College Park legend Melissa Seidemann inducted to USA Water Polo Hall of Fame –

PLEASANT HILL, CA (July 22, 2025) — Melissa Seidemann has racked up enough honors to fill an enormous display case and as a fitting exclamation point for her remarkable water polo career the 2008 graduate of College Park High School was inducted last month into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame.

The former Falcon won three Olympic gold medals with the American water polo team at the 2012, 2016 and 2020 summer games before she retired from the sport after the Tokyo Olympics, which were held in 2021 due to the pandemic.

College Park women weren’t done winning gold however, when ex-CPHS wrestler Amit Elor was a wrestling gold medalist last summer in Paris.

Seidemann swam and played soccer as a youngster. Her parents Mark and Bobbie helped her “discover a love for water” at an early age but she says it wasn’t until she was 13 or 14 that she began playing water polo.

She wasn’t sure about her ability taking on a new sport so she spent nearly a year practicing before she played her first game for the Devil Mountain Water Polo Club. It didn’t take long for her ability to be on full display.

USA Water Polo in announcing her selection as part of its 41st Hall of Fame class said Seidemann was “one of the most formidable defenders in Team USA history.”

The sport’s national body added, “One of the most versatile players in women’s water polo history, Melissa Seidemann quickly emerged as a world-class talent – and a nightmare for opponents – thanks to her incomparable skills as a center, lockdown defensive play at two meters and deceptive touch scoring from the perimeter.”

On the national and international stage those skills helped her win the three Olympic gold medals, three World Championship gold medals, three World Cup crowns, three Pan American Games golds and 10 World League titles as part of an unprecedented golden age for American women’s water polo.

High school and college Hall of Famer

At College Park Seidemann helped her teams to four straight North Coast Section playoff berths, reaching the semi-finals her sophomore and junior seasons and the quarterfinals the other two years. They won the DFAL championship in her MVP senior year and she was named a NISCA All-America. She also swam for the Falcons three years and was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2014.

Still in high school, she was a member of the 2006 US Youth National Team which won gold at the Pan-American Junior Games, where she was the leading scorer in the tournament with 20 goals. Seidemann was also a member of the Youth National Team, going undefeated in Australia in the summer of 2007 and on the American team that competed in the 2008 Global Championships.

“Once I found water polo, I wanted to reach the most elite level of competition possible. It wasn’t until my first taste with the Youth National Team in 2006 that I started dreaming about the Olympics. I remember a moment in 2011 when I was challenged to commit my mind and body to the process and will forever be grateful that I did,” Seidemann says.

She scored what proved to be the winning goal in the NCAA title game against Cal starting a women’s water polo dynasty at Stanford when the Cardinal won the 2011 NCAA championship, the first of their nine titles from 2011-2025.

After taking a year off to prepare for her first Olympic team, Seidemann claimed the 2013 Peter J. Cutino Award as the best player in the college game with 75 goals, helping Stanford reach the NCAA Tournament final. She was part of the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame class of 2023.

Seidemann debuted for the US National team in 2010 and 11 years later in Tokyo became only the second female water polo player in history to win three Olympic golds. She retired after the Tokyo Olympics, but has stayed close to the game as both a club and high school coach in Orange County.

She brings her passion and purpose to this job just like she did in the pool as a player.

Jay Bedecarré

Jay Bedecarré is a long-time resident and writer in Concord and Clayton. He began his newspaper writing career while still a senior at Mt. Diablo High School and he has been part of The Pioneer since its inception in 2003. Jay also operates Bay Area Festivals, presenting events around the San Francisco Bay Area including Bay Area KidFest annually in Downtown Concord.