2022 Season

[homesteadjoe]

I am not sure why there have been so many negative comments towards Brian Flacks this season. The first year is always hard. Even from a distance, it's easy to see his passion for the game and coaching. It takes time for players and a program to adapt to a new coach. He is definitely one of the best at strategizing opponents and at preparing his boys to play. I have no doubt that he will be able to convince top players to come play for him at Stanford. Stanford water polo has a bright future ahead. Coach Flacks will do a great job, everything will be fine.

[stickman]

I’m sure Flacks will be fine in the long run as well. It’s just very unusual in college sports for a young/inexperienced coach to cut his teeth at the DI level as head coach at one of the top departments in college sports.

Stanford could have easily hired a more established veteran and had success in the short and long term, while Brian learned a thing or two back east or at a SCIAC school.

That’s one of the problems with water polo being such a small and insignificant sport. ADs aren’t as concerned about the success of the programs….Stanford, for example, would not have hired a HS Basketball coach to take over the program, no matter how successful that coach was at the high school level.

Again, I agree Flacks will be fine in the long run and he’ll win more titles than Vargas did, but kinda sucks for most of the guys on the team right now.

[Rbpolo0414]

I’m sure Flacks will be fine in the long run as well. It’s just very unusual in college sports for a young/inexperienced coach to cut his teeth at the DI level as head coach at one of the top departments in college sports.

Stanford could have easily hired a more established veteran and had success in the short and long term, while Brian learned a thing or two back east or at a SCIAC school.

That’s one of the problems with water polo being such a small and insignificant sport. ADs aren’t as concerned about the success of the programs….Stanford, for example, would not have hired a HS Basketball coach to take over the program, no matter how successful that coach was at the high school level.


Again, I agree Flacks will be fine in the long run and he’ll win more titles than Vargas did, but kinda sucks for most of the guys on the team right now.

Sucks for the guys on the team? First off, Flacks doesn’t get the job in the first place without the players going to bat for him. 2nd, Flacks has done a better job than Vargas would of this season. They were #1 after all halfway through the season. That never would of been the case with Vargas. They beat Cal and UCLA in that run and were playing great defense. I’m not sure what happened the last few weeks as I haven’t seen them play, but they are clearly not playing good defense anymore given the scores. Feels like burnout to me from the team but thats just an educated guess. They finished right where I thought they would, which is 4th in the MPSF. They could still win the MPSF tourney and make the championships. They almost did last year as well. On another note, I’m not going to judge him until he has a couple recruiting classes under his belt. That is where he will really outshine Vargas.

[ruin4life]

Interesting insight on the brothers Di Martire
https://dailybruin.com/2022/11/11/di-ma ... from-italy

[3470]

Hmm. I am with Rb and 2ply. Flacks didn't recruit men on the current team and I think he has done pretty well in his maiden voyage. IMHO - there is currently a pretty big difference between say Cal and Stanford in the experience/talent bucket...that will change over time.

[SwimCoach]

Interesting insight on the brothers Di Martire
https://dailybruin.com/2022/11/11/di-ma ... from-italy

How did UCLA let Massimo get away?

[Marco Polo]

Interesting insight on the brothers Di Martire
https://dailybruin.com/2022/11/11/di-ma ... from-italy

How did UCLA let Massimo get away?

Massimo is a grad student. I would guess the calculus for getting a grad student admitted into UCLA is significantly different than for getting an undergrad admitted.

[ruin4life]

Interesting insight on the brothers Di Martire
https://dailybruin.com/2022/11/11/di-ma ... from-italy

How did UCLA let Massimo get away?

Massimo is a grad student. I would guess the calculus for getting a grad student admitted into UCLA is significantly different than for getting an undergrad admitted.

How many years can a grad student play college ball?

