Brenda Villa

It seems as if destiny cast Brenda Villa, America’s most accomplished player and pioneer, onto the Olympic stage just as the Women’s Water Polo had pioneered itself into the Olympics for the first time in 2000. Her arrival was a God-send for Team USA, which she helped earn Silver and Bronze Medals in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, respectively. This summer she will lead the #1 ranked Team into Beijing on its quest for gold in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Her leadership comes as no surprise to the international water polo community: Brenda is the most accomplished and recognizable player in the history of US women’s water polo, and arguably the best in the world. More amazing than her accomplishments, however, is the ground-breaking path she traveled to earn them.
MADE IN COMMERCE: FORMATIVE YEARS
At the age of 8 Brenda began to play club water polo for her hometown team, Commerce Aquatics, located in the City of Commerce, a suburb of East Los Angeles. The daughter of two industrious Mexican immigrants, Brenda stood out from the majority of the Caucasian water polo community as a Mexican-American playing for the only all Mexican-American water polo club team in Southern California. As if her situation wasn’t unique enough, Commerce Aquatics would often mix in Brenda, a girl, in games against the best boys Southern California had to offer. Yet Brenda thrived, and by the time she entered high school in the fall of 1994, the boys couldn’t stop her from becoming a four time 1st Team All-American or helping lead Bell Gardens High School to 4 consecutive league championships and back to back CIF Division III championships in Boys Water Polo. Yet another indicator of her success, and one that is not reflected in the statistics, is the fact that she accomplished all of this against boys.
OLYMPIC GLORY
Fresh off her ground-breaking high school career, Brenda went directly to Olympic training. Although admitted to Stanford, an Ivy League tier school, as the #1 recruit in the nation, she took a leave of absence to train with the US Women's water polo team for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. In the Olympic debut of Women’s Water polo, Brenda’s uncanny shot-making ability made her the USA’s leading scorer. Her most dramatic shot came in the Gold Medal game against Australia, where she tied the game with only 13.1 seconds left on the clock. Although Australia prevailed in overtime, Brenda had played a key role in helping her team earn Silver. Four years later in Athens, she helped Team USA to a bronze, while again emerging as the leading scorer.
BACK TO COLLEGE
Between these two Olympics, Brenda resumed classes at Stanford and found in political science an intellectual interest that complimented her passion for water polo. Applying her trademark discipline to a different skill, Brenda graduated not only with a B.A. in political science from one of the most respected universities in America, but also with a badge of personal familial honor as the first college graduate in her family. Not surprisingly, she holds this as her most valuable accomplishment at Stanford. Yet her athletic achievements were equally impressive. Her freshmen year she lead her team to an undefeated season in which she scored a team-high 69 goals. Sadly, she would lose a heartbreaking loss to UCLA in the NCAA finals. The following 2001-2002 school year, Brenda helped Stanford avenge its loss to UCLA by winning the NCAA Championship and scoring another team-high 60 goals. Brenda’s performance that season was spectacular enough to earn her the Peter J Cutino Award, given annually to the best player in the nation. Her senior year she would again lead Stanford to a third championship match as its leading scorer. Although they fell to arch-nemesis UCLA in the championship game, Brenda could look back with contentment. Three consecutive championship appearances, one NCAA Championship, 3-Time All-American, one Player of the Year award, and 179 goals as Stanford’s all-time leading scorer.
THE ROAD TO BEIJING
After graduating, she played professionally in Europe for the Italian team, Orrizonte, winning back-to-back national (Italy) and European championships in 2005 and 2006. After her third and final season in 2007, she returned home to train with the US National team in what she has said will be her final Olympics in Beijing. Her singular goal is to win the last and only prize that has thus far eluded her: a gold medal. Judging from the last two years’ progress, she appears to be on track to accomplishing this goal: she led Team USA to a championship at both the 2007 Pan-Am Games and a Gold Medal 2007 FINA games, in which the US were named World Champions. Going into Beijing, they are favored to win, with Australia hot on their heels. It’s easy to see why winning gold in this summer’s 2008 Olympics in Beijing is the number one goal of not only Brenda, but every woman on the US team. It’s also one which the LAAC, along with the entire country, supports wholeheartedly.