Brandon Brooks and Adam Wright now what it’s like to have success, and they know what it’s like to win. This past summer, the former UCLA standouts each added a new accomplishment to their impressive resumes: an Olympic medal.
Brooks, a 2002 graduate of UCLA, and Wright, who graduated from UCLA in 2000, helped the United States water polo team earn a silver medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
“It was a great honor to represent the U.S.,” Brooks said, who tallied four saves in the gold-medal game. “I feel strongly (that) we live in a fantastic country. To be an international representative, there was a deep sense of honor and excitement.”
The team lost to Hungary 14-10 in the gold-medal game after defeating Serbia 10-5 in the semifinals. In the preliminary round, the United States won its pool with wins against China, Italy, Croatia and Germany. The Americans finished on the podium for the first time since 1988.
“I think it’s every team’s goal and realistic goal to win gold medal,” Brooks said. “We were very close and a little short. I thought we did a very good job.”
This was the second Olympic Games for both Brooks and Wright. The two first experienced the Olympics in Athens in 2004 when Team USA finished seventh.
Both athletes got their first taste of success here at UCLA and turned into exceptional players. Brooks and Wright were also teammates on UCLA’s national championship teams in 1999 and 2000.
“(UCLA) was a major stepping stone in my career to get where I have gotten,” Wright said. “We won a couple NCAA Championships and that gave me confidence. Winning doesn’t teach you everything, but we were playing at a high level and had a great group of guys and that helped me get to the international level.”
Brooks, a goalie, finished his Bruin career first in goals against average with a phenomenal 4.80 GAA in 2000, and first in saves with 700. His 227 saves recorded in 2002 is third in the UCLA history books for one season.
He was a three-time all-MPSF team winner and three-time All-American from 2000-2002 with an honorable mention selection in 1999.
Wright is also a three-time All-American and earned all-MPSF honors four times. He scored 138 goals throughout his career, a feat that ranks him sixth in the school record books.
Wright has close to 15 years of experience with the national team and has played professionally in Europe.
Both attribute the recent success of the U.S. national team to the closeness of the players.
“My favorite part was the camaraderie,” Brooks said. “The brotherhood within my team and all the athletes in the U.S. team across sports was great.
“It was great having Adam there. We spent a lot of time together and lived together back in college. A lot of the guys on the team I have known for 10-plus years. We all had a lot of fun.”
The United States put together a great team that got along well, avenging the disappointing finish in 2004. They put in a lot of work in order to become medal winners.
“It has been a goal since we started in 2000 as a group,” Wright said. “In any sport, experience is probably the most important thing, and you can’t construct a team overnight for any sport.
“In Athens we weren’t ready to make that jump into the top four, but eight years later as a group, we made the jump and fought for it. The medal was a tribute to not just the month we were in China, but for everything we went through as a group for nine years.”
Now back in Westwood, the duo hopes to help UCLA’s national championship-caliber team with the experiences they had in Beijing. A coaching staff with two recent Olympians is hard to compete with.
“The most important thing to bring back is for these guys to believe in themselves,” Wright said. “We’re in a good place right now. We’re not the best team out there now, but if the guys are willing to put the work in and if they can believe, good things can come from that. What we can do as coaches is to get them to believe in themselves.”
Brooks is entering his fourth season as an assistant coach with his focus on the goalkeepers. Wright is beginning his coaching career, and this will be his first season on staff.
This season the expectations are high, and the coaches will be working hard to improve the squad. The coaches say it is not just about developing elite athletes but also about teaching people.
“The goal is to win the national championship and bring it back to Westwood,” Brooks said. “There are little team goals within that. I expect the guys to play hard and get better throughout the season. I want to see us get better and be friends (as) players and people.”
It has been a nice transition coming back from a once-in-a-lifetime experience this summer. Brooks and Wright could not have been happier with the Olympics and their results.
“The overall experience was great,” Wright said. “China did an unbelievable job. The village was incredible, all the venues were incredible. Of course, to come out with a medal makes it that much more sweet of an experience, but it was all great.”