arrived at UC Davis seven seasons ago, he had a bunch of elements going for him...
- He knew the university was committed to athletic excellence and that aquatic sports were huge and supported in the community.
- He understood that the school's student-athletes were elite in the classroom, thus by default, he'd have some pretty smart guys in the fold.
- Leyson would be able to attract young men of character and purpose, given the history of Aggie Pride.
- And Leyson had an impressive résumé coming in. He graduated from USC and finished his playing career in first-division competition in Spain. He had assistant-coach stints with the Trojans and at UCLA before heading to UC Davis in 2013.
At hand now for the Aggies is a Thursday (Nov. 7) date at LMU and a weekend trip to UC San Diego (Saturday, Nov. 9). The Aggies sport a perfect 5-0 mark in the Western Water Polo Association and are 11-7 overall — good for a No. 11 national ranking.
Despite the rugged regular-season-ending road trip to Southern California, Leyson took some time from a hectic schedule to talk all things UC Davis men's water polo...
"The season finale series with LMU and UC San Diego, it just sits there on the calendar every year," reports the coach. "Everybody knows that it's there — either down there or up here — amd it's always going to be a big challenge. We're excited."
A clean sweep down south would further feather the Aggies' national cap and provide the top seed in the WWPA tourney, which starts Nov. 22 in Riverside.
Looking back on another solid campaign, has anything surprised Leyson?
"That's a good question. I don't think anything's really surprised me," says the guy who grew up in Fullerton.
Leyson says he knew that after losing six seniors from 2018, there would be voids that needed to be filled.
He knew there would be some new faces mixed in with reliable veterans, many of whom would be playing new roles. Players like
Jonah Addington,
Yurii Hanley,
Nir Gross and
Jack Stafford have contributed mightily in keeping these new-look Aggie afloat.
"We knew it was going to be kind of a work in progress and we;d have the potential to play our best as a team toward the end of the year," Leyson notes. "And I think we have done that."
UC Davis is in the midst of a four-game win streak, fueled by an offense that has seen the locals average 13.1 goal per match. Leyson is pleased, but knows his team's ultimate heights have yet to be reached.
"If you look at the overall curve of our results, it's trending in the right direction. The curve continues to rise with some minor dips in it in terms of rankings at the end of the season," explains the veteran mentor. "I think we've done a good job. I just have such high standards for this program and I think we can arise to a level that we haven't arrived at yet.
"I don't know if we'll ever be satisfied, honestly."
Leyson went on...
"I think the best is yet to come. I'm still learning a lot about this profession and all the things that have to do with it."
Leyson says it's no easy moving up the national water polo ladder because "the teams above don't get any worse. They'll all strong every year.
"If we want to keep climbing the ranks, we've got to knock off some of these teams. We've done that — to wit, then-No. 5 California fell to UC Davis on Sept. 14 (16-13 in overtime). But there's some schools above us that we haven't knocked off and I know we're going to continue to strive to climb higher every single year."
In attracting the kind of water polo mavens that will push UC Davis into that upper echelon, Leyson cites the many positive elements of being an Aggie student-athlete.
A world-class education and playing elite-level water polo are just two of the draws awaiting Blue-and-Gold recruits. Who wouldn't want to come to Davis?
"That's not necessarily the feeling that every high school recruit has," points out Leyson. "Some people have the USC pennant in their bedrooms since they were 2 years old — and that's where they want to be.
"Somebody wants to be by a beach, we offer them the shores of the Sacramento River. It's not bad.
"I love this place and I feel very strongly about what a great place this is. It's also extremely unique in the world for schools that offer men's water polo in terms of a college town and the feel to it — rural, out of the way instead of being smack-dab in the middle of a city, like a majority of the other schools.
"In the ranks of men's water polo, there are a number of excellent schools; excellent academic schools, Leyson explains.
Nonetheless, for the right athlete, it's tough to do better than UC Davis.
While he was at it, Leyson also took some time to talk about his four departing seniors.
They're all solid citizens upon whom Leyson and his staff can build and elevate.
"We continue to attract better, more developed players who want to be a part of our program. We need to change the way people think about this program and this university a little bit in order to attract more higher-level recruits."
On Hanley, Leyson said: Yurii is one of those guys I watched so many times in high school and I was THRILLED when he decided to come here. I knew we were getting a guy who could help us right away and make huge contributions.
"And he's done that. I remember watching him in the Junior Olympic finals ... and he was just playing phenomenally. I was sitting with the coaches of the 'quote-unquote' top four schools, and they were remarking on how well he was playing. "And I was saying, 'That's right! And he's coming to US!' "
Hanley is Davis' leading points collector with 13 goals and 36 assists. He's an applied mathematics major by way of Campolindo High in Orinda.
About Martel: "There was a trip to (British Columbia) to watch him at Friday night training. It was dark, rainy. I sat with his parents and the next morning flew home. He certainly had the potential to contribute.
"He's struggled with injuries during his career, but he's really coming on strong here at the end."
The 6-foot-2 graduate of Yale Secondary School is a chemical engineering major.
Of Somple, Leyson's take is this: Steady and progressing, the fourth-year attacker is a really hard worker.
"As sometimes happens with guys, there's a mental shift that happens with players and they come on the pool deck a different person with a different attitude.
"You can see it right away — there's a different mentality about training — it's like 'OK, I've flipped a bit of a switch here. I've realized what I need to do in order to be a more major contributor.' Seeing that in Max was an awesome thing."
The Soquel High product is majoring in psychology.
About Tamblyn: The Michigan native was discovered at a San Diego training camp. Leyson said it was unusual tor Midwestern products to come to the West Coast, but he's glad Tamblyn made the effort.
"He's been a mainstay; a solid player for us day in and day out. Great work ethic, great teammate who wants nothing more than success for the team. He's willing to do whatever it takes to help make it so."
The Huron High grad will matriculate with a degree in managerial economics.
Like coach said, water polo attracts elite bodies and minds.
Leyson says his program's best days remain ahead. He says when his guys fall back on the team's core values, it can be "more important than any tactical thing we can do."
And what are those core values?
- Toughness
- Resiliency
- Teamwork
- Aggie Pride
- HYS
Huh? HYS?
"Handling your stuff," Leyson explains. "If you want to be successful at UC Davis, you have to move your feet. You can't sit around and wait for somebody to come around and make sure you're doing your studying or (give) you 15 tutors and then hand you a bunch of stuff.
"You have to be accountable and responsible. And I love that about this place because it trains you for life after college. These are the things you need in the real world."
And all the while there are academic advisers, great coaching, breaks in training for important study and a terrific thing called Aggie EVO — a year-by-year career-path program that provides real-world assistance (including internships that can set up a student-athlete upon graduation).
So, do you want to be one of
Daniel Leyson's Aggies? Be prepared to learn, play hard, support your teammates, get ready for the real world and excel upon graduation.
"Here, the academic rigors are a real thing," reports the coach. "School is hard here and the quarter system is a challenge. It's no joke."
But all that hard work comes with a No. 11 ranking and a shot at untold future athletic accomplishment.
Editor's note: One of the most well-known and respected sports writers in the industry, former Davis Enterprise sports and managing editor Bruce Gallaudet joined the UC Davis Athletics staff as its feature writer in the summer of 2018. Since then, visitors to UCDavisAggies.com have enjoyed his unique perspective on campus student-athletes, coaches, teams, individuals, programs, events and projects that represent the fifth-ranked public school in the nation.
