CONCORD, CA (July 24, 2025) — Singapore is 15 hours ahead of Pacific Coast time and in two Concord homes this month the Brown family is keenly aware of that time difference as they monitor what’s taking place in the men’s water polo competition at the World Aquatic Championships.

On the United State men’s national team is Dominic Brown, a 2023 De La Salle grad, debuting as a center forward for the American men in the biennial world competition featuring swimming, diving, water polo and artistic swimming.

In this first major competition leading up to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the Americans have the youngest team in the competition with 20-year-old Brown actually older than a couple teammates.

Brown has had a whirlwind past 12 months. After redshirting as a freshman on the UC Santa Barabra water polo team he played his first collegiate season last fall for the Gauchos.

New UCSB assistant coach Nikola Bjelica noticed something about the 6-6, 230-pound lefthanded redshirt freshman and reached out to US National team coaches to take a look at Brown.

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During last season Brown racked up several post-season honors including ACWPC All-America honorable mention and Academic All-America, conference first team all-freshman and second team all-Big West. He played in all 27 games for the Gauchos with 46 goals spread over 22 games, the second most goals by any Big West rookie in 2024, and a team-best shot percentage of .605.

He made his Senior National Team debut with Team USA in January at the World Cup in Romania, playing in all five games and scoring his first senior goal as the U.S. team finished eighth overall. The national team coaches liked his progress and encouraged him to take a spot on a Spanish team.

So this winter Brown took online courses at UCSB while he played as an amateur in a pro league in Barcelona, receiving expenses only.
While all this was taking place, Brown entered the transfer portal and is now enrolled at Cal where he will be part of the legendary water polo program that first came to prominence under the late coach Pete Cutino, another Concord resident.

In Singapore, southpaw Brown scored a goal in his team’s opening game win over Canada and had his story well documented on the TV broadcast.

Diverse childhood sports eventually led to water polo

Brown went to Christ the King School in Pleasant Hill from kindergarten through eighth grade before following in his dad’s footsteps to De La Salle. Dalton Brown was a standout football player at the beginning of the Spartans historic 151-game winning streak and then played at Saint Mary’s College.

In his youth Dominic Brown played basketball, ­soccer, baseball and swam for Pleasant Hill Aquatics. He played water polo for the first time when his cousin Jenna Ravarino (now a swimmer at Vanderbilt) convinced him to go to a summer water polo camp at De La Salle since she wanted to play the sport in her upcoming frosh year at Carondelet and none of her friends would go with her.

The Spartans coach at the time, Jordan Saunders, noticed Brown at camp—-he’s a lefty, he’s big and the coach saw potential. He encouraged Brown to play over the winter, so he joined CC United and played club polo with them through high school.

Brown’s own focus was still on basketball but after he wasn’t picked for the DLS freshman team he pivoted his athletic attention to the pool. After spending his frosh year on junior varsity, Brown was a three-year member of De La Salle varsity, capped by winning a pair of North Coast Section championships in epic finals against Miramonte. He also swam on the Spartans swim team for two years.

He racked up a slew of honors during his varsity water polo career including 2022 Junior Olympics All-America, first team all-league and all-NCS, two-time NCS Scholar Athlete and three-time USA Water Polo Academic All-America.

Grandfather Danny Brown and dad Dalton are in Singapore for the World Championships but grandma Marti, mom Emily and brother Sammy are back home in Concord following the action on Peacock and online.

In his website bio, Brown says winning the 2021 NCS championship with his De La Salle team was his most memorable athletic achievement. That moment may drop a notch or two after his 2025 adventures.

Jay Bedecarré

Sports and Schools Editor at The Concord Clayton Pioneer | sports@pioneerpublishers.com | Website

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.