Founded in 1996, our name is an homage to the dragon of Tolkien's "The Hobbit" and a play on the air quality of LA. Contact us at smaug.ultimate@gmail.com.
We are UCLA Smaug Ultimate. Founded in 1996, our name is an homage to the insatiable dragon from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and is a play on words on the ashen air quality of Los Angeles. This page is here to show off Smaug to the world, both in and outside of ultimate. Here is where we will be posting updates about practices, tournaments, workouts, alumni events, what have you. If you’re interested in playing for Smaug or just finding out more about the team don’t hesitate to reach out to the guys on the team or email us at smaug.ultimate@gmail.com. Yeah Smaug.
Smaug Ultimate is UCLA’s competitive men’s ultimate team. This past year (2012-2013) led by team captains Steven ‘Zodiac’ Brooks and Kevin ‘UpgrayeDD’ Kirchhoff Smaug had one of its toughest seasons in recent memory, pushing through injuries and brutal track workouts & lifting sessions in order to make a push for Nationals in spring. We came out strong at SoCal Sectionals in April and finished 3rd, culminating the tournament with a win over our rivals to the north, UCSB Black Tide. At Southwest Regionals two weeks later, we fought hard but ultimately came up short, as a dogfight of a loss 14-16 to LPC on Saturday sent us to play for 9th place on Sunday, and our hopes for Nationals in 2013 were shot. Not satisfied with this however, Smaug is out to make it to Nationals in 2013-2014 as team captains Jeff ‘The Foreman’ Voss, Sam ‘STATS’ McClure, and Andrew ‘TweaK’ Padula, along with coach Alec ‘Strider’ Surmani, have already begun cranking the screws for the fall.
Veterans of ultimate and new guys alike, if you’re interested in playing a sport that is fun as hell, buying-in to a team committed on going to Nationals, and meeting some genuinely sick guys who will be your friends, teammates, and brothers for the next four years (or five if you’re either an overachiever (grad school) or not-quite-underachiever (super senior!)) then come out and play for Smaug. Prior experience is not necessary; most of us hadn’t picked up a disc before we started playing for Smaug, but once we did, we never put it down. Feel free to contact us at smaug.ultimate@gmail.com for info about trying out for the team in the fall. Smaug also has a truly terrific B-Team that is consistently one of the best in the Southwest and that most Smauggies have played on and is where they learned the tools that enabled them to become great players.
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 and 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 along with a 5th place finish in 2011. 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 such prestigious tournaments as Santa Barbara Invite, Stanford Invitational, Pres Day at UCSD, and Centex in Austin, TX. In addition, UCLA Ultimate has NEVER lost to USC at a major tournament.
UCLA has also played host to several of its own tournaments throughout its history. In 2004 and 2005 Smaug hosted the SoCal Wet-Down tournament, which included a mid-afternoon BBQ and gigantic slip n slide. Since, we have hosted the annual fall warm-up tournament, Sandwich Day where play consists of mandatory Sandwich Points, where players must play the whole point with a sandwich in one of their hands (and true devotees make sure to finish the sandwich before the point is over).
UCLA has produced many competitive players at the club level. Several UCLA players (including our former and current captains) play for LA Renegade. Others play on the famed Santa Barbara Condors, and perennial mixed Nationals contenders 7 Figures, Mischief, and American BBQ.
Also follow us on twitter at https://twitter.com/smaugultimate!
Here are some youtube videos of teams from the past. We should be coming out with our own very soon...
2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjOH_mvEL_4
2009 part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13T3E-75qXU
2009 part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df4Z8ALt_nU
