Among the best international officials in the history of the game, Michael Goldenberg currently gives back to the game of water polo as the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA)/Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC)/Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC)/Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) varsity assignor following his retirement from officiating.

A conduit for the recruitment, management and support of the varsity officiating ranks, Goldenberg called the Gold Medal match at the 2019 World Championships and the men’s Gold Medal match at the 2020/2021 Tokyo Olympics prior to stepping way to educate the next generation of officials.

The recipient of the 2022 Bret Bernard National Referee Award (Elite) from USA Water Polo, he officiated collegiate competition from 1993-to-2024 and has called conference and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships Finals. He became an international referee (FINA) in 2003 and officiated Gold Medal games on a variety of levels around the globe while also serving as the Head Coach/Administrator with South Florida Water Polo Club and the Head Coach of the Boys Team at St. Thomas Aquinas High School, both located in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Hall of Fame member/former University of Michigan athlete Shana Welch competed for the Wolverines during the 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 seasons leading the Maize & Blue to the CWPA Championship (then known as Eastern Championships) in 2005 to accompany a pair of runner-up marks (2004, 2006) and a fourth place (2007) finish as the team reached the CWPA title game three times during her tenure.

Overall, Michigan finished 112-51 during her four-year career (2004: 30-9; 2005: 29-14; 2006: 29-12; 2007: 24-16), including a 26-3 mark in CWPA Western Division play in claiming four consecutive division crowns.

A third team Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-America selection in 2005 and two-time All-America Honorable Mention in 2006 and 2007,  she is the only three-time (2005, 2006, 2007) CWPA Most Valuable Player in school history and was the CWPA Rookie of the Year in 2005 to currently stand as the only women’s player to sweep all of the major awards she was eligible for over a four-year span. A four-time All-Western Division First Team Selection (2004-to-2007), Welch garnered nine CWPA Player of the Week honors and established new program records for career goals (297) and points (393), served as captain of the Wolverines in her junior and senior seasons and was the recipient of the Michigan Athletic Academic Achievement Award in 2006 and 2007, as well as the Bob Ufer Senior Athlete Award in 2007 to accompany USA Speedo Top 40 honors in 2005 and 2006.

Official Val Vasilchikov discusses coming up in the game in Baku, Azerbaijan, immigrating from the former Soviet Union and his experiences as a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) official.

One of three finalists for the 2019-20 Cutino Award presented annually by the Olympic Club in San Francisco for the most outstanding player in the collegiate game, Rade Joksimovic is arguably the best water polo player in the history of the Bison program.  As a senior in 2019 he earned Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) Division I First Team All-America honors.  The inaugural Bucknell water polo player to earn First Team All-America recognition, the laurel marked his fourth All-America nod after previously garnering Second Team honors in 2018, Honorable Mention in 2017 and Third Team honors in 2016. The senior joined Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Hall of Fame member Scott Schulte as the only multi-time All-America selection in Bucknell men’s water polo history last season, and stands alone as the only Bison to ever earn a spot on the All-America teams three times.  A four-time Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Player of the Year honoree and the 2019 MAWPC Championship Player of the Tournament, Joksimovic proved an instrumental part in helping Bucknell win the title to advance to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships for just the second time since 1985. In the Bucknell record books, Joksimovic finished his Bucknell career second in points (714), second in goals (527), fifth in assists (187), first in steals (317), and tenth in ejections drawn (124). The senior also finished his career having started the most games in Bucknell history (120) The sole athlete named to the 2019 ACWPC First, Second or Third Team All-America teams from an institution not in the state of California, he stands as the most honored men’s water polo athlete from any institution outside the state of the California in the history of the sport as the four-time MAWPC First Team selection and MAWPC Championship All-Tournament First Team pick (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019); 2016 MAWPC Rookie of the Year, 2016 MAWPC Championship Rookie of the Tournament; 2016, 2018 and 2019 MAWPC Championship Most Valuable Player; 11-time MAWPC Player of the Week; seven-time MAWPC Rookie of the Week; and two-time MAWPC Rookie of the Week concluded his tenure among the best-of the-best in the history of NCAA water polo.

A 2006 inductee to the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Hall of Fame, former Bucknell University standout Scott Schulte ’81 was an All-East water polo selection four straight years (1977-80), led the Bison to four Eastern Championships and set an all-time NCAA water polo career scoring record with 586 goals.

