The Taekwondo Club at UCI hosted their first competition of the season at the Anteater Recreation Center (ARC) on Saturday, Nov. 19. The Taekwondo Club at UCI averaged 2,431 points and finished in last place. The club competed against six other schools including UCD, UCLA, UCR, UCSD, USC and Stanford. UCSD ultimately won the competition with 3,696 points.
According to Taekwondo Club President Joshua Burtle, the competition was organized at the last minute. Originally, UCLA was supposed to hold the event; however, UCLA notified the Taekwondo Club at UCI that they were no longer able to hold the event due to an inability to set up the paperwork. Once the competition was officially set to be hosted at UCI, the Taekwondo Club had to contact the Club Sports Director to reserve a space at the ARC.
Nicholas Le, who serves as the secretary of the Taekwondo Club at UCI, was first hesitant about holding the competition because of how suddenly the board members needed to plan the event.
“Going in, I was kind of worried that we would have a really bad turnout because it was really last minute, to the point where while we were doing the paperwork, some of the other schools were asking us, ‘Is it even going to happen? Is it not?’” Le said. “But, luckily going in, I think we had close to 70 competitors so turnout was better than I expected.”
Despite the stress that this last-minute planning caused, the Taekwondo Club was glad they were able to host the event. Burtle simply wanted the other schools to enjoy their time at the competition and to give the club members an opportunity to compete.
“Our goal was just to make the experience the best for the other teams. A lot of our team has people that are new or haven’t really competed much, so for them it was mostly a chance to just get used to the feeling of competing, seeing how [and] what they do works and what they need to work on,” Burtle said. “Just having fun and making sure all the other schools felt comfortable and had a good time was the main part.”
Akshara Subramanian, a first-year club member who worked behind the scenes at the competition, enjoyed spending time with her fellow teammates and being a part of the competitive environment.
“I just had a really great time hanging out with people I’ve been practicing with seeing what they practiced put into theory,” Subramanian said. “It was really nice to cheer my other teammates on and also meet people from other schools. It was really nice to have my first experience in terms of competitions. I am really glad that this was my first competition.”
Although, the next event for the Taekwondo Club has not yet been scheduled, their next possible competition will be in January, hosted by the University of Washington, mostly for NorCal schools.
Another competition for SoCal schools will be held in February, but the host college is still to be determined. No matter when the next competition is, Le is excited for the Taekwondo Club members to get more experience in the sport and hopes to improve both his own and the club member’s skills.
“I’m just looking forward to getting back to the competition since I’ve been out of it for a few years,” Le said. “Just improve my skills and be able to catch up with some other people that I know at the other schools and learn from them.”
Subramanian is excited to stay involved and grow her passion for taekwondo through the club.
“I am really looking forward to continuing taekwondo at UCI because it’s something that I’ve enjoyed immensely. Taekwondo is a huge part of me as a person so to be able to continue that here is a blessing in disguise and I am really grateful to have found this club because I was able to meet new people who I am able to bond with because we all share the same interest,” Subramanian said. “The team as a whole, we’re a family now.”
Hanah Kitamoto is a Sports Intern for the fall 2022 Quarter. She can be reached at ykitamot@uci.edu.
