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Commitment Announcement
Fall Signing Week '09: Kosakowski Decides
by Ali Jones, 11 November 2009

The pull of a close-knit family and a university's athletic and academic tradition made Daniel Kosakowski's college choice easy.

The native Californian with strong Polish roots will stay in Los Angeles and don the blue and gold of the UCLA Bruins.

"One of the reasons I chose UCLA was because it was so close to home," said the Blue-Chip recruit who grew up in Downey, only about 30 miles from campus.

Daniel also was impressed by Head Coach Billy Martin, who, in his 16 years with the Bruins has brought home the Triple Crown - team, individual and doubles titles for the school. He's one of only two active coaches to have done so.

Once known as the "Junior Player of the Century," Martin also had a successful tennis career before he turned to coaching.

Under his watch, the team captured its 16th national championship in 2005 when it upset top seed Baylor University. Martin coached Ben Kohlloeffel when he beat Virginia's Somdev Devvarman in 2006 for the singles title, and in 1995 guided Justin Gimelstob and Srdjan Muskativoric when they won the doubles title.

But academics also played an important role to Daniel, who attends Warren High and has a 4.2 GPA.

"Billy Martin is such a great coach and the support that he has around him will help me to become the best tennis player I can be," Daniel said. "The final factor in choosing UCLA was that I will get a quality education and be able to pursue a wide variety of careers if tennis doesn't work."