Retired Stanford University water polo coach Dante Dettamanti, 80, was killed while riding his bike on Cañada Road on Tuesday, Oct. 25, friends of Dettamani told The Almanac.
At around 4:05 p.m. on Tuesday, the California Highway Patrol got a call that a man had crashed into a San Mateo County Public Works Department street sweeper parked on the right shoulder of the road about a half mile south of Highway 92, said Art Montiel, spokesman for the Redwood City CHP Area.
Dettamani's decades long coaching career at Stanford began in 1976. He retired in 2001. He helped the team bring home eight NCAA championships and was named NCAA Coach of the Year six times, according to Stanford Athletics.
Dettamanti, who swam and played water polo as a student at University of California at Davis, was elected to the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame in 2002.
Dettamanti became only the second coach in NCAA history to win over 600 career games. He was only coach to win NCAA championships in four different decades, according to Stanford Athletics.
Longtime friend and colleague Brian Avery wrote to the Stanford water polo community to share his fondest memories of Dettamanti.
"The Stanford Water Polo Family feels so privileged and blessed to have known Dante," said Avery, who played water polo under Dettamanti during his first year coaching at Stanford. "Although the pain will linger, there is no doubt that the memories of such a wonderful person will dwarf the suffering. There are thousands in the Bay Area, California, the water polo universe, and across the country who admired and loved Dante."
Stanford Athletics honored Dettamani on Wednesday in a blog post.
"It's hard to imagine any other coach having such a profound impact on their athletes, colleagues and community," said Stanford Men's Water Polo Director Brian Flacks said in a statement. "Undoubtedly, Dante will go down as one of the all-time greats, but his impact was much greater than any win in the pool. He will be deeply missed."
Upon retiring, Dettamanti became involved in winemaking in the Santa Cruz Mountains, according to an interview with Stanford.
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Portola Valley: Ladera
on Oct 26, 2022 at 11:58 pm
Registered user
on Oct 26, 2022 at 11:58 pm
My sincerest condolences to Dante’s family. Dante was a great figure in the sport of water polo, a generous, inventive, and sincere man. He had several post-retirement careers coaching for local high school water polo teams, most significantly the M-A boys high school and club teams for a number of splendid years. I had the privilege of being his roommate on a water polo trip to Italy and was impressed by his love of the game and willingness to continue to share his wisdom with partially-domesticated 16 to 18-year-old high school boys who may have only partially understood the good luck they had to learn from him. He promoted a dynamic, constantly in motion, driving and clearing offense that demanded good physical conditioning and intelligence from his teams, with the happy results of often flummoxing bigger and more highly rated opponents. His friend and fans will miss him very very much.