SPLASH! A goal at the buzzer by redshirt junior Frederico Jucá Carsalade last December 7 concluded a thrilling 11–10 Bruin victory over archrival University of Southern California, giving the UCLA men’s water polo team its second straight national title — the 125th across all sports in the storied annals of UCLA Athletics. It wrapped up a 27–2 season for the blue and gold; the title game avenged those earlier losses — which were both to USC.
Busts of Terry Donahue ’67, M.S. ’77, Cori Close M.Ed. ’95 and, of course John Wooden, among others, belong on the top shelf of Westwood’s groaning trophy case — but clear some room up there for the tanned visage of Adam Wright ’01, who has now won six national titles as head coach of men’s water polo. He also won two as a player, in 1999 and 2000. Over the decades, the squad has won 14 championships overall, more than a tenth of UCLA’s entire haul.
Wright and his watery charges couldn’t luxuriate long in the glow of their triumph; three months after Carsalade’s goal, Close’s women’s hoops team won March Madness for title No. 126; in May, the women’s beach volleyball team notched No. 127. Such is life at the top: fleeting.
No one’s complaining.
As Wright, 49, begins his eighteenth season as the head man poolside, he’s giddy about the back-to-back nattys—but careful not to tread water. “[Every championship] is special and unique in its own way,” he says, “but there’s no doubt you have a target on your back as defending national champions.” Those targets have often gone unperturbed; the Bruins have repeated as men’s water polo champs five times.
The coach is philosophical about the perils of the pinnacle. “Winning is dangerous, because it can engender complacency,” he says. “We need to be sure we’re staying true to our standards in the weight room and in the classroom — that’s where things can go sideways after success.”
He mentions the lecture hall advisedly: The UCLA men boast the most Academic All-Americans of any team in the country, with 16. “That’s meaningful,” he adds. “No one will ever retire off water polo, so the student is truly first.” Name, image and likeness lucre for gridiron and hoops stars could fill an Olympic pool, but “no one will make $10 million a year off this.” Players’ discipline in the gym — water polo is a grueling, full-contact sport — and in class alike is therefore “a credit to them. It shows the value of the culture.”
It’s a team sport, but individual accolades abound, foremost the Peter J. Cutino Award, “water polo’s Heisman Trophy,” as Wright puts it. In 2025, UCLA’s Ryder Dodd, a sophomore who tends to the “attacker” position, became the fifth Bruin in the award’s 25-year history to take home the prize.
With 127 championships and counting, the Bruins rank second in NCAA history, trailing only Stanford, which has 138. USC is third with 116, but men’s water polo has gelded the Trojan horse of late, beating Southern Cal in the national title game each of the last two years.
A new season kicks off in the fall, but the grinding work of preparing for a three-peat has only just begun. “We’re already a different team,” Wright says, speaking of the natural attrition of college athletics, “but these last two championships are so special. No one can ever take them away.”
Read more from UCLA Magazine’s Summer 2026 issue.
