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UCLA
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History Of Smaug Ultimate
 
About
UCLA Smaug Ultimate is one of the most competitive college Ultimate teams in the Southwest. This year, captains Ed "Biclops" Melo and Ryan "Trogdor" Hunt are planning on leading Smaug to its first appearance at Nationals.
In the past several years, the popularity of ultimate has grown, and with it so has the number of players on Smaug. In the past several years Smaug has split into A and B teams to account for the influx of new athletes. Both teams compete in tournaments throughout California, from San Diego and Santa Barbara to Stanford, Davis, and this year, Las Vegas in Nevada.
For the A team, commitment is very important. Field practice occurs three times a week; players are expected to attend weekly running practice and lift independently as well. Practices are held in the evenings.
Players on Smaug come from all over California. While UCLA draws mostly students from within the state, we also have players on the team from as far away as Maryland and New Jersey. Players range in age from first year undergraduates to fourth year graduate students.
We have several members on our administrative team, including our Field Captains Ryan Hunt (a first year graduate student in Mechanical Engineering), Ed Melo (a fourth year Civil Engineering undergrad), President Daniel Brady (a third year physics student) and treasurer Ben Davis (a fourth year Chemical Engineering graduate student). Generally, our president and treasurer handle administrative affairs "off the field"--collecting and managing dues, submitting bids for tournaments and reserving field space, while the field captains run practice and "on the field" operations. Recently, Smaug has added a new coach to its ranks--Brown Alumni Will Arnold, who has high hopes for UCLA Ultimate and plans on sticking with Smaug for years to come.
History
UCLA Smaug Ultimate was founded in 1996 by Mark Rubin, who transferred to UCLA from Princeton in 1995 and bestowed the name of J.R.R. Tolkein's dragon from his novel "The Hobbit" as a word play on the air quality of Los Angeles.
Smaug qualified for its first regional tournament in 1998, which was the team s first trip to Santa Cruz. Smaug has qualified for every regional tournament since, with their best performance in 2001, finishing 4th at regionals and playing spoiler to the seasons of 4 different Colorado teams. Other impressive Smaug performances include the UCSD Presidents Day tournament in 1999, where the team won 7 games in a row, as well as the 2003 Presidents Day tournament, where team finished 16th after an initial seeding of 30th under captain Kyle "Punky" Smith.
UCLA has attended tournaments at UCSD, UCSB, UCSC, UCD, UCI, the Claremont Colleges, the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs (2000, 2002, and 2005), and for the first time in 2005 Smaug has qualified for the elite Stanford Invite at Stanford University. Highlighted victories over the past few years include a 1999 victory over Washington State, a 2001 victory over Oregon State, a 2002 victory over the University of Washington, as well as Smaug's first ever victory over 6-time national champion Santa Barbara in the Fall of 2002. In addition, UCLA ultimate has NEVER lost to USC at a major tournament, and has a crushing record of 15-2 against the cross-town rival.
UCLA has also played host to several of its own tournaments throughout its history. In 2004 and 2005 the SoCal Wet-Down tournament, which includes a mid-afternoon BBQ and gigantic slip n slide, has been a great success.
UCLA has produced many competitive players at the club level. Many UCLA players (including our fourmer and current captains) also compete with Los Angeles Monster, the local club team for the LA area. Others play closer to home in the Bay Area--ex-Treasurer Mike Weil and current President Daniel Brady founded East Bay All Youth ("EBAY") in 2005, which competed in several tournaments in Northern California, while in the same year former captain Kyle "Punky" Smith lead his club team "Mischief" to a spot at Nationals in Sarasota, Florida.
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