] on the team,” Bradley said. “My assistant coach [Amanda Rales], her nickname is Pork Chop. We just made the Ivy League T-shirts and we put the nicknames on the back, and I realized I didn’t have one.”
Aside from coaching, Bradley enjoys watching football and spending time outside. How she would spend an ideal Sunday, in fact, depends on whether it’s football season or not.
“During the NFL season, [I enjoy] having a good breakfast and plopping down on the couch and watching two really good NFL games, then going out and having a really good dinner,” Bradley said. “Outside of the NFL season, [I like] taking our dog to a park, having a good breakfast and maybe just being outside. I guess I like shopping — you can throw that in there. I like eating too.”
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