[stickman]

"Sucks for the guys on the team? First off, Flacks doesn’t get the job in the first place without the players going to bat for him. 2nd, Flacks has done a better job than Vargas would of this season. They were #1 after all halfway through the season. That never would have been the case with Vargas. They beat Cal and UCLA in that run and were playing great defense. I’m not sure what happened the last few weeks as I haven’t seen them play, but they are clearly not playing good defense anymore given the scores. Feels like burnout to me from the team but thats just an educated guess. They finished right where I thought they would, which is 4th in the MPSF. They could still win the MPSF tourney and make the championships. They almost did last year as well. On another note, I’m not going to judge him until he has a couple recruiting classes under his belt. That is where he will really outshine Vargas."

All valid points. Not trying to bad mouth Brian. Long run, he's one of the best collegiate coaches and over a 10-year period Stanford has more than two titles. All that said...as far as this season goes: The team's performance has dropped off from the outset of the season. "Burnout?" Maybe, but a more experienced coach would know how to better navigate the season. Are the more experienced coaches adapting to what they saw from Stanford early in the season and now out coaching him? Seems like that could be a possibility too. Would a more experienced coach have a better idea of what they're up against and been better prepared for some of the re-matches? There's no question that Brian has the water polo acumen to succeed at this level with this program, it's just going to take a little more time than I think most might have expected and going through that learning process while coaching at Stanford is very unusual.

There were several candidates who've been down the road Brian is currently traveling and might have been better equipped to guide the team to a title this season. Then again, there's still a lot to happen, the conference tournament will say a lot. Hopefully I'm wrong, and Stanford rolls through MPSF tourney and NCAAs. I like Brian a lot and would gladly eat my words...but considering the hype surrounding his arrival, failure to even qualify for NCAA's would be a significant disappointment. Especially for a team that was dominating the first half of the season.

[hoosierborn]

I'm a Flacks fan. Tireless worker and prepares the team very well. Will he learn lessons from his "maiden voyage" this year? Certainly. Will he apply them? I 100% believe so. It was a big jump for the coaching staff. Success rarely occurs in a straight line.

[Rbpolo0414]

"Sucks for the guys on the team? First off, Flacks doesn’t get the job in the first place without the players going to bat for him. 2nd, Flacks has done a better job than Vargas would of this season. They were #1 after all halfway through the season. That never would have been the case with Vargas. They beat Cal and UCLA in that run and were playing great defense. I’m not sure what happened the last few weeks as I haven’t seen them play, but they are clearly not playing good defense anymore given the scores. Feels like burnout to me from the team but thats just an educated guess. They finished right where I thought they would, which is 4th in the MPSF. They could still win the MPSF tourney and make the championships. They almost did last year as well. On another note, I’m not going to judge him until he has a couple recruiting classes under his belt. That is where he will really outshine Vargas."

All valid points. Not trying to bad mouth Brian. Long run, he's one of the best collegiate coaches and over a 10-year period Stanford has more than two titles. All that said...as far as this season goes: The team's performance has dropped off from the outset of the season. "Burnout?" Maybe, but a more experienced coach would know how to better navigate the season. Are the more experienced coaches adapting to what they saw from Stanford early in the season and now out coaching him? Seems like that could be a possibility too. Would a more experienced coach have a better idea of what they're up against and been better prepared for some of the re-matches? There's no question that Brian has the water polo acumen to succeed at this level with this program, it's just going to take a little more time than I think most might have expected and going through that learning process while coaching at Stanford is very unusual.

There were several candidates who've been down the road Brian is currently traveling and might have been better equipped to guide the team to a title this season. Then again, there's still a lot to happen, the conference tournament will say a lot. Hopefully I'm wrong, and Stanford rolls through MPSF tourney and NCAAs. I like Brian a lot and would gladly eat my words...but considering the hype surrounding his arrival, failure to even qualify for NCAA's would be a significant disappointment. Especially for a team that was dominating the first half of the season.

