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Dante Dettamanti, the highly successful head coach of the Stanford Cardinal water polo program, retired after the 2001 season after 25 years of keeping the program running in high gear. Since arriving on the Stanford campus 25 years ago, Dettamanti built the Cardinal into one of the nation's top water polo programs, producing both NCAA championship teams and Olympic athletes.
Dettamanti's record of success on The Farm was nothing short of spectacular. During his tenure, he led the Cardinal to eight NCAA championships, six second place finishes, five third place finishes and one fourth place showing. His teams placed among the top four in the nation in 20 of his 25 seasons at Stanford. Dettamanti, who guided his 1981 and 1986 teams to undefeated seasons en route to winning back-to-back national championships, was named the NCAA Coach of the Year six times (including 1993 and 1994) and was the league's Coach of the Year nine times. His overall record at Stanford was an impressive 570-148-6, a winning percentage of .790. His 32-year coaching record, including stints at Occidental College (1971-73) and UC Santa Barbara (1974-76), now stands at 666-209-6. He is one of only two coaches in NCAA water polo history to reach the 600 victory plateau, and one of only three coaches in NCAA water polo history to reach the 500 victory barrier.
Dettamanti has quite a bit of international water polo experience under his belt. In 1979 at the World University Games in Mexico City, he guided the U.S. team to a gold medal. At the 1981 Games in Bucharest, the U.S. team took the silver, again with Dettamanti as the head coach. He has also served as an assistant coach for the U.S. National Team that competed at the 1990 World Championships in Perth, Australia. Twelve of his players have gone on to play for the U.S. in the Olympic Games. Dettamanti will be the head coach of the United States team at the World University Games in Beijing, China, in August of 2001.
Dettamanti is a 1965 engineering graduate of UC Davis, where he earned all-league honors in both swimming and water polo. He earned a master's degree in exercise physiology from UCLA in 1969.