Poets Name New Men's Water Polo Coach

Justin Pudwill has been named the new head coach of the Whittier College men's water polo program.  He is no stranger to the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, having been the assistant men's and women's water polo coach at Occidental College since 2004.

Pudwill majored in Sports Management at Salem International University in Salem, West Virginia.  While there he was a member of the baseball, swimming and water polo teams, earning Academic All-American honors in all three sports for three years.  Water polo at Salem International is a Division I sport.  Pudwill also played semi-professional water polo for the Ontario Water Polo Club in Ontario, Canada.  His team won the Canadian Junior Club Championships in 1999.  Pudwill has been both a water polo and swimming coach since 2000 in Texas and California.  He began his coaching career as a swimming assistant for the Space City Aquatics Team in League City, Texas.  He then moved on to Ross S. Sterling High School in Baytown, Texas where he was the assistant for the swimming and water polo programs.  In 2001, Pudwill co-founded the first year-round age group water polo program in the state of Texas, the Dirty Bay Water Polo Club in Baytown.  Within two years, the program grew from 20 members to over 100.  In 2004, he moved back to California to become the assistant at Occidental.  He is also coaching at Huntington Beach High School as the assistant to all the aquatics programs.

Pudwill takes over a program that has been run by Mitch Carty for the past ten seasons.  Carty is Whittier's all-time leader with 153 victories.  In 2004, the Poets won a SCIAC Championship under his direction. 

"I am honored to be taking over for Mitch Carty, a very successful coach that has built a foundation for Whittier College men's water polo and swimming," said Pudwill.   "Whittier College is a great school with a ton of tradition and I look forward to building a long lasting relationship with the faculty, administration, and most of all the student-athletes.  I am very happy to be calling Whittier my home.   I look forward to bringing the men's programs back up to championship form."