Courtesy: USA Water Polo
Irvine, CA – April 6, 2023 – USA Water Polo is proud to announce the 39th induction class for the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame. This year’s class showcases Olympic medalists, trailblazing women, grassroots sport growth specialists and elite officiating.
Aaron Chaney, a two-time Olympic Games referee and award-winning coach joins women’s water polo trailblazers, collegiate champions and Olympic medalists Nicolle Payne and Coralie Simmons. The class is rounded out by two household names in Northern California’s Contra Costa County. High school and club water polo coaching legend Ron Richison heads into the Hall of Fame alongside Olympic silver medalist and NCAA champion Peter Varellas.
Join us on June 9 at 11 AM PT for the Hall of Fame Induction luncheon at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Pleasanton at the Club in Pleasanton, California. To purchase individual tickets or tables, click here. To learn more about the Hall of Fame, including a look at all the past inductees, click here. For lodging at the Doubletree, click here.
Congratulations to all the inductees!
More on the 2023 USA Water Polo Hall of Fame Induction Class:
Aaron Chaney
In 1979, Aaron Chaney helped the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos win an NCAA title in the pool, but he made an even bigger impact on the pool deck during a four-decade career as award-winning coach and an elite collegiate and international referee. In a 20-year run at Iolani School, Chaney guided the boys to three championships and started the girls program that he led for eight years. At Corona del Mar High School in California he piloted the girls team to 10 league titles in 10 years, adding five straight CIF titles while winning Orange County Coach of the year in his first season. In the span of three impactful decades, Chaney would send more than 60 athletes off to the world of college water polo. He’d return to Hawaii to once again coach at Iolani followed this time as an assistant coach for the University of Hawaii women, helping the team to two Big West crowns and an NCAA berth.
Wearing white, however, brought Chaney to pools around the globe. He was a referee at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics in Athens and Beijing, which included whistling the men’s semifinal in ’04. He also officiated four FINA World Championships highlighted by a women’s bronze medal match, and the 2005 men’s gold-medal match in Montreal. Named USAWP Referee of the Year in 2004, Chaney whistled two FINA Cups and two World League Super Final gold medal matches. Domestically, he was among the best, officiating 20 Men’s NCAA Championships and ten Women’s NCAA Championships which included 15 championship games. It’s no surprise Chaney’s the namesake for the annual USA Water Polo Developmental Referee Award.
A member of the UC Santa Barbara and Hawaii Swimming Halls of Fame, he’s remained involved in the game as an assistant coach with the Punahou School club program in which his daughter participates while also running an annual pre-season varsity girls’ tournament.
Nicolle Payne
Nicolle Payne is long respected as one of the top goalies in the history of Team USA, both before and after women’s water polo became an Olympic discipline. She established her excellence at an early age, playing on the boys’ team at Gahr High School in Cerritos, California, where she was a three-time All-American. She made her international debut at the 1992 Junior World Championships. Two years later, she became the first woman recruited for the brand-new UCLA women’s water polo program. In Westwood, Payne was part of three National Championship teams (before the NCAA era), earned multiple All-America honors, and still holds the Bruins’ single-saves record at 225.
When women’s water polo was finally added to the Olympic program, at the 2000 Sydney Games, Payne was a mainstay in the goal for Team USA, helping it claim the silver medal. In 2003, she was part of the first US team to win a FINA World Championship title, taking top honors in Barcelona. She ended her international career in goal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, claiming the bronze. Payne is enshrined in the New York Athletic Club and UCLA Halls of Fame and was a Pac-12 All-Century team pick. She has remained close to the game as a coach for UCLA and Team USA, most recently helping the US squad win gold at the 2022 FINA World Championships.
Ron Richison
Water Polo in northern California’s East Bay would not be what it is today without Ron Richison. Richison is as familiar to the region’s water polo families as a trip along the 24 freeway. He first put his stamp on the sport at the high-school level. He began coaching at Del Valle in Walnut Creek, CA in 1965 and moved to Campolindo High School in Moraga, CA in 1969 where he would spend 14 years as head boys water polo coach. Three North Coast Invitational titles and a Foothill Athletic League crown followed, until Richison pivoted to Acalanes High School in Lafayette, CA in 1984.
