How UCLA's softball star decided to join the basketball program
WHEN MEGAN GRANT sits in the front row of her Intro to Gender Studies class at UCLA, she’s enjoying the only rest she’ll get all day. It’s game day for the UCLA women’s basketball team. Grant has 10 hours until she’ll take the court for the Bruins. But before putting on her basketball jersey, the…
WHEN MEGAN GRANT sits in the front row of her Intro to Gender Studies class at UCLA, she’s enjoying the only rest she’ll get all day.
It’s game day for the UCLA women’s basketball team. Grant has 10 hours until she’ll take the court for the Bruins. But before putting on her basketball jersey, the UCLA dual athlete will have weight training, class and softball practice.
The senior softball star has a career .727 slugging percentage, .978 fielding percentage and earned the Big Ten single-season record for home runs with 26 in 2025. And this will be the most important season of the 5-foot-10 utility player’s career. But, while she was making history on the softball field during her first three years at UCLA, she was also dreaming about basketball.
Everyone around Grant, including the softball coaching staff, knew that she loved basketball and dreamed of somehow playing the sport she’d given up after high school again. So, when UCLA women’s basketball head coach Cori Close needed to fill a roster spot with a practice player who could add to the culture of the team, UCLA softball head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez and her coaching staff started concocting a plan for Grant.
The softball coaches thought basketball training could help Grant become faster, gain speed and get into great shape for softball season. And Close thought that Grant was just the type of personality who could inject new energy and perspective into her team. It was an unconventional plan that required a lot of coordination. But both coaches believed it would benefit both programs.
They were right.
IT STARTED AS a joke.
Near the end of her junior year, Grant ran into her friend and UCLA women’s basketball star, Lauren Betts, who semi-jokingly said, “Hey, like, we need to be teammates.” “Heck yeah,” Grant playfully responded, not thinking much of it. But the passing comment lingered in her mind. As someone who grew up playing AAU and high school basketball and claims basketball was her “first love,” Grant couldn’t help but dream of a scenario where she could actually be teammates with Betts.
Not long after, during the summer of 2025, Grant was in the UCLA weight room with her softball trainer when a basketball trainer walked up to her and said, “Hey, so the rumor is that you’re going to be on the team.” Grant, confused, tried to put the comment out of mind as she finished her workout.
A few hours later, she received a call from UCLA head softball coach, Kelly Inouye-Perez. “Are you serious about basketball?,” asked Inouye-Perez. Stumbling on her words, Grant responded, “What? Like are you serious?” Her coach simply asked, “Yes or no?”
To Grant’s surprise, women’s head basketball coach Close and Inouye-Perez had been in communication behind the scenes trying to figure out how to make Grant’s dream of playing basketball for the Bruins a reality.
“It started with conversations with Kelly and just the years of respect that I have for Kelly and the kind of program she runs,” says Close. “I didn’t have to question if she’s a culture kid [or] how will she handle being the best player in softball and not knowing what she’s doing totally at this level in basketball. I actually didn’t even have to do that. I had to say, ‘Hey, Kelly, do you think this is a good idea?’ Is it in her best interest and is it in softball’s best interest?'”
Close needed to fill a spot after losing players in the transfer portal, and Inouye-Perez just wanted to make sure that the arrangement benefited all parties involved. Above all, Inouye-Perez said, her job as a head coach is to “create opportunity” for her student athletes to live out their goals and dreams.
CLOSE TOLD INOUYE-PEREZ that the only way the plan would work is if Grant started with her team in the summer of 2025 “full time, not just dabble in and out.” And Inouye-Perez stressed that come the start of 2026, the focus would have to shift back to softball.
For Grant, this 2026 softball season will determine what happens next for her with her softball career. The 21-year-old plans to play professionally immediately following the end of her collegiate career and is also setting her sights on playing for the United States at the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
“That’s why this is such a big year for her, so that she has the opportunity to be able to showcase so that she can get drafted, invited, and continue to be able to play at the highest level, which is what she wants to do,” says Inouye-Perez.
Before Grant could even fully process what was happening, she was meeting with Close in her Westwood home, just a few miles from Pauley Pavilion. Grant told Close that she would do anything she could to help the basketball team. Close told her, “We need someone to come in and bring joy.”
Grant was elated. “I feel like this is the easiest job in the world. I’m someone who can totally bring energy, and I can bring it for other people. Especially when a person feels depleted or whatever. I can bring the energy. It’s the softball way.”
GRANT GETS IN her car and drives from the parking lot at Pauley Pavilion to UCLA softball facility, Easton Stadium. On her dashboard, she has three yellow sticky notes with writing in thick black Sharpie placed on the left side, right side and bottom center. Walk with purpose. Only your best. God is great.
In her passenger door, she has a couple of extra softball batting gloves thrown into the storage compartment. A baseball wedged into the compartment nestles up against the gloves. “It’s a reminder for me,” says Grant. “Where I started. Where this all started. It’s just something that I won’t ever take out.”
Before there was softball for Grant, there was baseball. Her older brothers, Devin and Camron, gave her an “education” in the sport. It was her sport, even though she was oftentimes the only girl playing it at her age. But it didn’t matter to Grant. The “red-haired girl” started to garner attention from other parents.
