The Peter J. Cutino Award, named after former college water polo player and UC Berkeley coach Peter J. Cutino

Peter J. Cutino

Peter J. Cutino was a California swimming and water polo coach and educator for over 40 years, and the author of several books and numerous articles on coaching aquatic sports. In his 26 years as Head Coach at the University of California, Berkeley, he was the all-time winning coach in U.S. water...

, is considered the most prestigious individual award in American collegiate water polo

Water polo

Water polo is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores more goals. Game play involves swimming, treading water , players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing into a...

. It is given annually to the top male and female player in the National Collegiate Athletic Association

National Collegiate Athletic Association

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...

 (NCAA).

History

The award was first presented in 1999 by the Trustees of the Olympic Club

Olympic Club

The Olympic Club is a San Francisco, California, athletic club and private social club with three golf courses located at San Francisco's border with Daly City, California. The club's main "City Clubhouse" is located in downtown San Francisco. The club's "Lakeside Clubhouse" is located just north...

 of San Francisco

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

. The Club, founded in 1860 to support amateur athletics in the Bay

San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...

 area, is America's oldest athletic club. Nominees for the Cutino Award are selected by the Division I water polo coaches. These coaches vote for three players as nominees, none of which can be members of their own team. The eventual winner is voted on again by the same coaches, who now rank the nominees and can vote for members of their own teams. The Olympic Club, which tabulates the votes, does not release the number of votes to avoid manipulation of the totals. Each winner receives a brass and walnut trophy, and the perpetual trophy is on display at the Olympic Club of San Francisco.

Originally the award was announced after the end of both the men's (December) and women's (May) college seasons. Former major league baseball commissioner and US Olympic Committee chair Peter Ueberroth

Peter Ueberroth

Peter Victor Ueberroth is an American executive. He served as the sixth Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1984 to 1989. He was recently the chairman of the United States Olympic Committee; he was replaced by Larry Probst in October 2008....

, himself once a water polo player at San Jose State, presented the first awards on January 22, 2000. The 2001 women's winner, Coralie Simmons

Coralie Simmons

Coralie Denise Simmons is an American water polo player, who won the silver medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics. In 2001, she won the Peter J. Cutino Award, presented annually to the top American collegiate water polo player...

, was presented with her award almost a year after her season had ended because the Trustees decided to change the cycle to coincide with the academic year. Thus in June 2002, Simmons won the 2001 award, while Brenda Villa

Brenda Villa

Brenda Villa is an American world-class water polo player for the US National and Olympic teams....

 received the 2002 women's Cutino at the same ceremony. The nominees are now announced each spring, before the end of the women's NCAA water polo season, but well after the men's season

NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship

The NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship has existed since the 1969 season.No school from outside the state of California has ever surpassed third place...

 ends in December of the prior year. The award ceremony is held at an Olympic Club facility in San Francisco, shortly after the Women's NCAA Championship

NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship

The NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship has existed since the 2001 season. Three conferences have teams competing in women's water polo, the Collegiate Water Polo Association, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference...

 is decided.