The high scorer in four straight NCAA Tournaments (the only player to accomplish this feat) and holder of the career record of 50 goals in NCAA Championships, Schulte played on Bucknell teams that had a combined record of 114-15-3, and he was a Second Team All-America in 1979 and 1980. He was the only player outside of California selected to those All-America squads.

In non-collegiate play, he was twice selected to the United States Water Polo (USWP) All-America First Team, and seven times in his career finished in the top six of an East Coast Conference Swimming Championship event. He won Bucknell’s Christy Mathewson Award, which recognizes the top athlete in the senior class, in 1981.

Schulte was a member of the U.S. National Team from 1980-84, was a First Team Indoor All-America from 1981-85, was Most Valuable Player at the Indoor Nationals in 1981 and 1984, and competed in the World University Games in 1981. He was inducted into the Bucknell Hall of Fame in 1986.

The head men’s water polo coach at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 2014-to-2017, Dave Andriole ranks third in career victories at MIT behind Collegiate Water Polo Association Hall of Fame member John Benedick and Jeff Ma.

Involved in water polo as a player and coach for more than 30 years, Andriole has been involved in the sport on the collegiate, national, and international levels. In 1995, he was a founding member and player/coach of KAOS Water Polo based in Los Angeles. Most recently, from 2011 until the summer of 2014, he was the head coach of West Hollywood Aquatics Water Polo, and also coached at Westside Aquatics in Palisades, California.

A graduate of Yale University where he earned his B.A. in history in 1986, Andriole earned his Juris Doctorate degree from Northwestern University School of Law in 1989. While at Yale, he was a varsity water polo player and swimmer, and helped train and coach its men’s and women’s club teams.

An attorney, Andriole has returned to his roots in film and production as the former Engineers' leader is working in the entertainment industry. Currently a production attorney for CBS Television Distribution, he previously worked Business and Legal Affairs with Chassy Media, a full service production company as well as a distribution company, which acquired and created content featuring “the best in automotive and motor-related media”. Further, he has remained active in the performance sector as a voice actor and was a member of the loop crew for productions including the feature films “IT” and “Independence Day: Resurgence.”

A working actor prior to assuming the head coach role at MIT, he has appeared on television in shows such as “The West Wing”, “Monk”, “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”, “CSI: Miami”, “Beverly Hills: 90210”, “Baywatch” and “Bones”.  Further, he provided work for video games, including “Star Wars: The Old Republic”, “Grand Theft Auto V”, and feature films.

The men’s water polo head coach at Johns Hopkins University for 27 years, Ted Bresnahan coached the Blue Jays for all but three of the program’s varsity seasons. He took over as the program’s fourth head coach in 1991 and turned Hopkins into one of the premier Division III water polo programs in the nation. Bresnahan led JHU to a 414-389 (.515) record, while competing primarily against Division I competition, and he is just the fifth head coach in any sport in Johns Hopkins’ history to reach 400 wins. Bresnahan coached 65 Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-America selections, including 31 first team picks, a record five national Players of the Year and five College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America recipients. JHU has produced at least one All-America selection in every season since 1996. In addition, Bresnahan led the Blue Jays to a record 17 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Division III Championships and six times Hopkins has been ranked number one in the nation in the season’s final poll. He was named the ACWPC National Coach of the Year in 2005, 2008, and 2015.

Among the leading officials in the collegiate game, Alex Stankevitch is a regular fixture on the deck for some of the most important games on the domestic and international stages. A Social Studies and Special Education High School teacher in south New Jersey when not officiating, Stankevitch emigrated to the United States from Belarus and graduated from the University of California-Santa Barbara. During his time at Merced College and UC-Santa Barbara, he began to officiate ultimately rising to his current position in the collegiate game.

Co-founder of KAP7 International, Brad Schumacher has experienced success in athletics and business. A former swimmer, water polo player and Olympic gold medalist. Schumacher is a two-time, two-sport Olympian. He was a member of the winning relay teams at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Four years later, he was a member of the U.S. men's water polo team at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Schumacher's two gold medals came as a member of the U.S. men's swimming relay teams at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia: in the men's 4X100-meter freestyle relay and in the men's 4X200-meter freestyle relay. He qualified for both swimming and water polo for the 2000 Olympic Games, but chose to compete only in water polo. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, he helped the U.S. men's water polo team to a sixth-place finish. He was the top sprinter at the 2000 Olympics, with 20 sprints won. The first American world champion in swimming and water polo since the 1904 Olympic Games, he earned a gold medal at the Pan-Pacific Games in 1997 and his first national championship at the U.S. Spring Nationals. In water polo, he represented the U.S. at the FINA World Championships, FINA World Cup, World University Games and the Goodwill Games. In 1998, Schumacher competed in World Championships in both sports and joined an elite group of aquatics stars that competed in both sports on the world-class level: Duke Khanamoku, Johnny Weissmuller, Bob Hughes and Matt Biondi. A swimming and water polo All-America selection at the University of the Pacific, he is the co-founder of KAP7 International, Inc., a water polo equipment company, with former Olympic teammate Wolf Wigo and he spends his spare time as the head coach of SET water polo club, a Southern California-based team that continues to rank among the top water polo clubs in the country.

