PROVO, Utah - Head coach Dave Porter has added two players to the BYU men's tennis roster ahead of the 2022-23 season. Brian Chen joins the team as a class of 2022 recruit from Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School. Five-star class of 2020 member Redd Owen is also set for his first season with the team after recently returning from serving a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in West Virginia and Benin.
Chen joins the Cougars from Changhua, Taiwan, where he was coached by Wei-Yu Su, who played for Coach Porter at BYU-Hawaii from 1995-99. Chen was the top-ranked player in Taiwan for his age group when he was 14.
“We're thrilled to have Brian Chen join us this fall. He came this summer to get an academic acclamation to the campus and he's been working hard,” Porter said. “His family focused him on academics during high school, but now he’s getting back towards doing both tennis and academics and is playing better and better tennis each week.”
"BYU was my main goal all along," Chen said. "The school has a good academic program and tennis team. BYU also has amazing coaches and teammates that I am excited to play with."
Owen prepped at Brighton High School and committed to BYU in March 2019. A native of Sandy, Utah, Owen was the No. 24 recruit nationally and the top-ranked athlete in both the mountain region and the state of Utah. He won three state championships and was a contender for a fourth his senior year before the tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Redd is a terrific player and has a fabulous attitude. We're thrilled to have him back and with us. He looks very good in the early fall,” Porter added.
With the additions of Chen and Owen, the team’s roster is set at nine players entering the fall invitational portion of the 2022-23 season. The schedule begins on Sep. 23 with day one of the ITA Bedford Cup in the Mountains in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Chen and Owen will both be making their BYU debuts at the event.