Janice Maran: OCC’s Ace

Tony Altobelli

It even sounds funny to Orange Coast College women’s tennis coach

Janice Maran: third place.

“I’m not used to saying that,” Maran said, referring to where the 1999

OCC team finished. “It doesn’t roll off my tongue very well. But don’t

get me wrong. I had a blast with my players this year. They’re some of

the nicest kids I’ve ever coached.”

That says a lot considering just how many tennis players have come and

gone at OCC during Maran’s regime, who is now in her 23rd year.

“Jeez, has it been that long?” she said with a laugh. “It’s hard to

believe I’ve been here as long as I have. I still enjoy it very much. OCC

is a great place to work.”

In those 23 seasons under Maran, OCC has won more than 85% of her

matches, while claiming 16 conference titles and eight state

championships.

“I think the biggest thing that has changed, obviously, is the speed of

the game,” Maran said. “With all the new technology, the ball can be hit

much harder then in the past. But the tennis is still the same. My

strategies haven’t changed too much.”

Among her many accolades for her tennis work, Maran received the

Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s 1999 California Community College

Wilson Award Women’s Coach of the Year on Dec. 14, 1999 in Tampa,

Florida.

Maran, the only two-time winner of the award, was happy for the honor, if

not for the weather. “The award ceremony was excellent,” Maran said. “I

gathered a lot of tennis information from the various coaches who were

there. The only bummer was it rained half the time I was there.”

Maran grew up in the Northern California town of Stockton before moving

on to Pasadena City College and Cal State Los Angeles where she continued

her tennis career.

“They were hiring at Orange Coast and I was fortunate enough to hear

about it and applied,” Maran said earlier. “I was really lucky to be at

the right place at the right time.”

Maran, who has won over 320 matches in her 23-year career at Coast, has

seen the level of play change with all the new opportunities in women’s

athletics.

“There are so many more scholarships offered at the high school level,

the top players are now jumping right into Division I action,” Maran

said. “It’s a lot different now then it was when I was playing, that’s

for sure.”

Maran and her husband, Alfredo, live in Orange with their two daughters,

Katy, 19, and Jennifer, 18.

“They’ll both be at OCC next year, which will be fun,” Maran said. “We’ll

get to hang out a little more together and have some lunches together,

which means I’ll be buying a lot, I guess.”