UCLA athletic teams welcome walk-on players to their ranks

By Jessica Bach
DAILY BRUIN CONTRIBUTOR
[email protected]

For those four-year high-school athletes who are entering UCLA
this fall on a purely academic basis, they may be thinking that
this spells the end of their athletic reign. But this is not
necessarily true ““ there are a range of opportunities for
students, even at the NCAA Division I level.

There are two paths open for any student which can lead to
athletic prospects: UCLA-sponsored athletic teams (such as
basketball, football, water polo, etc.) and club teams (rugby,
lacrosse and field hockey). These two options enable a variety of
athletes at any level a chance to play.

UCLA-sponsored sports are the programs that give scholarships
and have funding available to promote the team to the caliber for
which the Bruins are known. These programs are the ones which allow
walk-ons to try out for the team, even if they have not been
recruited.

“There are two types of walk-ons we use,”
men’s basketball head coach Steve Lavin said. “We have
walk-ons that have been recruited but not given a scholarship, and
then there are those who come to us and fit the profile we look for
““ a good student academically as well as a good basketball
player.”

Those who have not been recruited but are admitted students must
go through a tryout. The avenue to these successful tryouts varies
between sports, but the most important priority is to make yourself
known to the specific coaches.

“Sometimes the high school coach will send us tapes of
their players,” Lavin said. “But if not, we encourage
them to introduce themselves to us.”

This theory differs for the football program, which will hold
tryouts sometime in March.

“When students come to us in the fall, we are often too
busy with the current season to talk to them,” assistant
coach Mark Webber said. “But then after the season ends, we
are doing our own recruiting. So we set a time in March for tryouts
that are available to any current students.

“Sometimes guys will contact us as walk-ons before school
starts, but our roster is already full with 105 players,” he
continued. “But we tell them to come back after school starts
and then we can ask them to come back, because after the year has
started we are allowed to have extra players.”

But for many of the incoming or current students playing sports
at that level is not possible, which is where club teams come
in.

Club teams constitute non-UCLA sponsored sports but still
compete under the Bruin name and still travel. Sports like lacrosse
(men’s and women’s) as well as men’s rowing have
been very successful against other teams, and are open for any
student to try out.

Specific dates and times can be found in the Wooden Center
handbook of activities.

In the history of UCLA sports, there have been a number of
walk-on players that have been successful.

Danny Farmer, a walk-on in 1995, was able to earn a scholarship
and eventually became a captain for the Bruins, and is currently a
wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals.

Jason Flowers took the long path to the UCLA basketball team,
but finally made it to play for the Bruins. After unsuccessfully
trying out for the UCLA team in 1996, Flowers transferred to UC
Irvine. There, he became an integral part of their team after
sitting out a year under NCAA regulations regarding transferring.
But again feeling the call for Division I basketball, Flowers
transferred back to UCLA and finally became a member of the team,
where, according to Lavin, “he really sparked our team after
a 4-4 start, and took us 6-0 afterwards.”

Walk-ons have become a necessary staple for the UCLA athletic
department, and the opportunities are out there for students who
were not recruited.

“The walk-on players who come to the program are valuable
and a success,” Webber said.

“Because if they give us any playing time in either the
game or in practice, they have a role for us and we needed
them.”