A 2004 inductee to the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Hall of Fame, Paul Barren became involved in water polo while attending college at West Chester University. While swimming competitively for the West Chester swim team, he began to learn to play water polo with the school’s club team. After graduation, Barren played with the Philadelphia Water Polo Club, a team composed mostly of German and Hungarian ex-patriots. The level of play he encountered with the team piqued his interest in the sport and he began to pursue it with vigor.  While teaching math and serving as an assistant football coach at Lower Moreland High School outside Philadelphia in the late 1960’s, Barren received permission from the school’s athletic department to start a water polo program. He coached the team for the next twenty years, taking his athletes on trips to Europe to compete in Germany and the Netherlands and compiling a record of 444-117-5.  The only official in the league Hall of Fame, Barren began officiating collegiate water polo games in the early 1970’s for the newly formed Mid Atlantic Conference. He also officiated AAU games during the summer and earned national certification in 1973. As Barren’s stature in the officiating community grew, he was able to earn a FINA rating as an international referee in 1978.  For his contributions to the sport of water polo, Barren was elected to the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame in 1995 and inducted at a ceremony in Seattle, Wash. in 1997.

A former University of Michigan Assistant Director of Athletics Communications, Harvard University Water Polo Operations Assistant and The Full-On Sports Hub (FOSH) co-creator Ryan Sosin has been on the forefront of collegiate water polo over the past decade plus. A four-time CWPA Western Division Sports Information Director (SID) of the Year with honors in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, Sosin completed a four-year tenure as an Assistant Director of Media Relations at Michigan. During his time in Ann Arbor,  the water polo team won the CWPA Eastern Championship three times (2008, 2009, 2011) and the men’s swimming and diving team won the Big Ten Championship in 2010-11. A 2007 Michigan alum and Bloomfield Hills, Mich., native, he helped his alma mater host the 2011 NCAA Women’s Water Polo Championship prior to departing for graduate school. The recipient of a Master of Business Administration from Boston University in 2013, Sosin returned to the sport of water polo as the inaugural Operations Manager for the Harvard men’s and women’s programs from January 2013-to-April 2014. He has remained in the Boston market and has prior experience in development, business and technology with StubHub, Hudl, Sideline Swap, the NBC Digital News division and most recently as a Senior Product Manager with Rightpoint. In addition, he co-founded The Full-On Sports Hub which ushered in a new era for water polo sports information for the 2014 NCAA men’s season with the launch of The FOSH for Water Polo. The leader in the field of web-based statistics for water polo, The FOSH for Water Polo provides a platform for inputting game events as they happen and publishing them in real-time via its FOSH Live feature. The platform also allows school’s to provide online box scores, individual and team statistical reports, and on-demand national, conference and tournament leaderboards.

A three-time All-America selection (2013, 2015: Second Team; 2016: First Team), Ao Gao was a member of the women's national team for China which claimed a Silver Medal at the 2007 World Junior Championship, Ao Gao competed at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, and London, England, respectively. A native of Beijing and a graduate of Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism and a Master of Arts in Sports Journalism, she compiled 131 goals, 100 assists, and 131 steals during a four-year career that spanned 2012-14 and 2016. She is currently an Associate Editor with ESPN under the international production department with the ESPN China group. She has been working on various projects this past year, specializing in X Games features, tennis feature content, Special Olympics distribution as well as assisting on NBA on-court game coverage and features production. Named a 2013 Arthur Ashe Jr Sports Scholar, she attended the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, after claiming a coveted spot in the ASU Cronkite School of Journalism Olympics program in 2016 to cover the Olympics as a graduate student. One of her feature stories was selected by the Society of Professional Journalists and won the National Television Sports Photography award in 2016. Past experience in sports journalism includes jobs with the Pac-12 Networks, ESPN, the Doug Ducey campaign for Governor of Arizona and with Will Ferrell's Funny or Die.

