About

The UCLA Men’s Rowing team is a Varsity Club sport within the UCLA Recreation Department. We row out of our boathouse located beside the waters of beautiful Marina Del Rey. Every team member is required to attend practice there Monday-Friday starting at 5:45 A.M. Varsity members practice most Saturdays as well and are required to complete secondary weights or cardio workouts every day. The team is recognized by the Pac-12 Conference and American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA). Our members are both great athletes and students. Throughout the history of our program, many of our rowers have been eligible for All Pac-12 honors in academics. During our racing season, we travel along the West coast from San Diego to Sacramento, racing teams from all over the nation. We also have the opportunity to travel to Georgia for the national championship and our ultimate goal this year is competing at Pac-12s. UCLA Men’s Rowing provides a great opportunity for Bruins to represent UCLA in national championships, be part of something bigger than themselves, and gain skills that will be used the rest of their lives.

History

Inspired by the 1932 Olympic Games held in Los Angeles, UCLA set a precedent for the other southern universities by establishing a rowing team in 1933. The Bruins chose the course used during the Olympics, Long Beach Marine Stadium, as their home course. In both 1967 and 1970 the Bruins were West Coast/Pac-8 champions, winning the Western Sprint Championships. In 1980, the Bruins won a silver medal in the Pac-8/West Coast Championships. Incredibly, UCLA rowing won the Pac-10 Championship for three consecutive years from 1987-1989. The team finished second at the Pac-10 Championships in 1990 but, unfortunately, this was the same year Men’s rowing was dropped by UCLA athletics, thus making it a Varsity Club sport that can’t receive school funding. Since its removal from UCLA Athletics, the rowing team has won many important regattas but the team has yet to compete in the Pac-12 Championships in recent history. In 2016, the team hired a new coach, Simon Hoadley, who plans to change that.

How You Can Help

Being a club team, UCLA Men’s Rowing receives no money from UCLA. Therefore, it is up to the team to cover all the costs associated with competing at a national level, against many schools that do receive funding. Luckily, we have amazing alumni that cover about half of our expenses, but that leaves the other half to the actual athletes. We ask all our members to pay quarterly dues to help cover some of the expenses but the reality is these dues cannot fully sustain our program, especially if we wish to continue to grow and nationally represent UCLA. As mentioned, one of the primary goals of this season is the compete in the Pac-12 Championships. It is a long road to Pac-12s, however, and in order to effectively compete there, our team must perform well at the regattas leading up to it. In order to compete at a high level at all of these races, our rowers need fuel, rest, and access to adequate equipment. Any money raised from this campaign would be used for lodging for multiple day regattas (including the National Championships and Pac-12s), food for the team at all the races, and equipment needed to properly maintain a fleet of boats.  Although $15,000 would not completely cover the costs of a rowing season, it would tremendously help our team reach our goal of nationally representing UCLA at Pac-12s this year and many years to come.