It’s 5:30 a.m. on a cool morning in early April and both senior utility Danny McClintick and junior center Patrick Woepse are headed to their morning weight training.
But the UCLA water polo players won’t make it to their morning workout today.
As the two teammates traveled through a green light on a Vespa, a car headed in the opposite direction ran a neighboring red light, colliding with the side of the scooter. In mere seconds, McClintick and Woepse would find themselves on the pavement, 10 yards from the crash.
Woepse was uninjured but when he saw McClintick, who had been riding on the backseat, he quickly called an ambulance.
“His knee was just hanging open,” Woepse said. “It was not the prettiest sight.”
In the emergency room, McClintick was treated for both his sliced kneecap and a fractured left ankle.
“He called me from the hospital and said, ‘Adam, everything’s okay,’ because I don’t think he wanted me to worry,” said coach Adam Wright. “The reality is we were lucky. Him and Pat were on the scooter – and we’re talking seconds – if it was a second later, who knows.”
A seemingly ordinary day had turned into an athlete’s nightmare.
Just months after reaching the pinnacle of college water polo, winning the NCAA Tournament MVP as he led the Bruins to the 2014 national title, McClintick now faced a long path to recovery.
After having his knee stitched up the day of the accident, McClintick went through surgery a week later to repair his ankle. The physical limitations were difficult enough – he couldn’t walk for eight weeks – but McClintick’s mindset was also challenged.
“Physically it was painful, but mentally not being in the water, not being able to grind with all the guys, not doing all the same stuff they’re doing … (was) honestly harder,” McClintick said. “And seeing how much these guys grew together and learned and got better and were pushed to the limit and not being able to be a part of that was mentally taxing.”
For 18 weeks, he could not play a single game of water polo. Prior to the car accident, McClintick was set to play in the World University Games in South Korea over the summer. Although McClintick could not participate in the water, he travelled with the team and worked as the social media coordinator for the eventual bronze-medal United States team.
“It was disappointing knowing that I was not going to be able to play,” McClintick said. “I couldn’t be happier for the way the guys finished, but definitely disappointing.”
As tough as it was to sit out, McClintick said the experience helped him grow.
“It let me know how special every moment is that I’m healthy,” McClintick said. “Every chance that I do get to play, I know how special it is and how important it is to take advantage on the days that you aren’t feeling well or on the days where maybe you don’t want to be there. It’s still a lot better than being up in a cast in the stands.”
After four months of recovery, he could still only perform minor activities in the water but signs of promise began to show. As each week passed, he could do a little more than the week before. When the 2015 season started this fall, McClintick was still working to return to his pre-injury form. After averaging well over a goal a game in 2014, the utility scored just three goals in the Bruins’ first six games this year.
“With any injury … it’s hard not to question yourself,” McClintick said. “It’s hard not to wonder (if) maybe I’m only at 90 percent, maybe I’m only at 95 percent, but I think that’s part of the injury.”
As the season progressed, the utility worked his way back toward 100 percent and earned his second-straight second-team All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation selection. And in the last five games, he has netted a team-leading 11 goals as the Bruins won the MPSF title and earned another trip to the NCAA Tournament.
It’s not unlike McClintick to step up in the biggest of moments.
With UCLA tied 6-6 in the third period of an Oct. 17 game at then-No. 4 Stanford, McClintick scored on a counter-attack to spark a streak of five unanswered goals for the Bruins.
“That was not only a big goal for us, but it was a big goal for Danny,” Wright said after the game. “That was a big game for him where he’s been working really hard to get back to where he was after his accident.”
McClintick posted a hat trick against Stanford as UCLA went on to win 12-8. It was just another example of the senior’s consistent performance in crucial situations.
“What I have seen in Danny is the development as a leader. Here was a guy who really had the fundamentals to be a successful water polo player but also it’s not easy to be a leader,” Wright said. “It’s a mental challenge and what I’ve been able to see over the past three-and-a-half, almost four years now, is his role evolve.”
That leadership role was evident as the Bruins found themselves in another tie game, this time in the MPSF championship on Nov. 22.
“We had a really close game with Cal and I think in overtime we called a timeout,” Woepse said. “We weren’t panicking, but he was saying that he wouldn’t want to be in the pool with anybody else. He trusted everybody and we knew we were going to get this done.”
Although McClintick’s scoring is down from last year overall – he’s netted 22 goals compared to 41 last year – his presence both inside and outside the pool has remained constant.
“In sport, there are always the guys that are leaders. There are leaders and he’s one of them,” Wright said. “He’s done a fantastic job of that. He’s been through tough stretches too as a player, and he’s used all those experiences to not only help our guys within our team but also this program.”
The accident left a scar on his leg, but McClintick has left his own mark on the UCLA program.
As he enters his third NCAA Tournament, McClintick is set to cap off a collegiate career that almost ended in a very different way.
“Now I feel like I’m back,” McClintick said. “Your mind wants to protect that part of your body and wants to prevent you from maybe exerting it, but now I feel as good as I ever did and I think I’ve made a full recovery.”