Arguably one of the most influential water polo officials over the past 50-years, Andy Takata made his impact on the deck and behind the scenes to elevate the game.  In addition to wearing the whites at the most prestigious water polo events on earth, Takata volunteered his time to the sport in a variety of governance roles and developmental ventures. A 12-year member of the USA Water Polo Board of Directors a past member of the UANA Technical Water Polo Committee, and advocate for referee development and recruitment, he served as Commissioner of the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) and most recently was part of the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Technical Committee and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Evaluators Group.  Among the premier officials of the game, he started calling the game in 1978 and rose to calling the NCAA Championship by 1981.  He traveled the world representing the United States and whistled matches at the 2000 Olympic Games, 1998 FINA World Championships, three FINA World Cups, several US Olympic Festivals, and countless other international, collegiate and domestic championships.

A veteran collegiate and national team coach, John Abouu serves as the Chief High Performance Officer for USA Water Polo. In this position Abdou oversees the Olympic Development Program in addition to coach education, events and growth.  Formerly the Associate Head Coach for men's water polo at the University of California-Santa Barbara and Director/Boy's Head Coach of the Santa Barbara Water Polo Club,  Abdou spent five years at Bucknell University, the last two serving as Head Coach of both the men's and women's programs. Within USA Water Polo, Abdou has remained active in the National Team pipeline in his position as ODP East Region Technical Director since 2008. Since 2010 he has also been a part of the coaching staff of the Men's Senior National "B" Team.

A 2019 graduate of Harvard University with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Anthropology and Economics, Kristen Hong was a two-time Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-America selection with Honorable Mention recognition in 2018 and 2019.  A three-time All-Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) selection with Second (2017, 2018) and First Team (2019) recognition, she concluded her time in Cambridge as the Crimson program’s all-time leading scorer with 275 goals.  A three-time All-CWPA Championship All-Tournament selection (2018: Second Team; 2017, 2019 – First Team), she helped Harvard achieve a pair of the program’s five 20-win seasons (24-9 in 2017, 21-8 in 2019).

Appointed the Collegiate Water Polo Association's Director of Communications in July 2006, Ed Haas is responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining an effective and creative communications program, including: designing, writing, and editing media guides, press releases and other promotional materials; coordinating the national varsity, club, Division III and Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) polls; creating and maintaining the organization’s web pages.

Outside the office, he serves as a member of the CoSIDA Academic All-America Committee, West Sadsbury Township (Pa.) Planning Commission and participated on the Western Chester County (Pa.) Regional Fire Department Committee which consolidated three companies into the Keystone Valley Fire Department. In March 2015, Haas was appointed to the three-member West Sadsbury Township Board of Supervisors, the Keystone Valley Fire District Board and was elected Vice-Chairman of both the Board of Supervisors and Fire District Board in April of 2015. He was re-elected to another six-year term on the West Sadsbury Township Board of Supervisors in the Fall of 2017 and was elected Chairman of both the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors in January 2020.

A 2010 inductee to the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame, Bret Bernard has been called on to whistle every major water polo championship in existence, including the Olympic Games in 1992 (Barcelona) and 1996 (Atlanta). Bernard has officiated multiple World Championships, World Cups, Junior World Championships and Goodwill Games among many other international competitions. Domestically, Bernard wore the whites for every conceivable USA Water Polo Championship, including Junior Olympic and National Championships. On the collegiate level, has officiated numerous collegiate men's and women's championships, including an incredible 14 straight men's NCAA championship games.  As a player, Bernard was a USA Water Polo, AAU, NCAA and high school All-America selection, played for the United States Men's National Team and was an Alternate to the 1972 (Munich) Olympic Games.  He served USA Water Polo on the Executive Committee for 15 years. He was elected USA Water Polo Treasurer (1988-90), Vice-President (1990-1996) and President (1996-2001).  Bernard also served upon the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) Board of Directors for 15 years and upon its Finance Committee for six years. In addition, he was the first non-European President of AIA (international referees association), served as its Vice-President for six years and upon its Executive Board for 10 years.  He also served upon the FINA-Technical Committee for five years as was inaugural Director of Water Polo Officials for the NCAA. Currently a member of the CWPA’s Technical Committee, he was honored in 2010 as USA Water Polo created the Bret Bernard Distinguished Referee Award - presented to officials calling the game at its highest levels.

