BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Former University of California-Santa Cruz and University of Central Florida collegiate club head coach Blair MacDougall joins the Mercyhurst University water polo coaching staff as a graduate assistant in 2022.
An athlete at UC-Santa Cruz on the Banana Slugs varsity team prior to the elimination of the men’s and women’s programs in 2008, MacDougall helped found the institution’s collegiate club programs in both genders.
The Banana Slugs finished Ninth in the Pacific Coast Division in 2009 during the program’s inaugural season as a collegiate club program prior to taking Sixth Place at the 2010 Pacific Coast Division Championship.
In 2010, the Banana Slugs captured their inaugural Division III Collegiate Club Championship as the team knocked off Monmouth College by an 18-2 score in the title game at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. MacDougall garnered Al-Tournament Second Team honors for anchoring the Banana Slugs to the National Championship. For his efforts, MacDougall was named a Second Team Division III All-America selection.
In 2011, UC-Santa Cruz earned a berth in the National Collegiate Club Championship at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta, Georgia, by topping Chico State University by a 7-6 score in the inaugural Sierra Pacific Division title game at home in Santa Cruz. At the National Collegiate Club Championship, the Banana Slugs claimed Eighth Place in the 16-team field.
He capped off his intercollegiate playing tenure by earning All-Sierra Pacific Second Team status while helping UC-Santa Cruz to a Sixth Place finish in the Sierra Pacific Division during the 2012 season. The team elected not to compete in the 2012 Division III Collegiate Club Championship hosted by Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt.
In addition to his playing tenure at UC-Santa Cruz, MacDougall also served as head coach of both the men’s and women’s collegiate club programs.
In 2013, he assumed co-coaching duties with Dustin Johnson of the men’s program and guided the team to a Sixth Place finish in the Sierra Pacific Division. At the Division III National Collegiate Club Championship hosted by Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., he combined with Johnson to share co-Coach of the Tournament recognition as the Banana Slugs garnered their second National Championship with a 13-9 defeat of Washington University in St. Louis.
In women’s competition, he combined with Brian Fischl to lead UC-Santa Cruz to the 2010 Sierra Pacific Division title and a Third Place mark at the National Collegiate Club Championship hosted by the University of Arizona. Following a Third Place mark in the Sierra Pacific Division during the 2011 season, the Banana Slugs returned to and placed sixth at the National Collegiate Club Championship hosted by Florida State University as the team claimed the 2012 Sierra Pacific Division Championship. MacDougall completed his first tenure at UC-Santa Cruz by guiding the women’s team to a Fifth Place finish at the 2013 Sierra Pacific Division Championship.
His profession moved him to Florida, where he returned to the collegiate club coaching ranks in 2016 to lead the University of Central Florida men’s team to a regular season championship and a runner-up finish at the Florida Division Championship.
Following several years away from collegiate coaching, he returned to his roots and took over as head men’s and women’s club coach at UC-Santa Cruz from 2019 until the commencement of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
In addition to his collegiate coaching tenure, MacDougall has also been active in coaching the past two 5-Meter Water Polo camps in the Santa Cruz area with Olympian Genai Kerr.
