Jan. 6, 2015 LMU Women's Tennis on Facebook | LMU Women's Tennis on Instagram | LMU Women's Tennis Schedule
LMU senior women's tennis player Logan Finnell wrote the following article about 40th-year head coach Jamie Sanchez's loyalty to LMU. The article, which will appear in a future issue of Inside Tennis Magazine, serves to help celebrate the first 40 years of LMU women's tennis.
Jamie Sanchez sits at his desk with a giant smile on his face. He smiles a lot, wearing his white LMU Tennis long-sleeve shirt and blue Nike warm-up pants. He has to run practice in a couple hours. Looking around, I am dumbfounded by the decades of history that surround his office. By that, I mean numerous souvenirs and trinkets collected from various countries to framed photographs of former players to the stacks of books with motivational titles to his numerous awards and plaques to baby toys sprinkled around the room. I wonder, does he have a hoarding problem. But then it hits me, his office goes back 40 years. Jamie Sanchez has been at Loyola Marymount University for as long as he has wanted to be. He is the current head coach of the women's tennis team but he has been so much more during his tenure on campus. He has been and remains the supreme Lion at LMU.
Once a Lion, always a Lion right? That's an understatement for Sanchez. He doesn't just rep his LMU gear at alumni gatherings or whenever he feels like it, he reps it every single day by choice. "He bleeds LMU colors," his wife Tami Adkins said.
It's not just his impact on tennis that holds a special place in his heart, but it is all the people he's had the pleasure of meeting and the long-lasting friendships he's formed along the way. Then there are all the many other roles he has on campus as a former student athlete and the founder of countless programs at the university. You can call him `Mr. LMU.' "There aren't many folks on college campuses like Jamie," says Lisa Farland, a fellow employee of Sanchez's for the better part of 30 years. "What fuels me is that I want to be different," Sanchez says.
Before tennis, however, there was football, which was a passion for him through his high school days at San Jose's Bellarmine Academy.
Sanchez's other passion, tennis, began in the summer before his senior year. He and his younger brother, Rudy, played every single day for hours on end. This was the turning point in his life. He decided to go out for the tennis team when he got back to school and never looked back. Sanchez eventually took his talents in both sports to the Division I collegiate level.
Enter, Loyola Marymount University 1971 (it was Loyola University at the time). Due to slight family financial problems, Sanchez had to pick up some odd jobs to make a little extra cash on the side in addition to his demanding school, football and tennis schedules. That might sound overwhelming, but for Jamie, this was just his nature. "My life is doing multiple things at the same time." I didn't think of it any other way in regards to going to school and enjoying my time," says Sanchez. From working at the Los Angeles Airport (LAX) to doing study gigs, retrieving laundry for the baseball team, Jamie hit all areas of the spectrum.
But nothing beats that job where Sanchez encountered a Bengal tiger for a few hours. He would take animals to and from the airport that were left over from flights and one of them was a tiger. "Here I am at this facility with all these dogs and cats and this huge crate with these piercing eyes staring out at me...that was definitely the most interesting job I ever had," says Sanchez.
Doing all of these things exposed Sanchez to all sorts of different people and gave him countless experiences, which became addictive for him. He is a sponge for life, but most importantly, he is fascinated by people and thrives on any opportunity to make a difference and, he does so with the utmost contagious joy that charms anyone and everyone he comes in contact.
Sanchez says, "People are the biggest source of excitement, happiness and sadness." Sanchez's first daughter, Erin, recalls one of the biggest lessons her dad has taught her. "You have to be friendly to everybody no matter if you like them or not."
As Sanchez reflects upon his life, he recalls during his college days, his future might have taken a different path from athletics. In fact, he thought about becoming a second grade teacher to be exact. "In my mind, that was the perfect time for me to influence little human beings," he says. However, his teaching would have to wait.
Sanchez quickly found his way back to those sports he loved, and ultimately back to Loyola (his major love) within a year of graduating in 1975. He joined the LMU football coaching staff. But soon the program was dropped. Undaunted, he was hired as the Men's Head Tennis Coach and soon after, became the Director of Intramurals and Recreation, the head of ticket sales for athletics and the founder of the school's martial arts program. "Whenever there was an opening I thought, I can learn this and fill the need that was required for this position." And there was never a doubt in his mind that he could not tackle the unfamiliar and succeed. Sanchez sought these opportunities out of pure curiosity. No wonder teaching second grade surely had to take a back seat.
"I envy how much experience and knowledge he has in many different fields and more importantly, about life itself," said Ivan Lopez, the Assistant Coach of LMU Women's Tennis.
