Once Maureen Cole got up to speed with the terminology, it wasn’t long before she’d charged to the forefront of Hawaii water polo.
Her introduction to the sport had come as a twice-a-week treat at the end of her 10-and-under swimming classes at the Oahu Club in Hawaii Kai. But that was about the extent of her experience when Cole, still a pre-teen, signed up to play with adults in the water polo competition in the Aloha State Games in the early 1990s.
“I could swim really fast, but I had no idea how to throw a ball or any of this,” Cole recalled.
On an occasion when the youngster found herself with the ball in attacking range, Cole’s older teammates “were yelling at me saying, ‘put it in, put it in.’ So I grabbed the ball and I threw it and I scored a goal,” she said.
“As we were swimming back to half they were like, ‘put it in means put it in to center.’ I said, ‘Oh, I thought you said it put it in the goal.’”
Cole chuckled at the memory while sitting on the pool deck at the University of Hawaii’s Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex, where she completed her 11th season as head coach of the Rainbow Wahine water polo program in May.
In the span bridging the first time she jumped into the pool for a match to her fifth Big West regular-season championship this spring, Cole — a three-time conference Coach of the Year — has remained ahead of the pace as part of several landmark moments in women’s water polo in Hawaii and on a national level.
“It’s not something I ever dreamed of,” Cole said in reflecting on her career to date. “It was never something I thought I was going to do, but it’s something that I have never wanted to leave because it is so much fun and you can affect so many lives and you can be a mentor to so many young women.”
Prep pioneer
The drive that has powered Cole throughout her aquatic odyssey can be sourced back to the Oahu Club, where she and her three siblings — older brothers John and Kevin Flanagan and younger sister Katie — developed into champion swimmers.
“It created a sense of competitiveness,” Cole said. “We were always trying to one-up each other (and) supporting each other. Being involved in the same sport where we’re together 24-7. … even through (John and Kevin) were my older brothers I always wanted to beat them. They thought I was annoying, but I loved just trying to keep up with them.”
Cole proved too tough to catch in the swimming competitions in her age group and capped her senior year at Punahou by winning the 50- and 100-meter state championships and contributing to a record-setting 200 freestyle relay.
Back on dry land, she also played soccer through her sophomore year of high school and relished the team dynamic.
Not content to simply stay her lane, Cole water polo provided an outlet to meld her athletic interests and attributes.
“I love team sports. I loved being able to be relied upon and relying on others and the communication,” Cole said. “I just felt there was so much more growth and it was way more fun than staring at the black line (at the bottom of the pool).”
When Cole entered her freshman year, girls water polo was a trial sport in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu. Prior to that, girls interested in the sport had to compete with the boys team.
She emerged as a leader for the Buffanblu in the ILH’s first official girls water polo season in 1997, and would go on to help set the foundation for the program.
A state championship was established in 2004 and Punahou has won 15 of the 17 titles since.
“She was just super tough from the first and nothing you could do in training was too much for her,” said longtime Punahou water polo coach Ken Smith.
“I really consider her one of the role models that a lot of future players were all based on. She is one of those people who all the younger players looked up to. … She was just one of the pioneers and set the example for others to follow.”
On to Westwood
For her first two years of high school, Cole figured she’d follow her brothers into college swimming. But with the guidance of Susan Nishioka (“the godmother of water polo here, Cole calls her), she had elevated her game through competing at national water polo events and shifted her focus when she began exploring her college options.
Along with embracing the physicality of water polo, Cole’s speed helped her land a spot at UCLA. As a sophomore, she was sent into the pool late in the final of the first NCAA-sponsored championship in 2001 when UCLA edged Stanford 5-4 in the Cardinal’s home pool.
“They had the tree (Stanford’s mascot) and the band and everything and I’m starting the fourth quarter of a one-goal game and I just remember being, “what the heck am I doing in here? Am I ready for this?,” Cole said.
Cole was a starting attacker for the Bruins in her junior season and earned All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation honors as a senior in 2003, when she was also named a third-team All-American and made the NCAA All-Tournament team after helping UCLA claim the third national title of her career.
