Wolf Wigo
Encyclopedia
Water polo
Water polo is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores more goals. Game play involves swimming, treading water , players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing into a...
player and coach. He has played competitive water polo at the national level since age 13, was a four-year All-America
All-America
An All-America team is an honorary sports team composed of outstanding amateur players—those considered the best players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply...
collegiate player and led his Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
team to two NCAA Championships
NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
The NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship has existed since the 1969 season.No school from outside the state of California has ever surpassed third place...
. A member of the U.S. National Team since 1993, Wigo competed in the Olympic Games in 1996, 2000 and 2004, was leading team scorer in the 2000 Sydney games
2000 Summer Olympics
The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
and team captain from 2001-2004. Since 2005, he has been the head coach of the UC Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
men's water polo program. And starting in 2008 he will be coaching the UCSB women's team as well.
Early life
Wigo's parents were both swimmers so at an early age he and his sister would travel to the pool at the West Side Y in New York City and compete with the Gotham Aqua Kings. After success in swimming (he was named “Swimmer of the Decade” at New York’s Bronx High School of ScienceBronx High School of Science
The Bronx High School of Science is a specialized New York City public high school often considered the premier science magnet school in the United States. Founded in 1938, it is now located in the Bedford Park section of the Bronx...
), Wigo took up water polo because he enjoyed the team spirit and competition. He played on the St. Francis College Youth Water Polo Club in Brooklyn Heights, New York. By age 13, he was the youngest player on the New York Athletic Club team, earned back-to-back NYAC Utzinger Awards, and was a Prep All-American three years in a row. While still in high school, Wigo was a member of the only 17-and-under team from outside California to win the national Junior Olympics in water polo.
Stanford University
Wigo's college career was plagued by chronic back pain (degenerative discs) and he missed substantial parts of his sophomore and junior seasons at Stanford due to back problems, but still managed to earn All-America honors both years. Wolf Wigo scored 203 goals from 1991–94 and helped lead the Cardinal to two NCAA championships during his junior and senior seasons. He remains one of only 9 athletes in Stanford’s history to be named All America all four years. In 1995, along with swimmer Jenny ThompsonJenny Thompson
Jennifer Beth Thompson is an American former competitive swimmer, and one of the most decorated Olympians in history, winning twelve medals, including eight gold medals , in the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 Summer Olympics.Thompson, a Massachusetts native who calls Dover, New Hampshire her...
, Wolf was named outstanding senior athlete. Wigo is a 1996 graduate of Stanford with a BA in Political Science.
Olympics and international play
Wigo was chosen for the United States National Water Polo team in 1993. In 1996, he became the first player from east of the Rockies to make the US Olympic team in water polo since 1956. Wigo competed in the Olympic Games in 1996, 2000 and 2004, and was team captain from 2001 to 2004. In 2000 at Sydney, Australia, he was the team's leading scorer with 16 goals. Wigo helped the U.S. Men's National Team win the 1997 FINA World Water Polo Championship. Between the 2000 and the 2004 Olympics Wolf was a star on the Ethnikos Piraeus team in Athens, Greece. Wigo is still active in USA Water Polo's Premier League, playing for the New York Athletic Club team. He netted 3 goals in the 2006 final game, notching a second consecutive Premier League championship for the NYAC.Other distinctions include:
- Top US scorer at 1995 (22 goals in 8 games) & 1993 World University Games.
- Leading overall scorer in 1995 US Olympic festival.
- Leading US scorer at 1993 Junior World Championships.
Coaching career
Wigo served as an assistant coach at Stanford in 1996, and again later in 2001 when the Cardinals won the NCAA Championship. He was head coach for the Saddleback El Toro Water Polo Club for two years, and became the UC Santa Barbara men's water polo coach in April 2005 and women's water polo in May 2008. He is also now the director of the Santa Barbara Water Polo Club program. Wigo served as an analyst for NBC SportsNBC Sports
NBC Sports is the sports division of the NBC television network. Formerly "a service of NBC News," it broadcasts a diverse array of programs, including the Olympic Games, the NFL, the NHL, MLS, Notre Dame football, the PGA Tour, the Triple Crown, and the French Open, among others...
coverage of Water polo at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Water polo at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Water polo at the 2008 Summer Olympics was held from 10 August to 24 August 2008 at the Ying Tung Natatorium in Beijing, People's Republic of China.-Men's medalists:-Women's medalists:-Men:-Women:-External links:**...
.
Awards and honors
- Two year winner of Utzinger Award, the prestigious citation from the NYAC.
- Named to the Hall of Fame of the New York Athletic Club.
- Four-year AWPCA All-American (1991, 1992, 1993, 1994).
- 1994 NCAA Player of the Year and NCAA Tournament MVP.
- American Water Polo Coaches Association National Scholar-Athlete.
- Stanford University Biff Hoffman Award for the school's top senior male athlete.
- Three-time USA Water Polo Male Athlete of the Year, (1999, 2000, and 2003).
- First Team All-World by NBC Sports and USA Water Polo (2000).
Personal
- His given name is Wolfgang, reportedly from a character in a James Fenimore Cooper novel.
- After college, Wigo worked as an equity options trader at the Pacific Stock Exchange in San Francisco (1996–2000). For most of the four years he made trades for Cole Roesler Capital Management until about 2:30 p.m., then went to either Stanford, or across the bay to Cal for his water polo workouts. Every Friday, he would head from the trading floor to the airport, fly south to train with the US National Team all weekend, then back home Sunday night.
- Wolf and his wife Barbara have a daughter, Athena, born during the Athens 2004 Olympic games.
- His father, Bruce Wigo, is the former executive director of US Water Polo, and now CEO of the International Swimming Hall of FameInternational Swimming Hall of FameThe International Swimming Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame, located at One Hall of Fame Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, operated by private interests serving as the central point for the study of the history of swimming in the United States and around...
in Ft Lauderdale, Florida. - Drac and Janson, Wolf's younger brothers, have signed national letters of intent to play water polo at Stanford in Fall 2006. The Wigo twins played for Northeast High SchoolNortheast High School (Oakland Park, Florida)Northeast High School is a high school in Broward County, Florida. Northeast serves Oakland Park and Fort Lauderdale as well as the portion of North Lauderdale east of Florida's Turnpike...
in Oakland Park, FloridaOakland Park, FloridaOakland Park is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. Originally named Floranada , the town was forced into bankruptcy after the hurricane of 1926. When the town reincorporated, residents chose the name Oakland Park. As of the 2010 census, the population was 41,363, mainly due to...
, reaching the Florida state championship game in 2004 and helping Northeast win the state title in 2005 and 2006. - In December 1998, Wigo was in his father's backyard pool trying to win a bet with his 12-year-old twin brothers that he couldn't swim 20 laps underwater. He blacked out from lack of oxygen—because he hyperventilated too much before he got into the water. His father dived in, pulled him out and performed CPR, saving his life.
- Wigo's mother, Dawn Young, an actress and filmmaker in New York City, made him the subject of a 2004 award-winning documentary, Beneath The Surface, about his rise in the water polo world to compete in three Olympics.