Peter J. Cutino Award winners

Year	Men's Winner	School	Women's Winner	School
1999			Bernice Orwig Bernice Orwig Bernice Jane Orwig is an American water polo player, who won the silver medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Orwig plays the position of goalie....	USC University of Southern California The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
2000	Sean Kern Sean Kern Sean Kern is an American water polo player. His position is center forward . During his water polo career, Kern was a four-time All-American, two-time National Player of the Year, two-time NCAA champion and three-time UCLA scoring leader. After his 1999 season, Kern was honored as the first-ever...	UCLA	Aniko Pelle Aniko Pelle Anikó Pelle is an international water polo player from Hungary, who played for the University of Southern California from 1999 to 2002, and on the Hungarian National Team in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. In 2000, Pelle received the Peter J...	USC University of Southern California The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
2001	Sean Kern Sean Kern Sean Kern is an American water polo player. His position is center forward . During his water polo career, Kern was a four-time All-American, two-time National Player of the Year, two-time NCAA champion and three-time UCLA scoring leader. After his 1999 season, Kern was honored as the first-ever...	UCLA	Coralie Simmons Coralie Simmons Coralie Denise Simmons is an American water polo player, who won the silver medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics. In 2001, she won the Peter J. Cutino Award, presented annually to the top American collegiate water polo player...	UCLA
2002	Tony Azevedo Tony Azevedo Anthony Lawrence Azevedo is an American water polo player and a graduate of Stanford University. Nicknamed "The Savior" at one point, he is considered to be one of the best American water polo players in recent memory...	Stanford University Stanford University The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...	Brenda Villa Brenda Villa Brenda Villa is an American world-class water polo player for the US National and Olympic teams....	Stanford University Stanford University The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
2003	Tony Azevedo Tony Azevedo Anthony Lawrence Azevedo is an American water polo player and a graduate of Stanford University. Nicknamed "The Savior" at one point, he is considered to be one of the best American water polo players in recent memory...	Stanford University Stanford University The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...	Jackie Frank	Stanford University Stanford University The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
2004	Tony Azevedo Tony Azevedo Anthony Lawrence Azevedo is an American water polo player and a graduate of Stanford University. Nicknamed "The Savior" at one point, he is considered to be one of the best American water polo players in recent memory...	Stanford University Stanford University The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...	Moriah van Norman Moriah van Norman Moriah van Norman is an American water polo player for the University of Southern California, who won the Peter J. Cutino Award in 2004, recognized as the best female collegiate player in the nation...	USC University of Southern California The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
2005	Tony Azevedo Tony Azevedo Anthony Lawrence Azevedo is an American water polo player and a graduate of Stanford University. Nicknamed "The Savior" at one point, he is considered to be one of the best American water polo players in recent memory...	Stanford University Stanford University The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...	Natalie Golda Natalie Golda Natalie Golda is an American water polo player. Considered one of the greatest women's water polo players of all time, her senior leadership helped guide the 2005 UCLA Bruins to their seventh national championship. In May 2005 Golda received the Peter J...	UCLA
2006	Juraj Zatovic Juraj Zatovic Juraj Zaťovič is a water polo player for the University of Southern California, who received the 2006 Peter J. Cutino Award as the best collegiate water polo player among Division I NCAA teams. His position is two-meter defender.While attending Gymnazium-Nováky in Slovakia, Zaťovič played in the...	USC University of Southern California The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...	Lauren Wenger Lauren Wenger Lauren Wenger is an American water polo player for the University of Southern California, who received the 2006 Peter J. Cutino Award as the best collegiate water polo player among Division I NCAA teams...	USC University of Southern California The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
2007	John Mann John Mann John Mann may refer to:* John Mann , British actor* John Mann * John Mann , farmer and author from New Brunswick, Canada* John Mann , English cricketer...	University of California, Berkeley University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...	Kelly Rulon Kelly Rulon Kelly Rulon is an American water polo player for the UCLA Bruins and the US National Team, who won the bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics...	UCLA
2008	Tim Hutten Tim Hutten Tim Hutten is an American water polo player. He is a member of the United States men's national water polo team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In the championship game, the USA team won the silver medal, losing to Hungary. Tim is currently waiting to score more goals in the 2012 games in...	UC Irvine	Courtney Mathewson Courtney Mathewson Courtney Mathewson was born September 14, 1986. in Orange, California. She played water polo for the University of California, Los Angeles Bruins during their four-consecutive NCAA National Champion Women's Water Polo championships, and was named to the All-Tournament first team...	UCLA
2009	J.W. Krumpholz	USC University of Southern California The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...	Kami Craig Kami Craig Kami Craig is an American water polo player. She was a member of the US water polo team that won a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.Craig attended Santa Barbara High School and the University of Southern California...	USC University of Southern California The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
2010	J.W. Krumpholz	USC University of Southern California The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...	Kami Craig Kami Craig Kami Craig is an American water polo player. She was a member of the US water polo team that won a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.Craig attended Santa Barbara High School and the University of Southern California...	USC University of Southern California The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
2011	Ivan Rackov	University of California, Berkeley University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...	Annika Dries	Stanford University Stanford University The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

(Source: USA Water Polo)

External links

• NCAA Water Polo
• The Olympic Club of San Francisco