For redshirt junior Scott Davidson, actions speak louder than words.
Although this self-proclaimed “quiet guy” finished 2007 as UCLA men’s water polo’s leading scorer, he is not concerned with personal statistics.
“I don’t really care about accolades or anything that’s given to me,” Davidson said. “The only thing that matters to me is the team and what we do and accomplish together.”
A Southern California native hailing from Seal Beach, Davidson has been playing water polo since he was in seventh grade. He said he began playing because some of his friends from Junior Lifeguards played and he thought he would try it out.
As it turned out, Davidson was a natural at the game. A star in the pool, Davidson was named the Sunset League player of the year as both a high school junior and senior. He also helped lead his team to the CIF Division II title his senior year, a feat Davidson lists as his biggest water polo accomplishment in high school.
As the time to pick a college grew nearer, UCLA was not his only choice. With a father who graduated from USC, the two rivals would once again face off, this time over who would win the services of Davidson.
“When it came down to it, it was either here or USC, and I liked it here much more,” Davidson said. “I liked the coaching staff here much better. That was the main selling point for me.”
During his time at UCLA, Davidson has put up some pretty impressive numbers. After redshirting his first year, he played in 23 games his freshman season, with a 43 percent scoring rate. During his sophomore year, he once again performed with consistency and led the Bruins with 49 goals.
But his success didn’t come without a lot of work.
“When he came in he was a solid player, by no means great,” coach Adam Krikorian said. “He is very focused and works hard though, and through his determination he has turned himself into, in my opinion, one of the country’s best players.”
Some of Davidson’s other strengths are his competitive nature and understanding of the game. Even though he is fairly reserved, Krikorian said the staff has been working to get him to become more vocal.
“He is extremely knowledgeable, he’s a very intelligent player, and we need him to be able to vocalize that intelligence to the whole team,” Krikorian said. “So we’ve been encouraging that the past couple years, and he is finally to the point where he isn’t just a leader by example, but a vocal leader, and that’s what we need him to be when he is out in the water.”
Although he is counted as one of the leaders on the UCLA team, Davidson is the first to tell you that he does not know everything and that there is always room to grow and develop.
“You can never get to the point where you learn everything and can master it unless you’re like 80 years old and you’ve been playing since you were 10,” Davidson said. “Even at that, the game is constantly changing and the rules are changing, so the hardest thing is constantly trying to get better and improve yourself and improve your team.”
A Southern Californian to the core, when Davidson is not in the pool he counts surfing and going to the beach as some of his favorite pastimes.
During the season, Davidson’s schedule becomes more hectic, and like any college student, he enjoys just having some time off to relax and catch up on sleep.
Playing in the toughest conference in the nation does not afford a lot of free time, however, and time off is often used to catch up on schoolwork.
Davidson recently switched his major to environmental science. He is looking to go to graduate school and hopes that in the future he will be able to help with some of the problems that are plaguing the environment.
With more time at UCLA to focus on school and water polo, the future is wide open for Davidson.
“I’ve said this before: I feel like he is underrated and I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves,” Krikorian said. “I think he is a heck of a player defensively, and it’s great that he still has one more year left.
“I think we are just starting to see Scott emerge as one of the country’s best, and he is just going to get better and better.”