He is a longtime high school and club coach whose experience includes water polo and swimming, sports in which he competed for UC Irvine in the late 1990s.
With all that background, Jesse Briggs understands the wild swings an aquatic season can take, even when confined by the four walls of a pool.
“It’s like steering a bus down a hill with no brakes,” he says. “You’ve just got to get there, get it done, take the swerves, take the hits along the way and try to end with a successful season.”
And so it is today at University High, where the boys water polo team is leaning on senior leadership and a forged work ethic to start this season well and put last fall behind them.
For the first time in Briggs’ eight years as coach, the 2024 team failed to advance to the CIF playoffs – the result of a lack of early season preparation that left the Trojans searching for direction well into their schedule, Briggs says.
This summer was a different story, with senior co-captains Jack Noyes and Jacob Shabanie helping set a foundation of sweat and long hours when practices began a month before the first day of school.
“I knew that Jacob and I plus a few other guys were going to be the leaders this year,” Noyes says. “I wanted us to be really strong in and out of the pool. I wanted to promote working hard and loving this water polo community.”
Going all in
The most intense training “week” for the Trojans lasted closer to three weeks and included up to eight hours of work a day, sessions typically starting in the early morning darkness.
Water polo demands as much, the sport requiring the fitness of swimming and strength of wrestling before a player can even display his ability to handle the ball.
To find success, the annually deep and talented Pacific Coast League also asks for nothing short of commitment that is all in and effort that is all out.
Between their split workouts, the Trojans often ate together as a team, gathering at one of their two favorite spots: Breakfast Republic and Chick-fil-A.
The senior leaders promoted the idea of working in the water and bonding on the land. It appears to be a winning combination, as University earned six victories in its first eight games.
“After last season, I was thinking to myself, ‘This cannot happen again,’ ” Shabanie says. “It’s senior year. I’ve worked the last three years for this. I’m not going to let it get away.”
Shabanie and Noyes were sophomores on the 2023 University team that advanced further than any has under Briggs, losing in the CIF quarterfinals in overtime to El Segundo.
That memory – and defeat – pushes the co-captains still, each remembering the frenzied crowd at Woodbridge High that day and the disappointment that enveloped the Trojans after falling to the eventual division champions.
“That was a rough loss,” Shabanie says. “We had a close team that year, and I just remember how tough it was on the seniors.”
Said Noyes: “That was a pretty crazy game, all the fight and effort that went into it. It was like the whole school came out to support us. It was definitely one of the coolest highlights of my high school career so far.”
So far. The 2025 Trojans are now pursuing even cooler highlights as they push deep into the conference season.
Check out these upcoming University home games:
Oct. 9 vs. Irvine
Oct. 14 vs. Laguna Beach
Oct. 16 vs. Woodbridge
