Among a litany of outstanding players who have played at the United States Naval Academy, Aaron Reckoconcluded his career with 172 goals and 43 assists for 215 points in helping Navy achieve a 95-32 record, three CWPA Eastern Championship title game appearances (2005, 2006, 2007) and pairs of CWPA Eastern titles and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship berths (2006, 2007).

His career did not set out on a Hall of Fame trajectory as Recko managed one goal in two games during his freshman year in 2004 when Navy finished 19-12 with a Third Place finish at the CWPA Eastern Championship hosted by Bucknell University.

Navy’s fortunes turned on the tides of Recko and his classmates’ performance over the next three years as the Blue & Gold accounted for 76-20 record from 2005-to-2007 to rate with St. Francis Brooklyn College as the dominant force on the East Coast.

As a sophomore in 2005, he accounted for 25 goals, 10 assists, 35 points, 24 steals and 25 ejections drawn in 29 games as the Midshipmen accounted for a 22-7 season.  The Southern Division champion thanks to defeats of Mercyhurst University (14-3 W), Bucknell (9-8 W) and host Princeton University (10-8 W), Navy placed second at the CWPA Eastern Championship hosted by Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., as the Mids managed Iona University (9-5 W) and Bucknell (8-7 W) before falling to St. Francis Brooklyn (10-9 L).

The second place finish and Recko’s performance over the next two seasons helped lay the foundation for a three-year run of dominance by the Naval Academy that saw the team reel off a 54-13 mark with the team’s lone losses to a team outside of California coming against rival St. Francis Brooklyn.

Recko came into his own to fuel the charge for Navy in 2006 as the junior led the team with 70 goals, 19 assists, 89 points, 38 steals and 40 ejections drawn in 31 games as the Midshipmen finished 24-7, including a 20-1 record against East Coast institutions, to win the Southern Division and CWPA Eastern Championships.

Following defeats of George Washington (10-5 W), host Bucknell (12-9 W) and Princeton (11-10 W) to win the program’s second Southern Division crown in as many years, the Midshipmen dominated the CWPA Championship by defeating MIT (13-7 W), Bucknell (11-8 W) and host Princeton (9-6 W) to reclaim the league title and earn a berth to the NCAA Championship for the first time since 2003.

At the NCAA Championship hosted by Stanford University, Navy claimed Fourth Place after facing then top-ranked the University of Southern California (14-9 L) and Loyola Marymount University (11-4 L).

For his performance, Recko was lauded with Southern Division Most Valuable Player, All-Southern Division First Team, Eastern Championship Most Valuable Player, Eastern Championship All-Tournament First Team and Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-America Third Team honors.

However, his best single season offensive performance was saved for the 2007 campaign as the senior struck for 76 goals, 14 assists and 90 points as Navy compiled a 30-6 record – including a 24-1 mark against East Coast schools – to repeat as both Southern Division and CWPA Eastern Champions.

In the wake of victories over Salem University (8-6 W), Gannon University (16-8 W), Princeton University (11-5 W) and Johns Hopkins University (11-7 W) at home in Annapolis to retain the Southern Division title, the Midshipmen repeated as Eastern Champions and the league’s NCAA Championship representative by sinking Iona (12-3 W), George Washington (15-3 W) and St. Francis Brooklyn (11-7 W) at Harvard behind another MVP performance by Recko.  In the title game, Recko tallied four goals as the Midshipmen rallied back from a 3-1 deficit in the first quarter to defeat the Terriers.

At the NCAA Championship hosted by Stanford, Recko helped Navy against the University of California (8-5 L) and Loyola Marymount University (7-6 W) as Navy claimed Third Place to equal the highest finish ever recorded by an East Coast institution at the event.

He capped off his intercollegiate career with a bevy of awards as he repeated as an All-Southern Division First Team selection to accompany Eastern Championship MVP and All-Tournament First Team status.  Recko added All-NCAA Championship Second Team notice – becoming the first of two Navy players to achieve the feat (Mike Mulvey – 2007, 2008 All-NCAA Championship Second Team) – prior to joining Mulvey (Honorable Mention) on the 2007 ACWPC All-America team with a Second Team nod.  The All-America award places Recko in rare air as he stands with Sean Foster (2000, Second Team) and Isaac Salinas (2020/Winter 2021, Second Team) as the only Naval Academy men’s water polo athletes to earn All-America Second Team recognition.

One of three Navy water polo players to earn back-to-back Eastern Championship MVP laurels – joining fellow Hall of Fame members Popp (1987, 1988) and Nicolao (1990, 1991), Recko is tied for 20th in career points (215) and tied for ninth in single season goals (76, 2007).  His performance came during a reign of dominance by Navy as the Midshipmen notched a school record tying 19-game (October 6, 2007-to-November 18, 2007)  and a 14-game (September 27, 2006-to-November 14, 2006) winning streak during his time in Annapolis.

A 2008 graduate of the Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science in Ocean Engineering, the Vice President of Special Projects for Guido Companies, a privately held Commercial Construction and Building Materials firm in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas, is the husband of Bella and the father of a five-year old daughter Cameron and a two year-old son Mark with an additional Recko on the way in February.

CWPA Hall of Fame members Ted Bresnahan & Aaron Recko