Utility player Chase Cockerill was an important contributor for the UC San Diego men's water polo program last year, pacing the team in assists for the second straight season. As a senior, Cockerill will be one of the leaders of a squad that looks to build off of the success of a year ago. The Tritons ended 2014 by claiming their 17th Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) title and taking fourth place in the NCAA Championship hosted at Canyonview Aquatic Center. Cockerill, a product of Woodland Hills, spent time recently talking about his summer, his career at UCSD, and what to expect out of the Tritons in 2015. The new campaign begins with the annual Triton Invitational at Canyonview, Sept. 5-6.
Q: What have you been up to this summer? Travel anywhere interesting? Working anywhere?
COCKERILL: As a matter of fact, yes. I took a little hiatus from summer training and traveled around Europe with my little brother (Owen, going to be a freshman at UCSD) for five weeks. We made stops in London, Paris (Louvre Museum, below left), Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Krakow, Gdynia, San Sebastián (below right), Madrid, Pamplona, and Barcelona! We were able to meet up with fellow Triton Kuba Waligorski (men's soccer) at the Open'er music festival in (Gdynia) Poland, we made it through the Running of the Bulls unscathed, and experienced so much European culture! It was an unforgettable trip, but it's nice to be home in La Jolla. It's a hard place to beat. Now it's back to the grind. My team and I are training hard during the week and competing in a summer league on weekends. I'm also working full time as an intern through UCSD Sports Facilities.
Q: What's something people would be surprised to know about you?
COCKERILL: I'm a huge dog person. I love my yellow lab Sandy more than anything. She's my number-one bae. With my little brother coming here next year, I'm thinking about moving her down to La Jolla with me full time.
Q: As you enter your senior year, what are some of the things you've learned throughout your time at UCSD that you will pass down to the incoming freshmen?
COCKERILL: As cliché as it may sound, the best advice I have for all freshman student-athletes is that you have to work hard to play hard. This university places a heavy emphasis on academics. Professors here expect a lot from you, and the quarter system moves very quick. That often makes for a tough adjustment from high school, so you have to be organized and manage your time wisely from your first day at UCSD until the day you graduate. You have to put in the extra work in the classroom so that you are able to focus on polo and work hard when you're in the pool, and not be stressed out or forced to miss a practice because you fell behind in your academics.
Q: Beach workouts are a traditional part of UCSD Water Polo's preseason training. Give us a brief run-through of what they're like. What's the most difficult part of the week?
COCKERILL: I personally enjoy our beach workouts. We do them every year as part of our two weeks of two-a-days, or our "hell weeks." A typical beach workout includes about half an hour of team-led exercises in the sand, followed by about an hour and a half of ocean swim races. (Head) Coach (Denny) Harper makes the swims competitive by making the bottom half have to repeat the swim. In years past, races have included swims from the (La Jolla) Cove to Scripps Pier and back, or around the Mission Bay jetty. My favorite part of the beach workouts is watching some of my teammates have meltdowns about sharks mid-swim. I think the most difficult part of hell weeks is the three-hour conditioning practices we'll have during the first week, before the beach workouts. We've had to swim long course in heavy sweatshirts before, or wear weight belts for the entirety of practice. We rarely get the balls out that week, so half the challenge is keeping everyone's morale up and getting through it as a team.
Q: You were named to the Capital One Academic All-District First Team for the second year in a row, as well as an WWPA All-Academic honoree for two consecutive years. What's been the key to your academic success?
COCKERILL: I have to give credit to my teammates on this one. I've been fortunate enough to have played next to some of the most intelligent people I've ever met. Success is contagious, and when you see a lot of your teammates and best friends put the same amount of time and energy into a sport and still find the time and the motivation to go and get it done in the classroom, it makes you want to follow their lead. Our coaches also do a great job of making sure everyone is on top of their studies, and the upperclassmen often help tutor the younger guys in classes they've taken if they're struggling at all, so there's definitely a support system in place to help us succeed.
Q: The Tritons lost a large, talented senior class. Which player(s) do you think will play a bigger role in 2015?
COCKERILL: We've definitely got a lot of big shoes to fill with the loss of the last senior class. Many of those guys were the most talented players I've ever had the opportunity to play with. The biggest role we have to fill is our goalkeeper. Cameron Ravanbach was a two-time WWPA Tournament MVP and was one of the top five goalies in the NCAA last year. Fortunately, we have two very talented and very competitive goalies in the program right now, and I know they'll be ready when season comes. In terms of offense, I think everyone on the team is going to have to step up in order to make up for the loss of (Josh) Stiling, (Joe) Dietrich and (David) Higginson. Those guys were some offensive powerhouses. Losing (Matt) Michalko, (Lukas) Syka and (Luca) De Vivo is going to transform the way we're going to have to play defense this year, and again, younger guys are going to have to step up and work hard all year to fill their shoes, but I have confidence that they will.
Q: You've helped the Tritons to back-to-back WWPA championships and NCAA berths. What was the atmosphere like on the pool deck moments before that first NCAA match at UCSD last December?
COCKERILL: The water polo fans here at UCSD are hands down the best in all of the NCAA. We consistently have three or four times the amount of fans at each one of our home games, than any other program we play against, and I couldn't be more fortunate to play for a university with such a supportive fanbase. Going into that (national semifinal) game, I think the team was pretty calm. We were the underdogs going up against No. 1-ranked eventual champion UCLA. We had nothing to lose, and went in with a stress-free attitude. I will admit though, that when I came out of the hallway onto the deck, I had to take a second to admire how many people were in the stands. It was packed, with UCSD banners waving everywhere and people screaming. It was a pretty awesome sight, and definitely made all of us want to play the game of our lives. Many of our calm attitudes faded away.
Q: How important is it to you to end your career with another conference title and NCAA appearance? What will it take to accomplish that?
COCKERILL: Nothing would mean more to me than to end my college career with another conference title and the opportunity to play in the NCAA Championship in my hometown of Los Angeles, since UCLA is hosting. We lost in the conference championship game to a lower-ranked team (Air Force) my freshman year and immediately following the loss, our assistant coach Usha (Matt Ustaszewski) pulled me aside and told me to never forget that feeling. I haven't forgotten it, and I really don't want to leave my last college game with that feeling. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure we take the title home for a third consecutive year. The conference tournament is at the Air Force Academy this year, which is at an elevation of 7,000 feet (in Colorado Springs, Colo.). It's a tough place to play. There really isn't that much oxygen at that pool, so I think the best-conditioned team is going to win. We have to put the extra work in now, to ensure that we are that team.
Previous Triton Q&A Features
Kelcie Brodsky (Women's Soccer) July 27, 2015
Kuba Waligorski (Men's Soccer) July 20, 2015
Nate Garcia (Cross Country) July 13, 2015
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