UCLA Hockey Team Suspended Before Final Crosstown Cup Game vs. USC, Appeal Tomorrow

by skycam28 on Feb 1, 2012 8:40 PM PST

Bumped. Let's all take a minute to get behind our men's club hockey team. -BN Eds.

While most Bruin fans are getting rightfully excited about what looks to be a strong football recruiting class, my thoughts this week are with another UCLA team – the club ice hockey program. On Saturday, the Bruins are set to face USC in the deciding Game Five of their annual Crosstown Cup series.

However, the game may not happen, as the team is currently suspended by UCLA Club Sports. The reason for the suspension? The team failed to file the appropriate travel paperwork for its January 7 home game against Cal State Fullerton. The team is currently appealing the suspension, and a decision will be reached tomorrow at 5:30 at a hearing in front of the Club Sports Executive Council (for which I’ve included contact info after the jump).

This season, the Bruins have the chance to accomplish something that has never been done in the history of the program – winning the Cup twice in three years. USC's hockey program has historically been very strong, and getting UCLA's program to the point where we can compete with USC year in and year out is no small feat, considering our smaller recruiting and financial base. It would be a serious blow to the program to have to forfeit this game, and consequently, the Crosstown Cup. Worse, it would be an embarrassment to UCLA that we weren't given the chance to fight for the Cup.

I understand the need to face the consequences for violating rules. However, taking this game away – a game that could be the crown jewel of the Bruins’ season – is a punishment far more severe than a paperwork error deserves. These players put their blood, sweat, tears, and yes, plenty of their own money into representing our University on the ice.

You may be asking, why is travel paperwork necessary for a home game? The answer is that since UCLA has no on-campus ice facility, UCLA’s home ice, and practice rink, is located in Panorama City, a 16-mile drive from campus. Each team member is obviously aware of this, and has acknowledged the risk of leaving campus for practices and games during the entire season. Team members sign a release for all practices at the beginning of the season, yet each home game requires another approval.

Club Sports considers "[T]raveling to any off-campus location without prior approval" a Major II violation, the most severe level of infraction, which carries a minimum sanction of a fine (no small burden in itself, considering the team is almost entirely self-supported) and a maximum sanction of loss of club status.

The sanction actually given, a suspension, is set based on the policy infraction itself. Club Sports states that a "typical one-week suspension would include the cancellation of all club meetings, practices, home events, events hosted by the club off-campus and travel arrangements." But all events have not been canceled; the team’s Friday night game against LMU is still on as scheduled. It seems as though Club Sports has singled out the USC game, for reasons I can’t comprehend.

I played on the Bruin hockey team. I can sympathize with the current players. Winning the Crosstown Cup is at the top of the team's list of goals every season, perhaps even above winning a Pac-8 title. It was the highlight of my three years as a UCLA hockey player when we accomplished it in 2005; it was the lowlight of my time at UCLA when we had to forfeit it in 2006 due to one of our three wins being overturned because of an ineligible player. I was the team president in 2007 and I know that it can be difficult to comply with every requirement of the ACHA (collegiate club hockey’s governing body), the Pac-8, and most of all, UCLA Recreation and Club Sports.

In the last few years, UCLA hockey is doing very well, both on the ice and off. I've been extremely impressed with the leadership I have seen from the current team. They have a new coach and a new website, and they are doing the right things to engage with their fans and improve all aspects of the program. Watching the team lift the Cup in 2010 for the first time since my squad did it five years earlier was a moment of pure elation for the entire program.

I’ve seen the fans and alumni of this program more excited over this team than I’ve ever seen them since I joined the program almost eight years ago. At the beginning of the season, 8-claps rang out through the Staples Center at midnight as we watched our Bruins win a last-minute thriller against USC following a Kings game. This game can be the pinnacle of the season. Some fans and alumni are coming down from Northern California – one I know of is even coming from the East Coast – for the chance to see another blue plaque on that Cup.

