BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Playmaker
Brian Brown earned an All-American honorable
mention last year as a junior.
By Rekha Rao
Daily Bruin Contributor
Senior Brian Brown competes in each water polo game in the
position that matches him up against the best player from the
opposing team. For the past four years, he has fought against
worldwide greats, including future Olympians.
“He is very confident. He has the difficult task every
game of matching up with the opposing team’s best
player,” said UCLA head coach Adam Krikorian.
Despite this challenge, the coach added, “He went through
last year guarding really excellent players, and shut them
down.”
Yet Brown is a normal, dependable guy. A normal guy who just
happened to lead his team to a NCAA championship and has been
featured in Sports Illustrated Faces in the Crowd.
“I got a lot of flack for that one from the seniors on the
team,” Brown said. “I didn’t even know it was
happening, and they found out before I did.”
Brown was practically raised in the water. As a child growing up
in Tustin, he started swimming because his father was a swim coach.
At age 8, Brown gave water polo a try for the first time and fell
in love with the sport.
“I tried water polo to break up the monotony of swimming,
and I loved it,” Brown said.
He went to Foothill High School, where he swam and competed in
water polo, and had a variety of colleges to choose from, including
Stanford and Cal.
But in the end it was UCLA he chose.
“The players were the ones who made me decide to come to
UCLA. We are like a family and I liked seeing that
interaction,” Brown said. “The coaching staff is great
too, there is a good relationship between the coaches and players;
it is more on a personal level.”
When Brown first came to UCLA, he actually enjoyed redshirting
his freshman year.
“It was the only time off from competition that I have had
since I was 8 years old,” he said.
But then he found it was hard for him to come back.
Not only was Brown detached from competition, he was also
physically out of shape. He used the training time from his
freshman year to regain all the strength from his previous high
school years.
“It was hard to get back into it. But with working out in
the water, swimming, leg work and drills, I got back into the
game,” he said.
Brown’s role on the team is essential to its success. He
not only plays one of the most versatile positions, but as one of
six seniors on the team he takes on a leadership role for the
younger players.
“I try to lead by example. I probably get frustrated
sometimes, but it’s all right. The younger players will
listen to you; this is our fifth year here, and we have the
experience to give them answers,” Brown said.
One way Brown leads by example is through his play.
“We can match him up with the best player in the nation
and say, “˜We know Brian has that taken care of.’ He is
a rock defensively,” Krikorian said.
And the younger guys are taking notice.
“He is really quick in the water, and he knows he is good
on the counter-attack,” said sophomore attacker Kyle
Baumgarner.
Brown’s determination to finish the game led him through
successful freshman and sophomore years and an unforgettable junior
season that culminated with the NCAA Championship.
“We have gotten better every year. Last year was obviously
the greatest one,” Brown said.
But it was on Oct. 16 last year that Brown played his most
impressive and defining game. He scored a career-high five points
in UCLA’s 8-2 victory over Cal.
“I was the open man, and I put the shots away,”
Brown said. “It was just going for me that day.”
With last year’s NCAA championship, this year’s team
hopes to continue the title-winning tradition.
“Winning is the greatest feeling ever. It didn’t
really hit me for a while,” he said. “I knew we had
won, but I couldn’t believe it. It has always been a goal of
mine.”
Brown, a math-applied science student, plans to go into business
after graduation. But that’s for later. This quarter, water
polo is encompassing his life.
“After the season is done, I can think about what I want
to do with my life,” he said. “Right now it’s
just polo.”
And right now, it’s just about winning another
championship.