Ahead of Year 2, Martin Jarmond Ready to Be Welcomed by UCLA Community With Open Arms

The Bruins' athletic director looks to familiarize himself with fans after a year of bonding with coaches and teams.
(Photo Courtesy of Jesus Ramirez/UCLA Athletics)

A lot has happened in Westwood since Martin Jarmond officially became a Bruin 14 months ago.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had multiple peaks and valleys, seasons have been canceled, resumed, delayed and played, Under Armour was been replaced by Nike and Jordan, name, image and likeness rights have been granted to student-athletes, UCLA men's water polo won an NCAA championship and several other teams on campus came painstakingly close to their own. Add in a new Pac-12 commissioner and a new president of the University of California system – as well as conference realignment talks, a cross-country move and the start of kindergarten – and the past year-plus has been anything but boring for Jarmond as UCLA's athletic director.

But while it may seem like there has been chaos, upheaval and high stakes around every corner, Jarmond said he couldn't be prouder of how things have gone thus far.

"I like where we are, I like where we're going," Jarmond said. "When I reflect on the year, I'm proud of the efforts of both our staff and our student-athletes and coaches for how they handled going through a most unprecedented, chaotic year. And I think we've built some real energy and momentum throughout the year to where this upcoming year, there's a lot of excitement behind our athletics program."

Jarmond was hired to head up UCLA Athletics in May 2020 and he started his gig July 1 of that year. He had been the athletic director at Boston College for three years after nearly two decades in other roles at Michigan State and Ohio State.

To this point, the entirety of Jarmond's tenure with the Bruins has been shrouded by a pandemic, and fans went the full 2020-2021 academic year without watching their teams in person. Jarmond made a viral bond with superfan Ryan Gesas in Indianapolis, but he is one of the few to be able to connect with the athletic director face-to-face over the past year.

That is set to change this fall, with all fans now permitted to attend UCLA events once again. Jarmond said the development is going to help bring even more juice to a fanbase that already got on board with UCLA men's basketball's Final Four run in March and has been buzzing about getting back in the Rose Bowl to watch UCLA football battle back into the national picture.

"I'm really just looking forward to having games where we can have our fans in the stands supporting our student-athletes, that's really important for us," Jarmond said. "We just gotta make sure that everybody's getting vaccinated and doing everything we can to be together in person."

The football games will be open at full capacity, so while 91,000 screaming fans aren't expected to show up for the Hawai'i game Aug. 28,  there will at least be more people present than there were in 2020. Pandemic aside, Jarmond has already made a push to improve upon the record-low 2019 attendance numbers, starting with the decision to sell beer and wine at games for the first time in over 30 years.

The Rose Bowl played host to UCLA's first event open to fans in about 18 months back on Aug. 7, an open house packed with photo ops, trophies, meet-and-greets and more. Even without a high-stakes competition taking place on the field, Jarmond said it was fun to be surrounded by the Bruin faithful in the historic stadium for the first time.

"It was cool because you can tell there was just a vibe and an energy around the event," Jarmond said. "People want to do things, they want to come back and support the Bruins. It was cool to just have conversations, take pictures and really see the excitement and enthusiasm that our fans have for wanting to just come back and come to games."

With the general public back in the fold, Jarmond has also been able to get his family involved in the fanbase as well. Last season, his wife and three daughters were mostly relegated to the sidelines, having to show their newfound UCLA fandom from home during March Madness.

"You always would like to be able to include your family because we spend so much time at work," Jarmond said. "Any time you can incorporate your family within that is beautiful. I get a kick out of seeing my girls do that. ... That's something I'm looking forward to, being able to have them and have our fans and just all come back together."

One of the few times Jarmond was able to get his family in the action last year was at the Pac-12 beach volleyball championship against USC. Ironically, the sport was new to Jarmond before he showed up in Westwood, but now, he considers himself a die-hard fan of what coach Stein Metzger is doing at Mapes Beach.

"I had never seen beach volleyball before, and that was dynamic," Jarmond said. "Watching the Pac-12 tournament, being out there, seeing us beat SC two times in a row on that Saturday, that was unbelievable."

Jarmond has a lot of UCLA's practices and games penciled into his master schedule, and he tries to make appearances at the most important ones. Last year, he saw nearly every team compete in real game action, with men's golf and women's rowing being two of the few exceptions.

Not every visit is meticulously planned out, however.

"If I haven't seen a coach or a staff or a team, I might just get an inclination to get out there if I have a break in my schedule," Jarmond said. "The hard part is there are so many meetings that you have and there's so many things going on as you gear up for the season that you can't spend as much time at practice as you would like to, so you just kind of find those moments that you can get away and sneak in and see our students and our coaches doing what they do."

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Jarmond stops by Wasserman Football Center, Mo Ostin Basketball Center and Pauley Pavilion to talk to Chip Kelly, Mick Cronin and Cori Close on a regular basis. He has a plan in the works to go through a practice with UCLA women's basketball and put his skills on display for one of the first times since he laced them up at UNC Wilmington from 1997 to 2001.

As important as Jarmond thinks it is to foster relationships and be a resource for his staff, being one of the final decision-makers in the building is in his job description too. He has to manage contracts and expectations with finances, fans and donors in mind, but he said it all comes back to internal improvement, at the end of the day.

Especially on the gridiron, Jarmond said he's looking forward to the Bruins taking that next step and closing the gap after a handful of heartbreakers to end 2020.

"You go to practice, you feel it, there's a vibe that's really positive," Jarmond said. "Credit to Chip and his staff and the guys for really dialing it up and just getting after it. My expectation is we want to win every game – everybody starts off wanting to win every game, but I just look at the progress. We want to get better."

Whatever lies ahead in the Rose Bowl, Pauley Pavilion, Wallis Annenberg Stadium, Spieker Aquatics Center or elsewhere on and around UCLA's campus, Jarmond can still bank on at least one thing he never could in Chesnut Hill, Columbus or East Lansing.

Good weather for his morning runs. All year long.

"My preferred route is right here," Jarmond said.

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Sam Connon
SAM CONNON

Sam Connon was the Publisher and Managing Editor at Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s All Bruins from 2021 to 2023. He is now a staff writer at Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s Fastball. He previously covered UCLA football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, men's soccer, cross country and golf for The Daily Bruin from 2017 to 2021, serving as the paper's Sports Editor from 2019 to 2020. Connon has also been a contributor for 247Sports' Bruin Report Online, Rivals' BruinBlitz, Dash Sports TV, SuperWestSports, Prime Time Sports Talk, The Sports Life Blog and Patriots Country, Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s New England Patriots site. His work as a sports columnist has been awarded by the College Media Association and Society of Professional Journalists. Connon graduated from UCLA in June 2021 and is originally from Winchester, Massachusetts.