“You’re going to let a girl strike you out?” and “You’re going to let a girl hit a home run off you?” became common taunts from the stands. Grant took pride in these comments. “I was like, ‘Yeah, I did. And I’ll do it again,'” she said. But in seventh grade, Grant’s mom, Christine, thinking ahead to high school, proposed the idea of playing softball. Grant made the switch and caught on quickly. Playing for a club team in the Bay Area, Grant received a masterclass in the softball mindset. She learned what it meant to cheer in the dugouts, the mannerisms of softball and what energy to maintain on and off the field. Grant exceeded expectations on the diamond, and at the age of 12, she received a verbal offer from UCLA.
“She owns the field. Then when you meet her, you know, you fall in love with her in a whole different way because of her personality,” says Inouye-Perez, who credits her associate head coach and former Bruin, Lisa Fernandez, with recruiting Grant. “There’s this beast of an athlete that is the most warm, caring, selfless. She has a skill with people and how to make people feel good. And that’s not normal when you’re a really elite, tough, fierce athlete.”
It was a dizzying rise. As a tween, Grant already had a reason to specialize. So, hesitantly, at the urging of a softball coach, she decided to stop playing AAU basketball. But her abstinence from the sport didn’t last long. Grant decided to play three sports for her high school: softball, basketball and volleyball.
“I felt like I had to always prove to people that I could do it all,” says Grant. “But what they didn’t realize is that the different movements prepare you for your main sport. Both volleyball and basketball do a great job correlating over to softball. And in high school, softball was my priority, but I was happy that I was in multiple sports. It helped me so much overall.”
IT DIDN’T TAKE long for Grant to make an impact on the Bruins basketball team.
After a few intense practices, where Grant admits she was not properly conditioned for basketball training, she fell into a groove with the team. “I felt like a freshman just learning new things, learning how their team operates within the setting,” says Grant. “And I was obviously facing future pro WNBA athletes.”
She also quickly realized that she wasn’t there to be at the same level as players like Betts and Kiki Rice. She was meant to bring something different to the team. And by the fall, Grant understood her place.
“I’m over here wanting to win these games,” says Grant. “And the girls after are saying like, ‘You know you’re going pro in softball and we’re going pro in basketball.’ And I was like, well, I actually didn’t realize that when I’m on the court. But they really shifted my perspective. It’s taught me to just be a good teammate at the end of the day. Whatever the team needs, I will do it exactly, no matter what, you know, level of play I’m at on the bench, off the bench, on the field, off the field.”
As Grant got more comfortable with the Bruins, Close also began noticing the larger impact the softball star was having on her team. Close said she witnessed how Grant’s energy and joy radiated throughout her locker room and resulted in stronger team bonds on-and-off the court.
“She may not be able to shoot threes and play defense the way that some of our players can, but she understands the mental side of the game. She understands passion,” says Close.
In November, during a game against North Carolina, Close put Grant in the game with just a few minutes left in the fourth quarter. Prior to the season, Grant knew that she’d have limited time on the court in games. But any time, she was able to suit up for games, she prepared like it was a championship game. “I’m competitive,” says Grant. “No matter what, I want to do my best. It’s me against me.”
With less than 15 seconds in the game, Grant grabbed a rebound and muscled up a layup to secure UCLA’s 16-point victory over the Tar Heels. As soon as the ball hit the net, the Bruins bench erupted in cheers. Jumping up and down in unison, her teammates screamed and danced as Grant ran down the court flashing a huge smile on her face. A video from the locker room after the game, of Grant and Close dancing together in celebration, went viral.
“If that isn’t joy,” says Grant. “I don’t know what it is. It doesn’t matter if I play or score. I am still having joy. And I think that joy is felt by the entire team.”
IN LATE JANUARY, just a few hours before one of her final regular season basketball games with the Bruins, Grant stands in the batting cages at the Easton Stadium. “One more,” says Grant. “Just one more.” Grant has been saying “one more” for the past 10 minutes. And she’ll keep saying it until she’s content with the work she’s done in the batting cages that day.
Prior to the start of the softball season, Grant ranked fourth on UCLA’s career slugging charts and 10th in home runs with 49. Her list of accolades on the softball field during her three seasons at UCLA have already secured her multiple records as a Bruin, but this season, she’s hoping to secure more records and help her No. 7 Bruins find their way back to the Women’s College World Series Championship.
UCLA assistant coach Mysha Sataraka watches the monitor in the batting cage that logs all of Grant’s hitting data. “Woo! That’s what we like to see,” yells Sataraka. “I think you’re good to go. It’s looking really good.”
Before leaving Easton Stadium to head back to Pauley Pavilion for the game against Purdue, Grant tells some of the coaching staff, “See you tonight!”
In the fourth quarter of the women’s basketball game against Purdue, chants started to grow in Pauley Pavilion. “We want Megan! We want Megan!” Grant’s softball teammates and coaches sit in the stands adjacent to the Bruins bench and join in on the chants before Close puts Grant in with just a couple minutes left in the fourth quarter. The No. 2 Bruins are dominating the Boilermakers, and Grant doesn’t take this moment for granted. After all, it might be one of her last moments playing competitive basketball.
For the few short minutes she’s on the court, the crowd’s excitement grows and the “Go Megan!” chants ring throughout the stadium. After the game, her softball teammates rush up to her on the court to hug her and pose for pictures.
Two weeks later, during the opening weekend of UCLA softball, the Bruins women’s basketball team comes out to watch Grant on the softball field. During her time with the basketball team, Grant played 33 minutes off the bench and made three of nine field goal attempts.
During the opening weekend of the softball season, Grant hit her 50th career home run. She helped lead her team 5-0 in their first weekend back, including a record-setting 17-0 rout of UC Riverside.
“Basketball is my first love,” says Grant. “This time around basketball made me realize how much I appreciate and love softball.”
