Go Joe Bruin interviews two representatives from the best student section in the nation: The Den. We discuss the upcoming season with UCLA Football, the evolution of The Den and what they have in store in 2016-17.
Are you excited for UCLA Football yet? Well are you??? Go Joe Bruin has been bringing you a plethora of information about the Bruins as we head toward the 2016 season, but we also have an interview that will really get you pumped!
Go Joe Bruin was able to interview a few members of The Den, UCLA’s fantabulous student section, which is pretty much the best student section ever! New President Jeff Kohl and Vice-President Kyle Grozen were kind enough to join us and give some insight on UCLA Football, the happenings at the Rose Bowl and what to expect from The Den this year. Enjoy!
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Go Joe Bruin: Seriously, how good is it going to feel to get back to the Rose Bowl?
Jeff Kohl: It’s really like Christmas morning in September for me. Walking through the tunnel and seeing the field unfold before your eyes is like walking to the Christmas tree and seeing the array of gifts. I guess the only difference is that Santa Claus would be Josh Rosen; and he drives an offense instead of a sleigh. Also it doesn’t snow. It rains touchdown passes.
Kyle Grozen: Continuing with the Christmas theme- it’s the most wonderful time of the year. 5 PM on September 10th can’t come soon enough. To be back in that atmosphere, with all the screaming fans and the high hopes of a new year, it’s going to be absolutely incredible.
GJB:Will The Den be participating in any pre-game events or tailgating?
Jeff: The short answer is yes. There will be a pre-game event for The Den in the Rose Bowl with a DJ. The other details of this event are still being worked out. We really would like to engage students early so that they are pumped up for kickoff. We are also looking to do something similar come basketball season that highlights all of our sweet pre-game traditions.
Kyle: For football, lots of it is yet to be determined, but you can bet we’ll be bringing that exciting pre-game atmosphere to basketball! We’re just starting to look into new opportunities to get students to games early, such as pre-game shows and student entertainers. We’ll also be bringing you all the classic Den traditions, from roll call to frisbee, that make UCLA Basketball games the gold standard for college athletics.
Next: Part 2
GJB: Is there anything new from The Den this year?
Jeff: This is going to be a big year for us. The first big changes that were made going into this year were that there are now three leadership positions of The Den that are paid interns within the UCLA Athletics Department: President, Vice President, and Director of Creative Content. All of these positions are now appointed by the UCLA Athletics Department. This is a fantastic new structure, because it gives us students a regular voice in the department. It also makes it easier than ever for us to bring our ideas to administration to continue to make The Den incredible!
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We are looking to continue all the things that make us great, and bring them to the next level. This year, we are going to brand The Den as something every UCLA student can relate to and take pride in, even if they aren’t that big into sports. We will work on producing more video content that shows how cool The Den is, engage the student body with student-athletes more often, and really make our fellow Bruins feel a part of the Den by over-communicating the student section traditions.
Kyle: We’re hoping this can be a really groundbreaking year for the Den, not just with respect to UCLA, but with getting some national attention as well. Look at something like ASU’s Curtain of Distraction- it doesn’t even work, but the rest of the country absolutely loves it. We’re looking for The Den’s “thing,” and we’re excited to branch out into some new avenues like video content and student-athlete engagement to really push the Den into the upper echelon of student sections across the country.
GJB: With school not in session for the first contest against UNLV, how will you get the word out to students to try and attend the game on September 10?
Jeff: This is one of those unique problems we face being on the quarter system. We’ve been hitting all of the new student orientations with great presentations on The Den and building excitement for football season. We make sure to tell all students that the Den Pass includes the UNLV game even though it’s before school. There will be some rooter busses that run from campus to accommodate the students taking summer classes as well. I think it will be important for us to blast it all over our social media accounts and try and get every local student so excited, that they just can’t wait any longer. The more hype we build, the better.