While I don’t often sympathize with Trojans, this is entirely unfair to their team as well. They had planned their Senior Night for this game and will lose a great deal of ticket revenue. Moreover, their players don’t want to win the Crosstown Cup on a technicality – just like the Bruins, they know it should be settled on the ice.

Club hockey players are full-time students, given little to no leeway from classes and exams for the sport they love. Still, they drive over an hour round-trip to practice and play home games alone, no matter how late the hours may be. They must balance this with fundraising, because ice time is expensive, and they must comply with every rule to the letter – even one that requires them to get approval to play in each and every one of their home games. It’s a challenge to do it all, and to do it all well. Sometimes the necessary papers don’t get filed in time, but an infraction on this level should not rob these players of the opportunity they’ve worked so hard to earn.

I encourage each of you to write to the Club Sports Executive Council at csecouncil@gmail.com, as well as to Club Sports Program Director Jason Zeck at jzeck@recreation.ucla.edu, prior to the team’s hearing tomorrow evening. Let them know UCLA should stand behind all of its athletes, varsity and club, who wear the Four Letters.

The UCLA ice hockey team deserves to be treated fairly by the University it works so hard to represent well.

GO BRUINS.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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Wow

I went to ice hockey games when I was a student at UCLA and the games against USC were so much fun. The environment at these games was almost (probably equally) as good as the basketball and football environments.

by ucla05 on Feb 1, 2012 9:16 PM PST reply actions

This is absurd

Not sure whether I oughta laugh or cry at the fact that our club sports leadership is at least as dysfunctional and impractical as our D1 athletic program leadership. Thank you for bringing this to BN, I’ll be one of many sending some emails tonight…

by Nocal Bruin on Feb 1, 2012 9:30 PM PST reply actions

My letter on behalf of the Hockey Team

To whom it may concern,

I have just become aware of a recent ruling that will result in a suspension of team play for the UCLA Club Hockey team. I am writing to encourage you to overturn that ruling and allow these young men to play.

In my first year at UCLA, one of good friends in the dorms (Myra Hershey Hall, 1997) was a member of the club team. I learned from him how hard it is for these young men just to compete. He detailed the tryouts, completely voluntary and run by the players themselves. He described how these young men largely must self finance the purchase of their equipment, pay for travel, etc. “You must really love the sport,” I said “to go to such lengths.” He didn’t have to answer that.

I am appalled that they could lose an opportunity to play for the Crosstown Cup against hated Southern Cal. When I heard that they had been suspended, I kept thinking they must have done something really bad for this to happen. I thought maybe drugs or alcohol were involved. Maybe a number of team members had run afoul of the law. I am shocked that their suspension is the result of something as inconsequential as paperwork that was not filed.

Allow me to share some real world examples that could possibly demonstrate how inconsequential this is.

A number of times I have somehow managed to forget to pay a credit card bill on time. Each time, I have called the credit card company, explained my lapse and asked if I could pay the monthly installment, and what’s more important, I have asked that they remove the ‘late payment’ note on my credit history. They have never failed to remove the ‘late payment’ from my record. Credit card companies are seen as these huge uncaring corporations, but when you call the customer service line, it is a human being that answers and has to listen to you. Being human allows you to feel empathy and judge for yourself, usually by reviewing a person’s case history, if you believe they are sincere.

I once learned I had somehow failed to pay a traffic ticket. Naturally, it had gone to warrant, and a petty $30 ticket had somehow ballooned up to a $500 fine. This warrant for my arrest had sat on my record for years without my knowledge. When I learned of this, I went to see the judge. I explained my case to the judge and asked him to reduce or dismiss the fine. He agreed to reduce the fine, and while it was not reduced to the original $30 fine, it was a fraction of the much more serious $500 fine. Government agencies are seen as these huge uncaring bureaucracies, but when you plead a case, it is a human being that hears your case . Being human allows you to feel empathy and judge for yourself, usually by reviewing a person’s case history, if you believe they are sincere.

