AmCan graduate plays football for UCLA
Redshirt freshman, backup left tackle Gramlick played in first game for Bruins
Redshirt freshman, backup left tackle Lucas Gramlick played in his first game with Bruins last Saturday.
Lucas Gramlick might have imagined his first- ever college football game for UCLA would be in front of a packed stadium full of ear-pounding students and alumni.
Folsom Field in Boulder, Colo. was anything but on Saturday as no fans were allowed in the 53,613-seat capacity stadium due to the coronavirus pandemic.
That didn’t seem to bother the American Canyon High grad.
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” said Gramlick, a redshirt freshman. “In one respect, it was a positive because when fans are screaming, you can’t communicate sometimes. On the other hand, they can give you energy to play football, but I don’t think we needed it. We were excited to go out there and play.”
The Bruins lost a heartbreaker to Colorado, 48- 42.
Gramlick, a 6-foot-6, 313-pound left tackle, played on special teams on kickoffs and PAT units against Colorado. He is a former Times-Herald Athlete of the Year nominee and the Solano County Athletic Conference Lineman of the Year in 2017.
When Gramlick does start on offense, he should be part of a formidable Bruins attack that put up 478 yards of total offense against Colorado.
“I felt like we were working well on all cylinders,” he said.
“I think there were a few things we didn’t do as well, but we’ll look at the tape and get those fixed.”
The Pac-12 originally postponed its fall season to the spring but eventually decided to open Nov. 7.
“Even though we weren’t sure when the season would start, we’ve always been training,” Gramlick said. “Before the original announcement and after that announcement, we continued to train. We knew it was still a possibility we were going to play in the fall so when we heard, our bodies were taken care of. When the season came, we were all able to get in the swing of it.”
Even though UCLA lost, at least the Bruins were allowed to play.
Last Thursday, the Pac-12 announced that the Cal and Washington game was canceled because one of the Bears’ players tested positive for the coronavirus and a number of other players had to be quarantined. Then, on Friday, the league announced that the Arizona and Utah game had been canceled too, because the Utes were having some of the same issues as Cal.
“No team is immune to the virus,” Gramlick said. “We’re all definitely taking it seriously. We haven’t had an outbreak like some of the other teams. The disease doesn’t discriminate though. We’re hoping to play all of the games we can but we know there’s always a possibility of some cancellations.”
Gramlick is no stranger to the Westwood area of Los Angeles as his father grew up in Downey. He said he has an uncle who lives about 20 minutes away and his grandparents live near Corona.
Like almost all schools in California, UCLA has been distance learning since last March.
“(In March) we had the option of staying here or going home to be with their families,” he said. “Some felt they were safer staying here and they didn’t want to possibly bring the virus back to their families.”
Gramlick is a psychology major with a minor in history.
“I feel like it’s a really good base degree,” Gramlick said about psychology. “For me, I might be interested in something like forensic psychology later, but for right now it’s a good base. I think I can do a lot with it. I plan to pursue a lot of different jobs after graduation.”