Although she gave up some size to her opponents, “she was just a really intelligent player,” Smith said. “She has a real high athletic IQ. Someone her size, it didn’t really hamper her because she was so smart, intelligent and super competitive.”
As she picked up experience, Cole also made a rapid ascent in the national program and was among 15 players invited to train for the 2004 Olympics. Ultimately, she wasn’t among the 13 picked for the Athens Games, and returned to Hawaii planning to move on from competitive water polo.
From student to teacher
Cole had dipped her toe into coaching while working with intermediate level teams in her summers during college, and spent her final year at UCLA as an undergraduate assistant.
She worked for a mortgage company for a year following graduation when an assistant coaching position at UH opened up.
Encouraged to apply by mentors such as Shari Smart, UH’s first water polo coach (1998-2002), Cole was hired as an assistant to Michel Roy in 2007 and stepped into the head coaching position in 2012.
Since then, UH has consistently ranked in the top 10 in the nation. The Wahine have won or tied for the Big West regular-season title five times, including each of the last four seasons, and finished no lower than second since 2016. With Cole blending the talents of heavily international rosters throughout her tenure, the Wahine have also made four NCAA Tournament appearances after winning the conference tournament in 2013, ’15, ’19 and ’21.
“I would call Mo a blue-collar player, she worked for everything she got,” Smith said. “I think that is what has made her a good coach. She’s been able to convey that type of attitude and that kind of feeling to the players she works with.
“She actually is one of my mentors now. I go see her a lot because she’s such a student of the game. … Mo’s been instrumental in my success. I pick her brain all the time. Maybe it used to be different a long time ago, but now it’s reversed a little bit. I respect her a lot as a coach.”
Respect for the past
One of two female head coaches in the Big West, Cole has seen a surge in women in the profession overall in recent years, with several of her UCLA teammates leading programs as well.
Now in a position to provide opportunities for young players, Cole has widened her perspective on the impacts of Title IX over the course of her playing and coaching careers. As such, she values the chance to pass down an appreciation for the past to another generation of student athletes.
“It’s given me my life, my career, at the same time it’s exciting because there are more steps that can be taken for women in our sport,” Cole said.
“We didn’t always have this and we have to appreciate it, but there’s room to grow. We’re very thankful for where we are, we’re not where we were in the mid-’70s, but at the same time it’s still not 100% equal and fair and we have to keep working.
“I think a lot of women who play sports are our future leaders because they are confident and they are powerful and you can learn so much through all the knockdowns and having to get back up. For women to play sports and have those lessons, it’s building the future.”
MAUREEN COLE
University of Hawaii water polo coach (2012-present)
Education
Punahou (1999), UCLA (2005)
Athletic Highlights
Punahou (1996-99)
>> 50-meter, 100-meter, 200 freestyle relay, two-time 200 medley relay state champion.
>> Four first-place finishes in water polo.
>> Three-time water polo MVP.
UCLA (2000-03)
>> National water polo champions in 2000, ‘01, ’03
>> 2003 third-team All-American
>> 2003 All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation
>> 2003 NCAA All-Tournament team
National Team
>> Gold medal in water polo at FINA Junior Women’s World Championships, 2001
>> Trained with Senior National Team in 2003-04
Coaching highlights
>> UCLA undergraduate assistant (2005).
>> UH assistant coach (2007-11).
>> UH career coaching record: 182-86 overall, 37-10 Big West.
>> Three-time Big West Coach of the Year (2013, ‘19, ‘21).
>> Four NCAA Tournament appearances (2013, ‘15, ‘19, ‘21),
>> Five Big West regular-season championships (2013, ‘18, ‘19 tie, ‘21 , ‘22).
>> Four Big West tournament championships (2013, ‘15, ‘19, ‘21).
Other honors
>> Inducted into the Hawaii Swimming Hall of Fame in 2015.
>> Inducted into the Punahou School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016.
June 23, 2022, marked the 50th anniversary of Title IX. To commemorate this watershed event, the Star-Advertiser will publish a series of stories celebrating the achievements of female pioneers and leaders with Hawaii ties.
Click here to view the Title IX series.