I’m asking you to do the humane thing. Save the suspensions for when a team truly needs to be punished. If they embarrass the university through unlawful conduct; if they embarrass themselves through actions unbefitting a gentleman, suspend them. Do not suspend them over a piece of paper. Practice empathy.

Hector Miranda
Film & Television
Class of 2000

Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. ~ Vince Lombardi

by MexiBruin on Feb 1, 2012 9:44 PM PST reply actions

PS: Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Skycam

by MexiBruin on Feb 1, 2012 9:44 PM PST up reply actions

Is this a joke? This is sooooooooo typical of UCLA

“Sorry sir, but you cannot compete in the championship game against USC because you forgot to dot the i’s in your name. We will forfeit to our wonderful friends at across town.”

by notaznguy on Feb 1, 2012 9:48 PM PST reply actions

just emailed

i was looking forward to the game saturday. i will also be purchasing a jersey, complete with the number 3 i actually wore for 2 games against CSUN in 1999…

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are." --John Wooden

by avtwvi on Feb 1, 2012 11:56 PM PST reply actions

Sent my formal complaint

What a day for LA hockey this and the kings blue jackets time controversy!

by Darthruv9 on Feb 2, 2012 2:33 AM PST via mobile reply actions

This is unreal

One would think that folks at UCLA Rec would help out the team and find ways to make sure they are complying with all provisions. To put up this kind of road block with no effort to help the team find a solution is just absurd.

Hope everyone sends in an email in support of the team.

by Nestor on Feb 2, 2012 5:17 AM PST via mobile reply actions

Nothing to worry about, Bruins

Hockey is an athletic event, and we have a guy who directs each and every aspect and nuance of every single, solitary athletic exercise, practice, game, event, extravaganza and post-game cooldown from Sunset to Westwood and from Gayley to Hilgard and all points in between. He is such a wonderful administrator that our clear-thinking Chancellor has rewarded him by making him the most highly paid athletic director in the Pac 12 and probably the Pac 16 when that expansion comes. Dan will fix this. While most of the rest of us would just sit idly by and wring our hands, Dan will jump into this with guns blazing and right this wrong. You watch. This is where Dan will rise above the rest.

I can hear him now. “Harlan, get me some more Chianti, you little twerp. Someone tell me how we had a hockey team on this campus and I didn’t know about it. And they’re playing for a championship. Raising expectations. Pretty soon, they’ll be asking me for support. Harlan! Where’s that Chianti? Why must I be surrounded by such incompetence. Screw it. I’m going home. We’ll work on this tomorrow. And Harlan, if you’re not back with that Chianti, I’m so going to fire you. You’ll be so fired you won’t know what hit you. Sheesh. Now what were we talking about? Hockey? Is this the air hockey table in Ackerman? Get rid of it. HARLAN! Where is that little dweeb! WHERE’S MY CHIANTI!!”

by Fox 71 on Feb 2, 2012 6:08 AM PST reply actions

gonna post this on BRO

For more support

by silverlakebruin on Feb 2, 2012 9:35 AM PST reply actions

Thanks for spreading the word!

by skycam28 on Feb 2, 2012 11:46 AM PST up reply actions

I hope everyone sends an email in support of our hockey team.

I spent many late nights at the Culver rink, often following a 10 person cab ride from Westwood. My roommate one year was one of the goalies on the team. I saw first hand how these club athletes, with no support from the University, sacrificed their own time and effort and money to compete in the sport they loved, and for a chance to wear the four letters.

What a shame, and how unsurprising, that the Club Sports Executive Council has picked this arbitrary and unnecessarily punitive suspension based on a paperwork error. This seems to be the kind of event that the admin should be happily working to rectify, rather than lazily inflicting roadblocks.

greg in denver, U.C.L.A. guy for life - BruinsNation.com

by gbruin on Feb 2, 2012 10:15 AM PST reply actions