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Women’s golf coach Carrie Forsyth took some time off from the links to give birth to twin b

When children are born, mothers always start planning how great of a doctor or a lawyer their child is going to be. This was not the case for Carrie Forsyth.

Barely a month after her twin boys, Luke Russel Forsyth and Tyler James Forsyth, were born, she imagines them instead playing beach volleyball as they grow up.

This is because young Luke and Tyler do not have a typical mom; instead, they have Carrie Forsyth, coach of the UCLA women’s golf team.

Forsyth had devoted her whole life to golf until Sept. 21 at 11:29 p.m., when she became responsible for two new human beings.

Before her two sons were born, Forsyth was one of the most competitive coaches in the NCAA, and she does not plan on changing that.

“I still feel competitive. That’s why we’ve been successful,” Forsyth said.

In fact, she has been very successful. Not only has she played for the Bruins, but she has coached the Bruins to three consecutive conference championships. And if you ask her, she is planning on keeping that up, babies or not.

During Forsyth’s maternity leave, the Bruins have been going strong under first-time assistant coach and former Bruin Alicia Um,

When Forsyth found out that she was pregnant in the second half of last season, she knew she had to find someone new to take care of the team.

“I was so worried; I needed to find somebody who knows me. (She) has to run the program right off the bat – get through the fall with some sense of organization,” Forsyth said.

Forsyth was able to find all that and more in her former golfer Um. She remembers how Um “was the team mom (when she played for the Bruins).”

Due to pregnancy complications, Forsyth was forced to remain on bed rest much earlier than expected. Um had to take over the day she attained the title of assistant coach.

“It was really hard, but I talked to her a lot. She helped me through it,” Um said.

“Alicia has been a godsend,” sophomore Tiffany Joh said.

Um has managed to keep the Bruins in top form.

However, Um and the rest of the team await Forsyth’s return. After all, most of the players decided to attend UCLA because of her.

“(Forsyth) was super-competitive, super-intense; that’s why we loved playing for her so much,” said Joh, who played under Forsyth last year as a freshman. “We knew if we played for her, then we’d be on the winning side.”

Aside from her superb coaching abilities, Forsyth has been able to make a mark on her players’ personal lives in a way that only a mother could.

“She’s like our mom,” Joh said. “Honestly, I mean she’s one of those coaches that you’re just so close to. You form a bond so quickly that even in between classes we’d just go up to her office and hang out, because she seriously was like our second mom when we got to school.”

Sophomore golfer Ryann O’Toole echoed Joh’s sentiments.

“She is really good at stepping out of being (in) a coach position, (to) be your friend and be there,” O’Toole said. “Also like another parent, because I mean you come to college and you don’t have your parents and sometimes you just need another adult figure. ... She’s good in that sense.”

Although Forsyth gives so much to her players, she also receives a great deal in return.

“Coaching and being around young women has taught me so much,” Forsyth said.

She plans on using the parenting skills she has developed as a coach in her new job as a mother.

In addition, she is very thankful to all the players’ parents who have showed her how a parent should and shouldn’t act.

Forsyth has long since been a nurturer, but now she has the opportunity to really be a mother.

“It’s such a different perspective,” Forsyth admitted, while adding with a sense of accomplishment, “They’re just great. They’re really, really good.”

Since the birth of her twin boys, Forsyth has been concentrating on making sure they are healthy and that she can return to the team as soon as possible.

She is currently hoping to return in January in order to coach the second half of the season.

Her players have been supporting her every step of the way.

They visit her at home and she comes to school sometimes, bringing her boys with her.

The team is almost like a big family who just admitted two new members.

Forsyth and the players have spent a lot of time together discussing the obvious, Joh said.

“I knew that she wanted kids, (and then when) she was pregnant ... there was all this anticipation like, what (are) you going to name them? What sports are they going to play? Am I going to babysit? How are you going to dress them? You know, the important things.”