Dante Dettamanti

Coach Dettamanti has produced winning and championship water polo teams at all levels. He started as a graduate assistant coach at UCLA, under the legendary Bob Horn. While at UCLA the school won the first ever NCAA Championship ever held in 1969. From there he went on to Occidental College, where he transformed a program that had been the league doormat, into league champions, in just two short years. After coaching at Oxy for 4 years he went on to UC Santa Barbara and turned the water polo program around, again producing a league champion team and a NCAA top four finish in just three years time.

It was at Stanford University though, that Dettamanti came into his own as a winning coach. In 25 years at Stanford, his teams played in the NCAA Championship final game a total of 14 times, producing 8 NCAA Championships and 6 second place finishes. His teams have finished outside of the collegiate top four rankings only a total of three times during that 25 year period. He became only the second collegiate coach in NCAA history to record over 600 wins, along with UC Irvine’s Ted Newland. His eight national championships ties the NCAA record for the most in NCAA history, along with the legendary Pete Cutino of Cal-Berkeley. His .800 winning percentage at Stanford also is an NCAA record.

He has been named League “Coach of the Year” ten times and NCAA “Coach of the Year” six different times. Dettamanti has also had great success at the International level. He coached the USA World University Games teams to Gold and Silver medals in 1979 and 1981; the highest finish ever for a USA National team. Dettamanti gained valuable International coaching experience as assistant National Team coach under Bill Barnett at the 1990 FINA Cup and at the 1991 FINA World Championships; and as an assistant at the 2001 World Championships under the top International coach in the world, Ratko Rudic. Dettamanti has not only produced winning teams, but also top international players. Twelve of his players have gone on to play for the USA Olympic Team, including Olympic team standouts Jody Campbell, Craig Klass, Wolf Wigo and Tony Azevedo.