Former University of Hawai‘i water polo head coach Maureen Cole set a high bar for her successor, but James Robinson says he's ready to embrace the challenge.
Cole retired following the 2024 season in which the Rainbow Wahine went 23-4, losing to California in the national semifinals. UH finished third in two national polls, good for its best finish in program history, which debuted in 1998.
The reins were handed to Robinson, a 2017 graduate of UCLA who joined the Hawai‘i staff in 2022 as an assistant. Robinson, who was named the nation's top assistant coach by the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches in 2024, gravitated towards the profession once his playing days with the Bruins came to an end.
"I got pretty lucky with my first gig at UCLA. Immediately fell in love with it. I mean, just working with the student-athletes, right? You can see a lot of yourself when you're that age, working with them, seeing what they're going through in terms of the student-athlete experience. I love the challenge," Robinson said. "I love being a part of a team. So, I knew that was always something that I wanted to do when I got into coaching. That side of the game is so interesting to me, being able to strategize and try to get, in our case, 21 young women on the same page make sure that they execute at a high level. So I think really, within the first year that I started coaching, I started to believe that I wanted to do this for a living and have my own program."
Robinson's first season is already underway, as No. 5 Hawai‘i went 1-1 at the Fresno State Polo-Palooza on Jan. 18. The Rainbow Wahine defeated No. 17 Fresno State 15-6 before falling to No. 2 Stanford 12-7.
Hawai‘i will host the Rainbow Invitational this week at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex on the campus of UH-Mānoa, taking on No. 10 Loyola Marymount on Friday and No. 12 Arizona State and Biola in a Saturday doubleheader.
"I would say you always pick up new things in a new role, things that you don't really expect in terms of the preparation," Robinson said. "I think that we'll continue to fine-tune that week every single week, and we have games in the game. I thought that the team did a good job of adjusting and executing, but the more we get familiar with ourselves and our own personnel, I think that we'll learn new stuff about us every single week with this team."
Despite losing star player Bia Mantellato Dias to UCLA in the transfer portal, the Rainbow Wahine return key veterans from the 2024 team in Bernadette Doyle and Jordan Wedderburn. Doyle is the team's leading scorer in the early going with five goals, while Wedderburn has added three goals as a utility player.
"It's a privilege to represent the state of Hawai‘i. There's no one else in Hawai‘i that's representing women's water polo on a collegiate level, so it is just a huge privilege," said Wedderburn, a native of South Africa. "We really just like to hold ourselves accountable and keep everyone working together and everyone on track. Obviously, James was our assistant coach last year, so we knew him well. He knew our program. He knew the values that we that we hold really close to our hearts, and he knows how much this program means to every single one of us, and we all had a lot of trust in him going into becoming head coach because we knew him already. It was really nice to have such a smooth and easy process going from (Cole) to James."
Added Robinson: "I think they understand my expectations, the standards of this program, whether I'm the head coach or whether it was Coach Mo, and this is a team that's enjoyed success. We want to compete at the national stage every single year."
Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