Ultimately, Sanchez's biggest impact on LMU was the establishment of the first female sports program, the first women's tennis team which ultimately fueled his advocacy of Title IX, allowing equal opportunity for men and women in sports.
To Sanchez, success is not measured merely by wins and losses, but by the relationships and memories made with all of his team members as a coach, second father, mentor and friend. He likes to think of his team as one big family. "I think tennis is the best thing that allows me to interact with people, and to help individuals empower themselves to do something with their lives," he says.
Coach Sanchez seems to inspire every one of his players no matter who they are or where they came from, to reach their full potential on and off the court.
One of his fondest memories and biggest success stories came some 30 years ago when he coached Roger Crawford on the Men's Tennis Team. Crawford dreamed of playing Division I tennis. He had a severe disability, having been born without a full complement of his fingers. Many schools didn't even give him a chance. But Sanchez was his miracle. Not only did he give Crawford a chance to make the team, but Crawford made it, excelled in matches, graduated and eventually became a Hall of Famer in the tennis community. Today, Crawford tells his remarkable story all over the world. "There is nobody I respect more than Jamie. . . He's been one of the most influential people in my life . . . I wouldn't be a motivational speaker and writer today if it weren't for him," Crawford says.
What ultimately separates Sanchez from other coaches is that he doesn't believe winning is everything. "He wants to win like everyone else, but he looks at the bigger picture which intercollegiate tennis should be all about," Crawford contends.
Jamie redefines success. "It's not married to winning. Too much of emphasis is on winning and what's forgotten is the territory between the two." This territory consists of the hard work and an incessant drive to improve their games to the team road trips to the inside jokes, to the playing for the true love of the sport.
Another impressive fact about Jamie Sanchez is his long-lasting coaching status at the collegiate level as a Hispanic. He ranks as one of the top Hispanic coaches in terms of tenure at an NCAA institution. "I may be the longest in regards to years," he said.
As for retirement, he says, "I'm too involved with the present." In fact he thinks to himself, "Who else is going to do it here? If you make an impact in one place and stay with it that impact will have its greatest influence."
His wife, Tami, seems to think he isn't going away anytime soon either. "I think he will coach as long as he is physically able to. LMU is the only place he wants to be," she says. In essence, being a member of the LMU community after all these years keeps Sanchez youthful. "He enjoys life like a child enjoys life," Assistant Athletics Director for Student Athlete Services, Matt Casana says. Perhaps the fact that Sanchez welcomed a second daughter, Gabriela, three years ago, further brings out the child in him.
"It's fun to see Jamie as a total goofball. I'll walk into the room and he's sitting at Gabriela's little table looking like this massive giant coloring and playing with play-doh," says Tami. It appears that Sanchez would not have it any other way. Like father like daughter: Sanchez tries to instill this happiness for life and ambition to absorb the world and all it has to offer to his daughter. "Gabriela wakes up every morning and says `it's a beautiful day," says Dad. That's got to be a good start.
Sanchez thrives on the ever-changing society we live in because it helps him stay in touch with the pulse of what's happening. "I cannot constantly stand still and not want to find out about something else," he says. "His openness to the world, to people, and his drive to learn more and more makes Jamie who he is," notes Lisa Piller, current senior on the LMU Women's Tennis team.
"Life is like you're standing at this river as it's flowing right by you . . . you can toss a pebble in the water 100 times and it will never hit the same place twice because life keeps flowing," Sanchez suggests.
Oh and by the way that dream of his to become a teacher, it has now come back full circle. This past spring, Sanchez earned his Masters Degree in Coaching and Athletic Administration for which he dedicated to his mother and No. 1 cheerleader since day one who passed away in 2008. In honor of her unconditional support, Sanchez will be teaching a leadership class offered at LMU this coming spring of 2015. "She brought me up believing, `where there is a will, there is a way.'" Sanchez used this motto as the underlying drive for the success in his life.
"He always finishes everything he starts," his brother Rudy says. Sanchez's ability to relive his dream job after 40 years is a true testament to his commitment and loyalty to anything and everything he does within LMU. "He elicits pride for the place and he's someone that we are most proud of," said Farland.
It has been 40 or so years that marked the beginning of a beautiful bond between Sanchez and LMU, a loyal bond unlike any other which has shaped his life as a man, coach, mentor, father figure, colleague, fan and now professor. Indeed, like the pebbles in the river Sanchez alluded to, his legacy at LMU continues to flow on and may he take yet another curious turn he has yet to discover.