At Acalanes, Richison’s teams flew even higher, claiming three California Interscholastic Federation pennants and a 1987 California state championship. All the while, Richison was busy growing water polo as a club sport in the region. In 1968, he joined Peter Cutino’s Concord Water Polo Club, now known as Lamorinda Water Polo, and with the help of Steve Heaston, built it into a powerhouse that’s continued today as a club with nationwide recognition. Richison’s teams produced a staggering 22 high school All-Americans, 24 eventual NCAA champions and nine Olympians. The list includes legends such as Steve Heaston, Kirk Everist, Peter Schnugg, John Schnugg, Craig Klass, Rick McNair and swimming great Matt Biondi. Away from the pool, Richison also spent a decade as the treasurer for Pacific Water Polo, starting in 2002. When he’s not spending time with his grandchildren, the now retired Richison swims laps and remains a supporter of high school water polo in the East Bay.
Coralie Simmons
One of the most dynamic players for Team USA, Coralie Simmons emerged in the late 1990’s from Hemet, California. There she played on her high school boys’ team before finally making her way to a water polo hotbed: Westwood. At UCLA, Simmons was twice named NCAA Player of the Year, a four-year All-American and won three national collegiate championships. She capped her run as a Bruin in 2001, helping UCLA win the first NCAA Women’s Water Polo Championship. At UCLA, she helped set the foundation for what would become the Bruins’ dynastic run in the mid-2000’s. As an undergraduate, Simmons also made the first US women’s Olympic water polo team and helped Team USA earn the inaugural silver medal in Sydney.
Outside of Team USA, Simmons was a sought-after player on the international club scene capping up with Glyfada and Vouliagmeni where she won three Greek Championships and one European Cup title. On the domestic front, Simmons was a key piece of the New York Athletic Club’s multiple national-championship teams. As her playing career wound down, she took assistant coaching roles at Hawaii and UCLA, helping to guide her alma mater to the NCAA Championship Tournament. She later took over the Sonoma State Seawolves, twice earning Division II Coach of the Year honors. Now in her seventh season as head coach of women’s water polo at the University of California-Berkeley, she has already guided the Bears to the NCAA semifinals four times. Simmons also remains a key member of the Team USA pipeline, twice serving as head coach of the women’s junior national team which won a world title in 2015.
Peter Varellas
Left-handers bring a different element to water polo, and from 2002 to 2012 no American southpaw was as accomplished as Peter Varellas. Growing up in the East Bay of Northern California, Varellas was a standout at Campolindo High School in Moraga before joining a star-studded Stanford University team across the Bay. He helped the Cardinal reach four consecutive NCAA championship games, including a victory as a freshman, in 2002. He was a consistent force on the Farm: a two-time All-America who amassed 168 goals, was named the Pac-10 Male Athlete of the Year as a senior, received the Stanford Most Outstanding Male Senior Award, and was chosen as a recipient of an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.
At the same time, his national team career was on the rise. He quickly became a key piece of the squad, helping the US win gold at the 2007 Pan American Games. He then delivered five goals and seven assists during Team USA’s breakthrough performance at the 2008 Beijing Olympics where the team earned its first men’s medal since 1988, the silver. Varellas added another PanAm title in 2011 then capped up for his second Olympics in London in 2012 and retired after the Games to attend the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Professionally, Varellas competed for Rari Nantes in Savona, Italy, from 2006-2010 and at home with The Olympic Club in San Francisco. Varellas is now an athlete representative on the USA Water Polo Board of Directors.
About USA Water Polo
USA Water Polo, Inc., is the national governing body for water polo in America, overseeing our United States Olympic program as well as 20 championship events annually, such as Junior Olympics and Masters National Championships. With more than 50,000 members, USAWP also is the sanctioning authority for more than 500 member clubs and more than 400 tournaments nationwide. USAWP is committed to the development of the sport throughout the U.S., fostering grass-roots expansion while providing a national system of affiliated clubs, certified coaches, and officials. For more information, visit www.usawaterpolo.org.
