It’s time for our annual men’s college draft. The objective of the draft is for participants to select the best teams they can, while recognizing some of the top college players. Each participant must select a coach, a goalie, a center, a center defender, and four other field-position players. To be eligible as a center or center defender, a player must be expected to play a significant percentage of his minutes at one of those positions. To be eligible as a coach, an individual must be an active head coach of a men’s college, junior college, or high school team. To be eligible as a player, an individual must be on the roster of a four-year American college team. We have heard rumors that some players may elect to use a fifth year of eligibility under the NCAA’s new five-in-five rule. Unless those players are on the roster of a four-year American college team at the time the first selection is made, they are ineligible for our draft. For our participants, when you make your final selection, please note which school you think will win the NCAA championship, which school or schools will do better than expected, which players will be Cutino Award finalists, which player will win the Cutino Award, which player will be named the MPSF newcomer of the year, and which coach will be named the ACWPC coach of the year.
Note: We learned yesterday that San Jose State goalie Brendon Gyapjas is redshirting this year. Therefore, he is ineligible for our draft.
We have nine participants this year. Here is the draft order for the odd rounds of our draft:
Ryder Dodd, attacker, UCLA. This one is an obvious one. Ryder’s water polo IQ, ability to elevate his teammates’ level of play, work ethic, and much more is elite and uncanny. My favorite aspect of Ryder’s game is his ability to score with pressure on him and make it look easy. Fun to watch.
Strahinja Krstic, center, USC. I went back and forth with options for the overall number two pick as a case could be made for a handfull of players in this slot. I landed on taking the player I believe to be the most consistent center and less of liability on defense as some of the other top center(s). Commands a drop that frees up outside shooting lanes and USC again will have no shortage of great shooting.
Good story before I kick this off. My nine year old daughter is a big swimmer. Ended long course season ranked fifty-third nationally in the IMX rankings. One day earlier this summer, she was walking home from practice with two of her friends. They both mentioned that they were going to Princeton for swimming camp and want to go there for college. They then asked my daughter if she wanted to go with them. Her exact words, “I can’t go there. They always lose to Fordham in water polo.” I smiled but then in a cruel retort, “I want to swim for Stanford, USC or UCLA. they are in California where it is warm. Plus then I won’t go to a school that loses to my dad’s.” Kids can be cruel. I made her eat vegetables for dinner.
As I sit here in my Fordham water polo sweatshirt and my Rams athletics mesh shorts, this choice is easy. For the second year in a row, I am taking Luca Provenziani with this pick. First team All-American as a freshman and a second team All-American as a sophomore. Most dangerous player in the country on the counterattack. If you really watch Fordham games, you can see how the opposing player with Luca guarding him will hedge their bets on offense as the concern about being beat back is drilled in their minds. Named a captain as a sophomore, all you hear is reverence from his teammates. I think he has become a little underrated as he was more facilitator than scorer last year.
Ben Liechty, LHA, UCLA: Having a lefty is so crucial in today’s game and I think Liechty is by far and away the best LHA in the country. A second-team All-American in 2025, Liechty finished with 44 goals and 63 assists and is continuing to prove to Dejan that not picking him for the 2028 Olympics would be a grave mistake. For me, the LHA position has the biggest gap in the country between the No. 1 and No. 2 players.
Tomas Peronne, attacker, Cal. Last year I took Ben Liechty and Brendon Gyapjas with the No. 8 and 9 picks. Liechty is off the board and Gyapjas is redshirting. Perrone was affected by an injury for part of the 2025 season but, if he stays healthy, I think he will have a great year for Cal.
retiredguy is on the clock with two picks, followed by me and H17Polo.
(8.) Tomas Peronne, attacker, Cal. Last year I took Ben Liechty and Brendon Gyapjas with the No. 8 and 9 picks. Liechty is off the board and Gyapjas is redshirting. Perrone was affected by an injury for part of the 2025 season but, if he stays healthy, I think he will have a great year for Cal.
(11.) Aran Pina, goalie, Cal. Pina, Tomas Perrone’s teammate at Cal and on Spain’s 20u team, broke his hand towards the end of the 2025 season but still had an excellent freshman year, earning honorable mention All-American honors. With 9 participants in our draft this year, Gyapjas redshirting, and UCLA’s uncertain goalie situation, I took Pina with the 11th pick because there may not be a really good goalie left by the time I pick again.
H17Polo is on the clock, followed by Trevor and sbwp.
Ben Liechty, LHA, UCLA: Having a lefty is so crucial in today’s game and I think Liechty is by far and away the best LHA in the country. A second-team All-American in 2025, Liechty finished with 44 goals and 63 assists and is continuing to prove to Dejan that not picking him for the 2028 Olympics would be a grave mistake. For me, the LHA position has the biggest gap in the country between the No. 1 and No. 2 players.
12. Beso Akhvlediani, RHA Cal: I’m honestly shocked that Beso is still available at 12. He was the first Cal freshman to be named first-team all MPSF since Papa in 2019. Finished with 59 goals and 23 assists, earning second-team honors. On a Cal team that was struggling to find its rhythm, Akhvlediani was their steady presence as a freshman. This is a player who only got better as the season went on, scoring 6 against Stanford on 10/17, 4 against Fordham on 10/23, 2 against UCLA and USC each on the weekend of 11/1, 4 goals against Stanford on 11/15, and 8 goals in the MPSF tournament (3 v UCLA, 5 v Stanford). This is in my opinion the best player on Cal and someone I would’ve taken as high as No.7 if Liechty had been picked. He is due for an even bigger sophomore season and potential first-team All-American honors.