Senior utility Josh Samuels has known nothing but success as a member of UCLA’s men’s water polo team. In each of his four years at UCLA, Samuels and his team have reached the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championships, totalling two conference and three NCAA title game appearances during his career. While all three NCAA finals resulted in UCLA losses, the team’s success with Samuels playing can’t be ignored.
During his time at UCLA, Samuels proved to be an integral part to the Bruins’ success. Despite starting just six out of 30 games as a freshman, Samuels was the Bruins’ fourth-highest goal-scorer. As a sophomore, he was recognized as an honorable mention All-American. That honor got bumped up to first-team All-America in his junior and senior years, as Samuels asserted himself as one of the team’s best players. Samuels was far and away the Bruins’ best goal-scorer in his senior year, as his 65 goals, the highest season total of his career, were 23 more than the next closest Bruin.
While UCLA was unable to come away from the NCAAs with any hardware during Samuels’ tenure, his talent helped make UCLA a perennial title contender.