BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — The Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) recalls an interview with CWPA Coordinator of Officials/Hall of Fame inductee/former Brown University water polo head coach Ed Reed on Episode 012 of the PoloCAST Podcast with George Gross, Jr. The interview was originally published on January 5, 2021.
A series highlighting some of water polo’s best minds and athletes over the past 50+ years, PoloCAST is available on Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Anchor and Spotify.
Hosted by CWPA Hall of Fame inductee and former Team Canada Olympian George Gross, Jr., the podcast provides listeners with more than just an X’s and O’s conversation about water polo – but a dialogue about what helped good players, coaches and administrators reach the top of the game.
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About Ed Reed: A 2003 inductee to the CWPA Hall of Fame, Ed Reed began his coaching tenure at Brown University in 1971 when he was named head coach of the men’s varsity swim team and club water polo team. In 1974, the men’s water polo team achieved varsity status as he built the program into an East Coast powerhouse.
Reed never experienced a losing season at Brown, compiling a career record of 420-159-5 in 20 years at the helm. In fact, during a nearly five-year span in the 1980’s his Brown squad did not lose a game against an eastern collegiate opponent. He led the Bears to 17-consecutive New England Championships and four Eastern Championships, including three straight from 1983-85, and a record ten Eastern Championship final appearances. Under Reed, the team made eleven NCAA tournament appearances, finishing sixth in 1983, 1984 and 1985.
Under Reed, Brown accomplished a pair of eastern collegiate water polo firsts. The 1984 squad finished the season with a No. 6 ranking in the American Water Polo Coaches’ Association poll, the best ever for a school from the east. The Bears’ 1986 home victory over No. 4-ranked Pepperdine University constituted the first time an east coast school defeated a top five nationally ranked team.
Seventeen student-athletes earned All-America honors while playing for Reed at Brown. He received Eastern Water Polo League Coach of the Year honors in 1987 and 1989. He was inducted into the Rhode Island Aquatic Hall of Fame in 1986, the Brown University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996 and the United States Water Polo Hall of Fame in 1999.
He also contributed to the sport on the national level, serving on the coaching staff of the United States Men’s National Water Polo Team from 1993-96. He worked with the 1995 U.S. squad that won the gold medal at the Pan American Games in Argentina and was an assistant coach for the seventh-place U.S. team at the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta. He was also elected President of the American Water Polo Coaches Association and served on several committees for United States Water Polo.
Reed was a two-time All-America as a swimmer at Springfield College, winning the 1965 New England Intercollegiate Championship in the 200 meter individual medley. He started his coaching career at Tufts University in 1966.
He retired in the Spring of 2008 as the Aquatic Center Manager for the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala., but continues to give back to the sport of water polo as a referee evaluator as part of the CWPA Technical Committee and as the league’s Coordinator of Officials.
He and his wife Andy reside in Tuscaloosa and have two children, Scott and Kerrie. Scott is the head coach of the Macalester College women’s water polo team, carrying on the family water polo tradition.
