Orange Lutheran's Brenda Villa — 4-time Olympian — talks growth of water polo on CIF Southern Section Sitdown
Brenda Villa's story is fascinating.
From growing up in the City of Commerce to playing boys water polo at Bell Gardens High, Villa says, "... water polo found me."
She was a 4-time 1st team All-League selection, 4-time 1st team All-CIF selection, and 4-time All-American at Bell Gardens ... and that was just the beginning.
Villa ended up playing at Stanford where she won the Peter J. Cutino Award in 2002, which is like the Heisman Trophy in college water polo. She then went on to compete for team USA in four Olympics - 2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing and 2012 London.
"It was everything you could imagine and more," Villa said of her Olympic experience. "I was at the first (Olympics) ever for women's water polo."
Orange Lutheran girls water polo coach Brenda Villa joins the CIF Southern Section Sitdown for Episode 11.
Tarek Fattal/SBLive
Villa won silver, bronze, silver and gold in the four Olympics, respectively.
Villa has won four Olympic medals, four World Championship medals, three Pan American Games medals, eight FINA World League medals and one FINA World Cup.
Of those 20 competitions, Villa won gold in 15 of them, making her the most decorated athlete in the world of women’s water polo.
Villa was named Female Water Polo Player of the Decade for 2000-2009 by the FINA Aquatics World Magazine. She is a leading goalscorer in Olympic water polo history, with 31 goals, and in 2018, was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame.
Despite winning gold in London, Villa says the Sydney games were her favorite.
"Being part of history and competing in the first ever. No one else besides the athletes there can say that," Villa said.
Villa is now the varsity girls water polo coach at Orange Lutheran. The Lancers won the CIF Southern Section Open Division championship in 2023, Villa's first year at the helm.
Orange Lutheran is on the quest for a second straight.