I agree with your points and I’ve essentially said the same about needing time. I think he came out of the gates fast and threw everything at the other teams, while they were just exploring their lineups and not really focused on showing all their tricks. I think he will learn pretty quickly when to step on the gas and when to back off. I do disagree that it will be a disappointment if they don’t make NCAA’s. I would of picked them 4th no matter who the coach was as the other big 4 teams have more talent at the top on their lineups as well as depth. If he makes the tourney I will be impressed.

[SwimCoach]

Before the season started, I do not think that most expected Flacks and Stanford to make the NCAAs. They had several big wins early which raised their expectations, but, like others have said, I do not think that Everist, Wright and Pinta typically show their hands that early in the season.

The disappointment that I feel is fair is the way that they have been blown out in a couple of their games. Allowing 19 and 18 goals to USC and Cal was brutal for a team that prides themselves in defense. Cal was up 10-4 at half and had 16 goals through 3 before they took it back a few notches.

[Cal Polo Enthusiast]

GCC FIRST-TEAM GCC ALL-CONFERENCE

Dennis Blyashov Pepperdine
Reuel D'Souza Pacific
Bogdan Djerkovic Pacific
Bae Fountain Pacific
Sam Nangle UC Santa Barbara
Rafael Real Vergara Long Beach State
Garrett Zaan Long Beach State

https://www.gccwaterpolo.com/article/1540.php

GCC Championship

https://www.gccwaterpolo.com/article/1539.php

[SwimCoach]

Looking forward to the MPSF Tournament this weekend at USC.

In the meantime, here are the awards that the MPSF announced today:

Player of the Year: Junior Nikolaos Papanikolaou becomes only the second player to win the award three times

Newcomer of the Year: Massimo Di Martire the 22 year old graduate student was named Newcomer of the Week four times during the season

Coach of the Year: Kirk Everist becomes the first coach to win the award in three consecutive years

ALL-MPSF
Nikolaos Papanikolaou Junior Center California Athens, Greece
Max Casabella Sophomore Attacker California Mataro, Spain
Ashworth Molthen R-Senior Driver USC Buena Park, CA
Jake Cavano Senior Attacker UCLA Huntington Beach, CA
Tommy Gruwell Junior Attacker UCLA San Diego, CA
Quinn Woodhead Senior Utility Stanford San Anselmo, CA
Jack Deely Senior Utility California Danville, CA
Jake Ehrhardt R-Senior Two-Meter USC Camarillo, CA
Adrian Weinberg Junior Goalkeeper California Oak Park, CA
Bernardo Maurizi Senior Goalkeeper UCLA Florence, Italy

[Rbpolo0414]

Looking forward to the MPSF Tournament this weekend at USC.

In the meantime, here are the awards that the MPSF announced today:

Player of the Year: Junior Nikolaos Papanikolaou becomes only the second player to win the award three times

Newcomer of the Year: Massimo Di Martire the 22 year old graduate student was named Newcomer of the Week four times during the season

Coach of the Year: Kirk Everist becomes the first coach to win the award in three consecutive years

ALL-MPSF
Nikolaos Papanikolaou Junior Center California Athens, Greece
Max Casabella Sophomore Attacker California Mataro, Spain
Ashworth Molthen R-Senior Driver USC Buena Park, CA
Jake Cavano Senior Attacker UCLA Huntington Beach, CA
Tommy Gruwell Junior Attacker UCLA San Diego, CA
Quinn Woodhead Senior Utility Stanford San Anselmo, CA
Jack Deely Senior Utility California Danville, CA
Jake Ehrhardt R-Senior Two-Meter USC Camarillo, CA
Adrian Weinberg Junior Goalkeeper California Oak Park, CA
Bernardo Maurizi Senior Goalkeeper UCLA Florence, Italy

That is a loaded 1st team. I don’t like that extra year of eligibility but it’s hard to argue with the amount of talent this year. Di Martire didn’t even make 1st team. Best player on the team.