UC San Diego

MEDIA
2025
• Postgame Interview (8/31)
• Tritoncast Season Preview (8/27)

2024
• Postgame Interview (9/28)
• Tritoncast (9/3)
• NBC Interview (8/15)

2023
• Postgame Interview (10/6)
• Postgame Interview (9/27)
• Postgame Interview (9/15)
• Postgame Interview (9/14)
• Postgame Interview (9/3)
• Tritoncast Interview (8/23)

2022
• ESPN+ Halftime Interview (1/5)
• Postgame Interview (11/20)
• Postgame Interview (11/18)
• Postgame Interview (10/14)
• Postgame Interview (9/21)
• Tritoncast Interview (8/24)

UC San Diego alumnus Matt Ustaszewski officially became the head coach of the Triton men's water polo team on July 1, 2022. He took over for Denny Harper, who announced his retirement after 42 years leading the team.

With Ustaszewski at the helm, the Tritons have finished with a winning record in each of the last three seasons. Overall, the team has gone 48-38, good for a .558 win percentage.

In 2024, UC San Diego posted a 17-12 overall mark with a 3-2 record in the Big West. The Tritons advanced to the Big West Championship final, where they lost to Long Beach State. Individually, Landon Akerstrom and Lucas Romaguera were All-Big West First Team selections. Eamon Hennessey was All-Big West Second Team while Bennett Axline, Logan Estes, and Felipe Ferreira garnered Honorable Mention from the conference. Akerstrom, Axline, and Romaguera were also ACWPC All-America Honorable Mention picks. A group of 14 Tritons were ACWPC All-Academic honorees.

In 2023, Ustazewski's second season as head coach, UC San Diego compiled a 17-13 overall record with a 3-2 mark in the Big West. With the Big West sponsoring men's water polo for the first time in 32 years, the Tritons were the third seed for the conference tournament, which was hosted by UC San Diego at Canyonview Aquatic Center. The Tritons dispatched sixth-seeded Cal State Fullerton before falling to second-seeded UC Santa Barbara in overtime in a semifinal match-up.

In 2022, Ustazewski's first season at the helm, the Tritons were ranked as high as No. 10 nationally. The team advanced to the finals of the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) Championships, falling to fifth-ranked UC Davis by a single goal in overtime. UC San Diego compiled a 14-13 overall record and went 6-2 in conference action. Four players picked up All-WWPA recognition including Vedran Latkovic (First Team), Rhys Bugelli (Second Team), Alexander Nemeth (Honorable Mention), and Bennett Axline (Freshman of the Year, All-Freshman Team).

Ustaszewski completed his ninth season as associate head coach and 12th season overall on the UC San Diego men's water polo staff in 2021.

After four years as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Ustaszewski was promoted to associate head coach in January of 2013.

During his 12 years on staff as an associate head coach and assistant coach, Ustaszewski helped lead the Tritons to five WWPA championships and automatic berths to the NCAA Championship. He has recruited and coached 25 All-Americans, including two WWPA Players of the Year and five WWPA Tournament Most Valuable Players. Between 2011-19, the Tritons appeared in nine straight WWPA championship games, a run which includes consecutive titles from 2013-15.

Ustaszewski returned to UC San Diego in 2010 after a very successful stint at Southwestern College in Chula Vista. He served as the Jaguars' men's water polo head coach for four years (2006-09), while also instructing health and exercise science courses. Ustaszewski was named the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 2007 and 2009. Prior to taking over the water polo program, Ustaszewski spent time as the men's and women's swimming and diving head coach at Southwestern, while also assisting with both the men's and women's water polo teams.

Ustaszewski is no stranger to the La Jolla campus. He was a co-captain of the fifth-ranked Triton water polo team as a senior in 2003 for former head coach Denny Harper. He graduated in 2004, completing his bachelor's degree in history (Europe emphasis) with a 3.5 grade-point average.

Ustaszewski earned his teaching credential in social studies from San Diego State University in 2007, and his master's degree in physical education at Azusa Pacific University in 2011.

Before attending UC San Diego, he was an All-American at Sierra College and Rocklin High School, both located in his native Rocklin. He still holds career records in goals scored at each school.

In addition to serving as a coach at UC San Diego, Ustaszewski is the head coach for the Sunset San Diego water polo club team. He coached the Sunset 40's to four straight USA Water Polo (USAWP) Masters Nationals Championships (2011-14). He is also the USAWP Olympic Development Program (ODP) head coach for the Pacific Southwest Zone Youth Men's Team, and was honored as the USAWP ODP Top Coach in 2014.

Ustaszewski has extensive experience with the United States Men's Senior National Team. Most recently, he was as an assistant coach with Team USA at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. He helped the U.S. claim a medal as the team went 5-3 and defeated Hungary in the Bronze Medal game.

At Tokyo 2020, Ustaszewski served as the video coach for Team USA.

As an assistant coach in the summer of 2022, he helped the Men's National Team finish sixth at the FINA World Championships in Hungary. Team USA went 2-2 overall, which included a 16-15 penalty shootout victory against Hungary. Also during the summer of 2022, Ustaszewski was with Team USA when it won a silver medal at the FINA World League Super Final in France. 

The U.S. won a silver medal at the 2021 FINA World League Super Final in Tbilisi, Georgia. He was the video coordinator at both the 2019 FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea and the 2019 China Wenjiang International Water Polo Tournament in Chengdu, China. In addition, Ustaszewski closed out 2019 as the video coordinator for Team USA in a series of exhibition games against Serbia.

Ustaszewski resides in Scripps Ranch with his wife, Heather (Szafraniec) Ustaszewski, herself a former UC San Diego standout scholar-athlete in her own right as a four-year starting center back and two-year captain in the women's soccer program from 2002-05. The couple welcomed their first child, son Jordan, in October of 2016.