BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Former Salem University men’s water polo athlete Salvador Orozco has returned to the sport as an assistant coach on the men’s water polo staff of Biola University in La Mirada, Calif.
Biola, which was founded in 1908 as the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (B.I.O.L.A.), will compete in its inaugural varsity season during the 2021-22 academic year under head coach Rick Nordell. The institution also started a women’s team under the tutelage of former University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) standout and Azusa Pacific University assistant coach Sarah Orozco.
A four-year varsity water polo and three-year swimming competitor as an undergraduate at Cerritos College (2017, 2018) and Salem (2019, 2020), the Commerce, Calif., native and Montebello High School graduate made his mark on both coasts.
A two-time California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) selection as a junior and senior in high school, he helped Montebello reach the Division III CIF Southern Section Championship Game in 2014. A two-time All-South Coast Conference (2016 – Second Team; 2017 – First Team, he arrived at Salem in the Fall of 2018 and made an immediate impact.
Following two seasons at Cerritos, he made an immediate impact on the West Virginia water polo community by netting 35 goals with nine assists, four steals and 26 drawn exclusions as a junior to aid Salem in posting an 11-14 mark and a runner-up finish at the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC)-West Region Championship. He concluded his time in the Mountain State of West Virginia by notching 33 goals, six assists, 37 drawn exclusions, five steals and a field block to aid Salem in posting a 12-12 record and a third place finish at the 2019 MAWPC-West Region Championship.
