Brandon Brooks (1999)

Brooks led Punahou to three water polo titles, four track state titles and the state championship in basketball as a senior, when he was named the state Player of the Year.

Brooks went on to lead UCLA to two national championships in water polo. Currently a coach of the women’s program at UCLA, he was named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Coach of the Year twice. He competed in the 2004 Athens Olympics, and also in Beijing where he won a silver medal in 2008.

He played both water polo and basketball for UCLA, and acknowledged that those two sports are not always associated, but says, “The cardiovascular fitness and ability to think when you are tired in water polo is really beneficial for basketball,” he said. “The speed of basketball and movement is really helpful in water polo.”