DAVE HILL/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Water polo goalkeeper,
sophomore Brandon Brooks fills his space well,
using his wide reach to block his opponents’ shots on goal.
By Rekha Rao
Daily Bruin Contributor
Sophomore Brandon Brooks stepped into former UCLA water polo
goalie Parsa Bonderson’s shoes on Oct. 17 at last
year’s NCAA championship season.
In a game against UC Santa Barbara, Brooks, then a freshman,
took over for the injured Bonderson and led the Bruins to a 9-3
victory that day. From that point on, he has been the Bruins’
No. 1 goalie. Brooks started the remainder of last season’s
11 games and all of this season’s 17 games.
“It was good to come in against UCSB, and I just stayed in
that position for the rest of the season,” Brooks said.
He led the Bruins to a NCAA championship season and played
against Stanford in the finals.
“Winning the championship was almost surreal. It seemed
like I was in the back along for the ride. But the guys were great
and supportive. They helped me through it,” Brooks said.
Brooks has the talent and the skills to succeed in water polo.
But he doesn’t have the experience that other goalies in the
league have.
“He has unbelievable size. He has a great attitude and
demeanor about him,” co-head coach Adam Krikorian said.
“He has all the tools, and needs more experience. The more
experience he gets, the better he will be.”
But these shoes are not the ones Brooks has always wanted to
fill.
Playing water polo as a freshman in Honolulu, Hawaii’s
Punahou High School, Brooks didn’t really enjoy playing
goalie for the varsity squad. In fact, he hated the goalie position
during his first year.
“My coach just put me in the goal. It was a struggle at
first because a lot of times the guys are sort of hard on you.
Every time you get scored on, they talk about you, so I ended up
quitting my sophomore year,” Brooks said.
But after maturing for a season, he began to appreciate the
contributions that a goalie makes to the team. “I think I
understood that not every goal is my fault and I didn’t have
many of the older guys after me at all times,” said
Brooks.
Brooks also played football and ran track all four years of high
school.
“I have never really known much else besides sports, so I
loved it,” said Brooks.
Playing on both the Bruin water polo and basketball teams,
Brooks wasn’t just focused on filling Bonderson’s
shoes. Having played both sports in high school, Brooks was
familiar with balancing the two.
“In Hawaii, basketball gets so much more attention than
water polo, but here I am not playing basketball anymore and water
polo has become more important,” he said.
Water polo and basketball have different significance to Brooks.
Basketball is higher profile, while water polo is more local and
fun.
“Basketball is a great experience, there are great people
who handle so much more notoriety,” Brooks explained.
“But the fun of water polo is not having to deal with
everyone criticizing you all the time.
“Here with water polo, you play the game just to play the
game,” Brooks added.
In basketball, Brooks was a forward, much different than his
normal position in water polo. Always on the offense in basketball,
he now has the opportunity to lead the defense and be more of a
team leader while he calls out the plays and the clock to his
teammates.
“Being a goalie is totally different. You are so isolated
from the game when they are on offense, and so into the game when
you are on defense,” Brooks said.
Another role that Brooks has grown into is that of the roommate,
teammate and friend.
“The guys on the team helped a lot, they have so much
knowledge and see the game so well. If I can be around Sean and
Adam (Wright) enough, then maybe I can pick up on many
things,” Brooks said.
Sean Kern, Brooks’ senior teammate and roommate, agreed
that Brooks fills the shoes of the perfect goalie and friend.
“He is a great roommate,” Kern said. “I know
that Adam and I tried to help him out last year, but now he has
taken things to his own level and does fine on his own. He is fun
to have around.”
Brooks’ goal is to continue with both sports, and
hopefully play professional basketball and water polo somewhere in
Europe.
“Italy, Greece, or Spain would be wonderful. A house with
no taxes, playing professional basketball and water polo would be
my dream,” Brooks said.