Hello all! 

This is Bryan "The Chef" Cloutier here with some UCLA Men's Ultimate updates for the 2022 season. 

First of all, thank you so much to all of our donors who contributed to our Spark campaign. With your help, we raised over $14,000! That is the most we have ever raised as a team and that is all thanks to your generous donations. These donations will help to make sure that everyone at UCLA can continue to play ultimate without money being a barrier. Additionally, it helps cover increased travel costs due to social distancing requirements at tournaments. And finally, it will help our A team, Smaug, fly our first ever out of state tournament in Knoxville, Tennessee. Thank you again! 

Our head coach, Felicia Yang, also wanted to extend her thanks to the donors and community. "Thank you for supporting UCLA Men's Ultimate. As a new coach to the program this year, I'm already impressed by the level of character and commitment shown by the player, and I am excited to help take this team to new heights. I appreciate seeing all of the alumni and community support and hope to see you all out at tournaments. Please come say hi!" 

SANTA BARBARA QUALIFIER

The season was off to a quick start with both Smaug and Smoke (our B Team) attending the Santa Barbara Qualifier Tournament on January 15th-16th. 

Smaug attended the tournament for some early season reps against other teams, as they had already qualified for Santa Barbara Invite. Most of the focus was on trying out different offensive and defensive schemes, and finding lines with the most chemistry. Smaug finished 6-0 on the weekend, and came away pumped and ready for the high competition to come in later tournaments. 

UCLA (13) - UC Irvine (1)

UCLA (12) - UCSB (4)

UCLA (13) - Santa Clara (8)

UCLA (12) - Cal Poly Pamona (3)

UCLA (14) - Fresno St. (3)

Most of the Smoke tournament update comes from Smoke Captain Theodore "Cubone" Herring.

Smoke, on the other hand, was jumping right into their first competitive tournament of the year. With many player back home due to online classes and only 4 practices to prepare before Santa Barbara Qualifier, smoke was facing a daunting challenge attending their first tournament of the year with some of their closest competitors in the region. However, the fourteen players who attended approached this challenge with tenacity, giving their all every point of every game. They played close games against every team, even giving one of their rivals SLO-B a close fought game which SLO only barely won on universe point. Smoke finished with a record of 2-4 on the weekend  with their mind set on the future. They looked great on the field for their first tournament of this season, and they are confident that they can become the best team in the region as they continue to practice and play together. 

UCSB-B (9) - UCLA-B (7)

Gunn HS (9) - UCLA-B (7)

UCLA-B (13) - SB HS (3)

UCLA-B (9) - UCSD-B (7)

SLO-B (9) - UCLA-B (8) 

UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS

Smoke just attended President's Day Qualifiers in San Luis Obispo this past weekend, so there will be a tournament update coming out soon about that. 

Smaug takes on Santa Barbara Invite this upcoming weekend January 29th-30th back in Santa Barbara.

Looking further ahead, Smaug will be attending President's Day Invite in San Diego February 19th-21st. (Currently due to UCSD's COVID protocols there are unfortunately no spectators allowed, but expect an update if we hear different). Smoke also has a Santa Barbara Round Robin in mid February, official date to be confirmed.

As we said above, Smaug will be flying to Knoxville, Tennessee to compete in Smoky Mountain Invite on March 5th-6th.

We hope to see you at tournaments and thank you again for your incredible contributions to our team. We're looking forward to a great season! 

Yeah Smaug and Go Bruins! 

Also, please enjoy this highlight video from Smaug's games at Santa Barbara Qualifier.