Kyle: I think the biggest thing is going to be building that excitement. Obviously not every UCLA student is local, but with so many kids living in Southern California, we want to let them know that this game is not one they’re going to want to miss! With any luck, our team can replicate some of our success from the game in Vegas last year, but more importantly, this game is the first chance for students to get that taste of a UCLA Football home game in the 2016 season. There’s only 6 home games, and we want to make sure our students know that just because school hasn’t started doesn’t mean they can’t get in on the excitement early!
Next: Part 3
GJB: The Den is always the loudest section of the Rose Bowl. Who do we have to talk to in the Athletic Department to get some cameras or microphones on you during crucial parts of the game to help pump up the crowd?
Jeff: The easiest way to relay any ideas for The Den would be to email either one of us. We then can easily communicate it to the proper people in the department and see what the possibilities are. I absolutely love hearing new ideas for The Den, whether they come from students, alumni, or other fans. I like the idea of using the student section to help bring the energy up among the rest of the fans. That is one of our main goals after all! I’ll look into the possibility of Den-focused microphones and/or cameras; I think it would be great. My email is jkohl@athletics.ucla.edu
Kyle: We’re glad you like the noise we bring! As Jeff said, we’re always looking for new and exciting ways to expand the Den’s presence and help our teams as much as possible. We’ll be working closely with department personnel in charge of in-game programming this year to ensure that the Den has the greatest impact possible on games.
.@UCLAFootball pic.twitter.com/eJnVGwywe3
— The Den (@uclatheden) July 26, 2016
GJB: What has been your favorite UCLA Football experience with The Den?
Jeff: You have to make us choose?! For me, it has to be our victory over SC in 2014. That was my freshman year, and my first experience with the rivalry. The passion, excitement, and energy was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. I twisted my ankle from jumping around so much and lost my voice for a couple days, but it was 100% worth it. That feeling is what I try and bring to The Den for every single game, and it’s what I use to encourage students to come to the Rose Bowl or Pauley instead of watching it in their dorm room. You can’t get that experience on TV.
Kyle: It’s only been two years, but it’s already so hard to choose just one! I think I’d have to go with Myles Jack’s late-game interception to steal the win against BYU last season. After we’d already come back from 10 points down in the 4th quarter, I remember watching Tanner Mangum lead BYU down the field and fearing the worst, especially considering the magic he’d had in their two prior games. Then, suddenly, Myles had the ball, and I was running around the Den screaming my head off. A close second is Josh Rosen’s huge TD run to take the lead against Washington State last year, but I try not to think about that game anymore. In both of those moments, I probably hugged about 50 total strangers and yelled so loud I lost my voice for about a week after. It’s moments like that that you can’t get anywhere else- you only get four years in college, and if you don’t savor every moment you have in the Den, think of all the memories you’ll be missing!
Next: Part 4
GJB: What is the quickest way to get up to the minute information on The Den? (website, twitter, Facebook?)
Jeff: Definitely our social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. On Facebook we are just “The Den” and our other platforms we are @uclatheden. We don’t have another website besides uclabruins.com/theden. It’s something that we will probably look into building at some point though. (We’re also pretty funny on our social media, so hit us with the follow!)
Kyle: We also make extensive use of our Snapchat (also @uclatheden) to bring exciting news to fans- this year, we actually dropped our new Den shirt design on Snapchat first. If you’re looking for up-to-date info, social media is your best bet, and if you want to get in contact with us with any questions or ideas you may have, you can reach us via email at uclatheden@gmail.com.
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GJB: UCLA’s first conference game is against Stanford at the Rose Bowl on September 24… what do you have planned and how can we help?
Jeff: We are going to hype up this game a ridiculous amount. I always love when we have a home game right after welcome week because students are naturally excited about the first game when campus is back in action. We will have our 2nd Annual Champed Up event in Pauley Pavilion on Tuesday, September 20th. It’s kind of like a Den orientation of sorts, where we can get students excited about UCLA Athletics, teach them Den traditions, and let them know what’s expected of them when they’re in The Den. We are in the process of planning this with the athletic department right now, but it’s going to be tons of fun.
