Former Aberdeen Resident Joins UCLA Men's Basketball Coaching Staff

Before the Final Four, one west coast men's basketball coach confirmed he had a new title: Assistant Coach at UCLA.

For the past five years, David Grace, 48, who grew up in Aberdeen, has been an assistant coach at Oregon State, scouting and recruiting for the Beavers, the Corvallis Gazette-Times reported.

When offered the chance, "I couldn't turn down UCLA," Grace told The Oregonian on Friday.

The coach was born in Havre de Grace and lived in Aberdeen, he told Patch in 2011.

He was the stepson of an Army man in Aberdeen and also joined the military, where he was in the Air Force for 20 years, according to the Daily Press. While stationed at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, Grace discovered his love for coaching as he led a basketball program there, according to the Air Force Times.

Grace retired from the military in 2003 and went on to coach basketball at a high school in Arizona, then at Sacramento State and the University of San Francisco as an assistant coach.

He has been an assistant coach for the Oregon State Beavers since 2008. With the move to UCLA, Grace will continue to focus on recruiting and work in various other capacities as an assistant coach for the Bruins.

In an interview with Aberdeen Patch in 2011, Grace said he aspires to be a head coach.

See Related:

• Replacing Battlefields with Basketball Courts (Aberdeen Patch)
• OSU's David Grace Leaves for Assistant Spot at UCLA (Corvallis Gazette-Times)
• David Grace Profile Page (Oregon State Basketball)