By When Alyssa Diacono took the head men’s and women’s water polo job at Mount St. Mary’s in March 2020, she had no inkling that a global pandemic was about to halt all intercollegiate athletic competition in America less than two weeks later. Undeterred, the former standout for Carin Crawford at
Poets Angling for SCIAC Repeat
After an unbearably long layoff from competition, all nine members of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) will get back in the water on Saturday, September 4. It’s been almost 21 months since the last SCIAC men’s competition—which took place November 24, 2019 when Whittier beat Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) 13-12
Five Questions with Rick Nordell, Biola University Men’s Water Polo Coach
In May 2020, Dr. Bethany Miller, Bible Institute of Los Angles (Biola) University’s Senior Director of Athletics, introduced Rick Nordell as its first head men’s water polo coach. With his appointment, Nordell joined Sarah Orozco, former UCLA women’s water polo standout and Biola’s women’s coach, as part of the Eagles’
By Pod: NCAA Champion, UCLA Head Coach Adam Wright
In his 12 years as Head Coach of the UCLA Men’s team Adam Wright has won four NCAA Championships, including one just a few weeks ago. In 2017 he became head coach of the Bruins women and was in Bloomington, Indiana earlier this week with that second-ranked team to take
Pod: Indiana University Head Coach Taylor Dodson
Taylor Dodson took over as Head Coach of the Indiana Hoosiers in 2019 and led them to a 13-5 record and a top 20 ranking in her first wild season. She returns for her second pandemic-affected season and currently ranks 15th in the CWPA coaches’ poll with a very challenging
Win or Lose, MAWPC Championship a Victory for La Salle Men in Program’s Finale
In the new normal that is American collegiate water polo due to COVID-19, competition has been inconsistent at best and often faces insurmountable obstacles—ones that leave most everyone dissatisfied. Except for the Explorers of La Salle, who will play George Washington at 11:30 a.m. today in the 2021 Mid-Atlantic Water
Pod: Brian Flacks, Paul Splitt on Waterpolo in the Time of Covid
Covid has had profound effects on water polo as it is practiced throughout the United States. This conversation is hopefully the first of several in which we discuss exactly how the pandemic has altered high school and club programs in a variety of states and localities. Brian Flacks is a
JP Mujica: A Generational Change for Puerto Rican Water Polo
Despite little mainstream recognition, water polo inspires among its devotees a passion that often spans generations—a telling example of which is the Mujica family’s the long association with the sport. Agustin Mujica, the family patriarch, first became involved with the sport in the late 1970s, when his oldest son Gus
Davidson Eyes Water Polo Renaissance after COVID-19 Dark Ages
In the midst of a nation-wide sports shutdown caused by the novel coronavirus, Ian Davidson, an age group water polo coach in Southern California, got busy. Staying put in his native San Diego, where his wife was expecting their first child, Davidson—one of the lead youth coaches in USA Water
COVID-19 Claims Tom Burek, Beloved Monmouth Swim and Diving Coach
It’s a convenient conceit to wax poetic about life tragically cut short, but in the midst of a global pandemic whose death toll is approaching two million—and almost 320,000 in this country—it feels trivial to speak to the significance of one life in contrast to oh so many lost. But
