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Trang Huynh-McClain considered becoming a dentist or a data analyst. She fell into coaching instead, and fell in love.

Huynh-McClain was hired for her first head coaching job in August, taking over the Cal State Fullerton women’s program.

Huynh-McClain spent last season as the assistant coach at Kansas State. Prior to that, she was the assistant coach at her alma mater, Washington State, for three seasons.

The Vietnam native finished her playing career at WSU in 2016 with the third-most singles victories (32) in school history. Before transferring to WSU, Huynh-McClain played two seasons at Troy, where she was a two-time All-Sun Belt First-Team selection in singles and doubles and the 2015 Sun Belt Player of the Year.

Huynh-McClain was the captain of the Vietnam Women’s Fed Cup Team in 2013, and was the No. 1 women’s tennis player in Vietnam from 2009-16. She reached a high of 876 in singles and 380 in doubles on the WTA Tour.

What attracted you to this job?

Our family lives in Orange County, so this is of course a great location for us to be moving back to. My husband went here. He is an alum, which is nice as well. But also, after talking with the administration and being on campus, I just really felt like Cal State Fullerton has a really good support system and the athletic department has been moving in the right direction. I feel like it is a great family atmosphere to be at and I feel like we have a lot of potential. The past coaches have been doing a great job of helping the program become stronger every year and being an up-and-coming program. I just had a really great vibe of the place. It just felt right.