Brandon Alcott
Brandon began playing polocrosse at the age of 5 with his family (brother, Seth, and parents Dean and Nancy Alcott) in Phoenix, AZ. He played in his first polocrosse competition at the age of 6 in the junior division at an APA (American Polocrosse Association) sanctioned tournament in Scottsdale, AZ. At the age of 8, the entire family packed and moved to the pacific northwest where there was an active horse community, but where polocrosse was non-existent. The entire family became involved in Pony Club, first in the Carbon River Pony Club in Puyallup, WA, and later at Baywood Pony Club in Olympia, WA. With no polocrosse competition in the area, the Alcotts set out to create their own competition. As a family, they taught polocrosse clinics to pony clubs all over the northwest. With the acceptance of polocrosse as an official pony club discipline, a number of pony clubs began to field polocrosse teams for the northwest region polocrosse rally.
Soon after moving to Washington, the family also began playing polo at the Tacoma Polo Club in Roy, WA. The Alcotts hosted a popular pony club polo and polocrosse camp for several years at the family’s Promised Land Ranch in Yelm, WA.
Brandon’s involvement in Polocrosse, Pony Club, and Polo continued into high school and college. Brandon continued to play polocrosse in local tournaments, and made a few appearances at larger polocrosse tournaments in Canada, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. The family continued to teach and coach polocrosse to players in Washington state, and Brandon began to branch out on his own, teaching a number of clinics in California.
Brandon began competing in interscholastic polo in 2001, representing the Tacoma Polo Club at the Western Regional tournament in Santa Barbara, CA. In 2002 the team (consisting of Brandon Alcott, Seth Alcott, and Catlin Dix) advanced to the finals, but lost to the experienced Poway team (Shane Rice, Danika Rice, Jared Sheldon). Brandon continued to play polo at Washington State University, acting as both player and coach to a team that was rebuilding itself from the ground up. During this time, Brandon competed all over the country, won many games, and finally advanced to the Intercollegiate National Polo Championships during his senior year (with teammates Seth Alcott, Elliot Wakefield, and Curtis Earl). During the summers, Brandon continued to play polo in the northwest, primarily at the Tacoma Polo Club.
After college, Brandon moved to Portland, OR. He was soon asked to coach the Oregon State University Polo Team, and began to teach private lessons to individuals in the area. Brandon further honed his teaching skills by working as a ballroom dance instructor. He began to regularly teach a group of Pony Clubbers both polocrosse and polo, coaching them at the NW Region Polocrosse Rally in Tacoma, WA, as well as the Interscholastic SE Region Women’s Polo tournament in Owings Mills, MD. Brandon has coached the OSU polo team at multiple regional competitions, and coached the women’s team at the Intercollegiate National Tournament in Charlottesville, VA.
During the summer of 2011, Brandon coached the United States Pony Club international exchange team at the Polocrosse World Cup in England. They did very well, placing third, but only narrowly beaten by two UK teams!
Brandon coached several interscholastic polo teams at regional tournaments in California from 2013-2016, and will again in 2018. The interscholastic program continues to improve every year. Brandon is a nationally recognized polo instructor for the United States Polo Association (USPA), and has taught many clinics all over the country for the USPA.
In addition to teaching, Brandon plays polo professionally during the summer season, and is hired to play in tournaments all over the Northwest Circuit. He can be found every summer at the Tacoma Polo Club, Seattle Polo Club, La Conner Polo Club, White Swan Polo Club, Spokane Polo Club, Bend Polo Club, and at the LaGrande Polo Club. Brandon often fits in lessons while on the road at these other tournaments.
Currently for fall/winter 2017 Brandon’s projects include coaching Oregon State University again. He also has an interscholastic polo team that will be competing all over the Northwest in preparation for the regional tournament, which will take place in California in February. Brandon also has a large group of adult students that will be getting together weekly for arena polo lessons and practices.
