Nikolaos Papanikolaou repeats as Cutino Award (Water Polo's Heisman) winner
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Nikolaos Papanikolaou repeats as Cutino Award (Water Polo's Heisman) winner
The Greek rising senior becomes the first Golden Bears to win water polo's top prize twice
After carrying California Golden Bears Men’s Water Polo team to an exciting come-from-behind win in the 2022 NCAA National Championship match in Berkeley last December, there was no doubt to anyone who follows collegiate water polo that Nikolaos Papanikolaou, AKA “Papa”, was going to repeat as the Peter J. Cutino Award winner. That became a formality this past Saturday when “Papa” received the prestigious award at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.
In case you missed it or simply want to relive that magical afternoon, NCAA has that full championship match from Spieker’s available on YouTube. The underdog USC had managed to turn an 8-6 halftime lead into a 12-8 lead in the 4th quarter over the Cal Bears. But the Bear will not quit. Papanikolaou’s 6th and 7th goals tied the match at 12-all before Cal keeper Andrian Weinberg made a key stop and sophomore Roberto Valero scored his 4th goal to give Cal the lead with 41 seconds to go. Fittingly, Papanikolaou got the final defensive stop to seal the thrilling victory.
Just based on that one game alone and scoring 7 of Cal’s 13 goals, Papanikolau deserved another Cutino Award, but he was putting up insane numbers for the entire season by scoring 62 goals with a conference-leading 80 earned exclusions to go with 13 field blocks. Papa won the 2023 Cutino Award over Pacific's Reuel D'Souza and USC's Jake Ehrhardt, whose disqualification after picking up a 3rd exclusion in the championship match coincided with the start of the Cal comeback. Papanikolau is already a three-time Cutino Award finalist, winning it twice so far.
https://twitter.com/CalWaterPolo/status/1665460518277054465?cxt=HHwWgoC8tY7h85wuAAAA
The full award ceremony (but skip ahead to the 2:49.14 mark for his highlight package just before the announcement) is embedded below. Papa’s acceptance speech dedicated this award to Papa’s Papa, who couldn’t make it to San Franciso from Greece.
"When I was nine years old, my dad came up to me and said, 'I think I found a sport more suitable for you,'" Papanikolaou said. "I had never heard of water polo before, but I went for it. For the next eight years, he would drive me and my brother to practice every day, spend four or five hours waiting for us to finish and drive us back home. I'm so grateful and I love and appreciate him because there is a zero percent chance I'd be playing water polo, let alone be here with you today if it wasn't for him."
Papanikolaou was out of the country for the award ceremony last year.
Papa was also interviewed before the award was announced (around the 1:00.00 mark in the video). He reiterated how he and his teammates were "in the zone" during that ferocious comeback and how he was shocked to find out that he had scored that many goals. He credits all the preparation, trying to score from odd positions and building up his fitness so that he can swim for the entire game, for Cal's success and the "winning culture that they have developed in Berkeley". What is perhaps more interesting, but also not surprising, was the talk of a “three-peat” this fall. Cal has got a tight group that 8-9 guys are coming back for their extra year of eligibility to be a part of the team. Papa said, “It's the same as last year. We have a target on our back. We handled it perfectly [then], only losing two matches. We have 8-9 seniors coming back to be leaders. We will work very hard over the summer to win another championship.”
Cal Men’s Water Polo, winner of 16 national titles to be the most successful NCAA sport on campus, last three-peated in 1990-92. Cal went 23-2 in 2022, the fewest losses in head coach Kirk Everist's 20 years at the helm of the program. With Papa back along with numerous other key players like goalkeeper Adrian Weinberg (rising senior) and outside scoring threats in the Spanish duo (rising juniors) of Roberto Valera and Max Casabella, Cal might have a shot at a perfect season. USC Trojans will host the 2023 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship this December in Los Angeles.
Looking ahead to next summer, goalkeeper Adrian Weinberg and backup center George Avakian are on the USA Water Polo senior team roster with Cal alum Luca Cupido (a one-time Cutino Award winner) and Johnny Hooper. The Summer Olympics schedule does not impact the men's game in the fall anywhere as drastically as the women's game in the spring when all the top players take a redshirt season.
Out of the three Cal team national championships won in the 2022-23 school year, Men's Water Polo has got the best chance on paper to pull off a three-peat based on returning everyone for another season. Cal Men's Swimming and Diving got to replace Hugo Gonzalez, Reece Whitley, and Liam Bell among others. Cal Men's Rowing will lose at least 2 guys in the Varsity Eight boat and possibly more due to the proximity of the season finale to the Paris Olympic games.
In the post-championship press conference, Papanikolaou was already telling me about what he's going to work on to get better for the next season. I have no doubt that he's going to get stronger and even more efficient in scoring. In the best-case scenario for the fall, California Golden Bears would not need his heroics as much en route to a three-peat.
GO BEARS!
Nikolaos Papanikolaou repeats as Cutino Award (Water Polo's Heisman) winner
I was thinking about the Chevy Chase movie Vegas Vacation.
And he's got another year.......