Additionally, Friday, September 23rd, is Den Shirt Day. We are going to throw a sweet event in Bruin Plaza where students can pick up their Den Shirt for the year. We are hopefully going to work with UCLA Spirit Squad to include Joe and Josie Bruin, cheerleaders, music, games, and use it as another way to get students psyched for the Stanford game.
How fans can help: If Go Joe Bruin, and all fans can get to the game early, wear blue, and build excitement around the game, I think that would help. As much as the stadium feeds off The Den’s noise, the students also love it when everyone else matches our energy level. Plus, the more hype built up in the UCLA community, students will get more stoked for the game. We want this game to be an insane atmosphere!
Kyle: This game is going to be absolutely crazy! Students are already excited, knowing that Stanford also has a very good team this year and that the game itself should be very intense. Our goal is to completely fill the Den- with any luck, everyone will bring their friends that they meet that first week of school, and we can create an absolutely insane in-game environment. We’ve got plenty of events planned for the week prior to the game, as Jeff said, and we’re hoping to get students excited about having such a big home game so early in the season.
How fans can help: If Go Joe Bruin can challenge all UCLA fans to get out to that game and get loud, it will help for sure. If the whole stadium is rocking, it’ll set the tone for The Den all year long.
Next: Part 5
GJB: Any other information we should know?
Jeff: I think it might help if we explained the structure of The Den and how it’s managed and operated: So there is a student group on campus called “The Den Operations Club”. As the name suggests, this is an open club for all UCLA students to join to bring their ideas on how to make The Den better as well as help us staff events like Den Shirt Day, Champed Up, etc.
UCLA Bruins
This club has an executive board of 9 people whose positions are as follows:
President (myself), Vice President (Kyle), Creative Content Director, Greek Life Coordinator, Game Day Operations Commissioner, Outreach Coordinator, Dirt Editor, Social Media Director, and Internal Affairs Coordinator.
This team of students work directly with the athletic department to be the voice of the students, continue to grow The Den, and run The Den.. I guess what I want to communicate is that there is a team of anywhere from 40-50 students who are constantly working towards making The Den awesome. Nobody loves UCLA more than this group of people!
Kyle: Not to be overly repetitive, but something you should know is that we’re really always looking for ways to make the Den better! If you have any ideas on ways in which we can improve the Den and/or better engage students, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We love hearing from fans about ways in which we can continue to grow, and Jeff and I are both extremely passionate about helping the Den continue to develop.
GJB: Lastly, why is The Den the best student section in college sports (you know it is!)?
Kyle: The Den is the best student section in college sports because of the tradition we bring to the table. Obviously our Bruin teams have quite a legacy of winning on the field, but we like to think that our student section has a legacy of equal greatness. From exciting in-game traditions at basketball games to the noise of a packed Rose Bowl student section screaming their heads off, no one can match the combination of enthusiasm, passion, tradition, and dedication that the Den brings to each and every UCLA sporting event. Our teams deserve the best, and we take immense pride in doing everything we can to support them in the best way possible and be the greatest student section the world has ever seen!
Jeff: I agree with Kyle. What makes us the best is that we are tasked with upholding the historic traditions of UCLA Athletics. It’s something we take great pride in doing. Anyone who has attended UCLA, worked for UCLA, or has been a part of the UCLA community knows how special of a place it is. We all know that special feeling that UCLA fills us with inside. The Den captures that feeling. I have such a hard time explaining what UCLA means to me to people unfamiliar with the school. If they could spend a day in The Den, they’d understand what being a Bruin is all about. I don’t think many other student sections can say the same.
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Go Joe Bruin would like to give a huge thank you to Jeff Kohl and Kyle Grozen for collaborating with us and we will be sure to have them back throughout the year! Go Bruins!
SUPPORT THE DEN!!!