Hired as the head coach of the Arizona State University - Sun Devils women’s water polo team in 2005 after serving a single season as an assistant coach, Todd Clapper has led the Sun Devils to perennial placements in the national Top-10 rankings and three NCAA Championship appearances.

Clapper came to the Valley of the Sun with a wealth of coaching experience. Following his graduation from Slippery Rock University in 1997, he stayed on with his alma mater and served as an assistant coach for the women’s team for one season before taking on assistant coaching duties at Villanova University.

After a one-year head coaching stint at Wissahickon High School in Ambler, Pa., Clapper took over at Brown University where he mentored a pair of teams as the head coach for both the men’s and women’s water polo squads from 1998-2004. For his efforts at Brown he earned several Coach of the Year awards, including New England (2000), Eastern Championship (2001 and 2003), Northern Division (2002) and Northeastern (2004).

A four-year letter winner for Slippery Rock University, helping the team attain a Top-15 national ranking. As the starting goalie, he captained the team as a senior in 1996, the same year he was also selected second-team all-conference. A walk-on that became the starter in goal by the end of his sophomore season, he graduated Cum Laude with a BS in Exercise Science (aquatic emphasis) and also attained a minor in Adapted Physical Activity and Rehabilitation.

Since coming to Tempe, Clapper has also been busy working with international teams. He served as the 2005 U.S. Junior National Team assistant coach before being selected as the 2006 U.S. Youth National coach. That year, he led the youth team into the Pan-Am Championships in Montreal, Canada where the team, playing up an age level, brought home gold. For his efforts he was named the 2006 USOC National Water Polo Coach of the Year. In 2008 and 2009 Clapper was the head coach of the New Zealand Women’s National Team.

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A member of the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Board of Directors and a past athlete in the league at the University of Notre Dame, Brian Coughlin has excelled as the head coach of his alma mater's Fighting Irish women's water polo program. They have accrued 12 Midwest Division Championships and 8 Division Runners-up. Coughlin has led Notre Dame to Second (2009, 2015), Fourth (2002), Sixth (2001, 2010), Seventh (2000), Ninth (2006, 2013, 2014), 10th (2008, 2019), 11th (2007) and 12th (2012) place finishes at the Women's National Collegiate Club Championship during his tenure as volunteer Head Coach. In addition to his water polo commitment, Coughlin serves as the Associate Vice President for Student Development at The University of Notre Dame where he oversees the Office of Community Standards, the Gender Relations Center, Multicultural Student Programs & Services, the Student Activities Office, Student Media, and the Notre Dame Band.  Previously, Mr. Coughlin served in the role of Assistant Vice President from 2007 to 2010 and Director of Student Activities from 2001 to 2007, leading the Student Activities Office through a period of substantial growth. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Government and Theology from Notre Dame in 1995 and a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from West Virginia University in 1997.

Appointed head coach of the California Baptist University women's water polo team in the spring of 2014 following time as an assistant for both the men's water polo and swimming and diving programs starting in 2012, Jon Miller has made a mark at his alma mater.

In seven seasons, CBU has gone 126-90 under Miller and finished a program-best third in the Golden Coast Conference in 2016. The Lancers have produced 14 All-America selections and 21 All-GCC selections under Miller. Hannah Evans also earned back-to-back NCAA Division II Player of the Year honors in 2015-16. 

The former standout water polo player for the Lancers came to CBU after three seasons as the head women's water polo coach and assistant swimming and diving coach at Grove City College in Grove City, Pa.

Miller led the Wolverines to Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Division III titles in 2010, 2011 and 2012, and was named 2010 CWPA Division III Coach of the Year. During his tenure with Gove City, the Wolverines racked up a 52-34 record, including a program best 18-8 mark his last season. He also helped lead the Wolverine men's and women's swimming and diving teams to three straight Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) championships. With both a bachelor's and master's of science in kinesiology from CBU, Miller also served as an assistant professor of physical education at Grove City for three years.

A 2008 graduate of Cal Baptist prior to staying on as a graduate assistant for the men's and women's water polo programs while he earned his master's degree, Miller was a four-year standout goalie for the Lancers and has the third-most saves in program history with 1,025. His 415 saves in 2007 are still the highest single season total in program history and his 22 saves against Pepperdine in 2007, which still sits second all-time.