Coaching staff

Maureen joined Colorado Water Polo in September 2011. She coaches the 12U group and is the goalie position coach for the club.

In Maureen's time coaching the youth team, our 12U teams took second at the 2013 Mountain Zone Championships, were champions of the Mountain Zone in 2014 and 2015, and have won eleven regional tournaments. She coached the Colorado 12U girls team to a second-place finish at the 2013 12U Rock-tober National Championship, and she coached the coed team to a 10th place finish at the 2015 Rock-tober. The 12U team also took first in 2014 and second in 2015 and 2016 in the coed division of the prestigious Winterfest Tournament in Los Angeles. Maureen was recognized with the Brent Bohlender Distinguished Coaching Award as the female developmental coach of the year for the Mountain Zone in 2013.

Maureen began playing water polo when she was seven years old in her hometown of Mundelein, Illinois. She played competitively in high school, where she was named first team all-state three times. She played goalie for the Midwest Zone team, winning the Speedo Cup in 1999 and Junior Olympics in 2000 for the 14U age group, and she was named MVP of both tournaments. Maureen also played for the National Youth Team and for the Southern Illinois University club team in college.

Sean has spent most of his life in a Speedo. He started swimming at age 6 for his local Boys Club in Connecticut and was first introduced to water polo in high school. He went on to play four years at Bucknell University in the 1990s. After college he moved around the country and played masters water polo at almost every stop. While living in Seattle in the late 1990s, he helped start a team at Bellevue High School. In 2001, Sean was honored as the high school state coach of the year. That team continues to enjoy tremendous success, including placing many players on Division I teams.

Sean comes from a water polo family. His older brother Michael brought water polo into the house when he was younger. Sean's younger sister Kim was the first female to play on the Greenwich High School boys' team. Kim followed Sean to Bucknell, where she led the transition of the women's team from a club to varsity. More recently, Kim spearheaded the formation of Greenwich Aquatics, one of the top club teams in the country. Water polo continues on with the next generation, with nieces, nephews, and now Sean's youngest son, Dexter, all picking up the sport.

Jake swam competitively starting at age 6 and started water polo his freshman year of high school at Washington High School in Fremont, California. He fell in love with it and started playing year-round right away for West Coast, De Anza-Cupertino Aquatics, and West Valley. In high school, Jake advanced to varsity and was team captain, and he earned team MVP awards and all-section team honors his senior year. Jake played two years at Sierra College in Rocklin, California. In his second year, the team won the Big 8 Conference, finished second in NorCal, made the State Championship tournament, and finished fourth in California.

After two years in junior college, Jake transferred to Chico State and played club, where his team ranked as high as number 8 in the country during his senior year.

Ryan grew up playing water polo in Colorado and joined the Pirates in 2012 as a youth player. He graduated from Washington and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania in 2022, where he played Division III water polo from 2019 to 2022 and earned the title of team captain his senior year. Ryan has returned to Colorado to earn his law degree at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Ryan was a regular coach at Sunday practices each summer and became a permanent figure as of the fall of 2023. He would like to see the team and the sport continue to grow, and to introduce our high school athletes to a high level of play and tactics that will serve them throughout their water polo careers. Ryan was awarded numerous athletic and academic honors during school, and he received the first-ever Big Waves Foundation scholarship.

Chase grew up in Tennessee and began playing water polo in high school, excelling at the goalie position. He went on to play at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Chase began coaching with the Pirates in the winter of 2024 and is looking forward to continuing to help our middle school athletes grow and learn.