Catharyn Hayne/KLC Photos
Three-time ACWPC All-American Adrian Weinberg has his sights set on a third straight national championship.
Adrian Weinberg Couldn’t Have Done It Alone
This feature originally appeared in the 2023 Fall edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.
You never know how far belief is going to get you.
A lot of times, it’s the belief you have within that allows you to go far. Other times, it’s the belief that others have in you.
When Adrian Weinberg was preparing to start his freshman season in 2019, he knew he was joining a California men’s water polo roster that already had three older goalkeepers, one of whom was coming off an All-American campaign. With that in mind, he headed to Berkeley placing higher hopes on his academic prospects than his water polo ones.
“I’m not going to play at all,” Weinberg told his new head coach, USA Water Polo Hall of Famer Kirk Everist. “You might as well redshirt me.”
Everist’s response suggested he had other ideas for Weinberg’s future.
“No… You should just keep trying,” Everist said.
Weinberg did just that, and when his first season with the Golden Bears began, the Los Angeles native found himself in an unexpected role: starting goalkeeper for one of the nation’s premier programs.
Weinberg’s freshman year wasn’t always pretty. Although he came in with several years of good experience in USA Water Polo’s Olympic Development Program (ODP), he struggled in his first real test at the collegiate level, saving four shots and conceding nine goals before being pulled for the fourth quarter in his first career loss to top-10 ranked UC Santa Barbara.
However, that did little to change Everist’s outlook of his young goalkeeper, and Weinberg remained Cal’s starter for the rest of the season – one which concluded a day before his 18th birthday and later yielded his first of three career ACWPC All-American selections.
“Because [Everist] had instilled that trust in me that I was the guy – that I was the one who was going to lead our defense – it gave me the confidence that I can do this,” Weinberg said. “If he didn’t start me and keep me in there even when times weren’t good, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
Nearly four years and two national championships later, it’s safe to say that Everist’s belief paid off. However, he wasn’t the only one who saw how far Weinberg could go. In fact, they never would have even crossed paths if not for the dedication and sacrifices of the first two people who believed in Weinberg’s talents: his parents.
“They are definitely my biggest influence. They gave me the right path and I just followed it,” Weinberg said. “When we knew that I could be at the national team level, my mom basically said, ‘If you’re going to do this, then why not be the best?'”
While Weinberg credits his drive, hard work ethic and pursuit of perfection to his mother, Matilde, he may never have even started playing water polo if not for his father, Jon.
“My dad just wanted me to learn how to swim. He could tell I got really bored swimming laps in the kiddy pool, noticed some teenagers playing water polo in the deep end and said, ‘Well, that looks fun,'” the younger Weinberg remembered. “He asked their coach if it was OK for me to play with them, so I was like 6 years old playing with these high school guys.”
Jon didn’t stop there. Since there was no organized team at the facility, he took up the task of starting one himself.
“He went house to house, literally knocking on people’s doors asking if they had kids who wanted to join a water polo team,” Weinberg said. “That’s how I started playing club.”
Weinberg quickly progressed as a player. In order to more seriously pursue water polo and garner interest from Team USA, he ended up enrolling at Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village. The commute often required him to wake up as early as 5 a.m. PT and return home as late as 9 p.m.
“I had to do that drive every single morning. I wasn’t taking the bus with other students and it would stop half a mile away from school. It was really difficult,” Weinberg said. “I just wanted to go back home, but it wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school when I realized that someone was watching over me. Coming from where I’m from and seeing everything that was happening around me, the fact that I was on the national team and I was at this school, my relationship with God made me believe in myself because I was believing in his plan for me.”
Allowing his faith to guide him through challenging times, Weinberg continued to blossom, so much so that midway through his high school career, his parents decided to move their family closer to Oaks Cristian in order to make things easier for their son. From there, it was only a matter of time before Weinberg began receiving interest from colleges, and he eventually found his perfect fit playing for the Bears and a coach who could understand what he went through to get there.
“There’s always going to be adversity in your life, but it’s about how you react to those things,” Everist said. “Adrian has a strong faith and that helped him through the tough times. When you have that, and you have bad days or bad games and you’re questioning yourself, you always have something that’s bigger than you that’s consistent in your life and helps you gain perspective.”
At Cal, Weinberg has also been fortunate to be partnered with teammates who also understand and share the same values he holds paramount. His Bible study group currently includes fellow 2019 freshman and current co-captain Garrett Dunn, as well as teammate George Avakian.
The trio has built a strong bond through its collective faith, even traveling together to Croatia on a mission trip with other Christian athletes through Cal’s Athletes In Action group. Now, before every game, Weinberg, Dunn and Avakian gather in the pool to say a quick prayer, manifesting a safe, fun contest that will bring out the best version of themselves.
“Adrian is a very faith-oriented guy. He revolves his life around it,” Dunn said. “He lives to be the best man he can be. It’s pretty special to have a guy like that who has had such great successes and who lives his life through his beliefs.”
Outside of Weinberg’s accomplished first four years at Cal – which include two consecutive All-NCAA Championship Team selections, four straight All-MPSF nods, and over 700 saves – he has also established himself as a key player for Team USA.
After spending years in the ODP and playing at the highest level of junior international competition, Weinberg was promoted to Team USA’s senior squad for the summer of 2022. He earned the start to play in front of more than 5,000 fans at the Alfred Hajos Swimming Complex – a legendary water polo facility on Margaret Island in Budapest, Hungary – at the World Championships.
With his childhood hero – retired Hungarian goalkeeper Viktor Nagy – in the stands, Weinberg put forth one of his greatest performances to date, saving 13 shots including a key penalty in Team USA’s 16-15 shootout win over Hungary, its first on Hungarian soil in well over a decade.
“Playing there with a full crowd, the biggest game of your life, literally in the mecca of the sport, this is the thing you dream about when you’re growing up playing water polo,” Weinberg said. “I can’t even describe the feeling.”
Since then, Weinberg has started for Team USA in five tournaments over a 13-month span. While he shows no signs of slowing down, the stakes are as high as ever for the 21-year old, who is keeping his sights set on a third straight national championship and a roster spot at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Regardless of how this next year turns out though, he won’t just be doing it for himself – he’ll be doing it for those who believed in him along the way.
“My biggest thing is that I owe it to everyone who’s gotten me to where I am to do the best that I can,” Weinberg said. “That’s really the only place where the pressure comes from, but that’s my whole thing – I need to make those people proud.”
2023-09-27 18:27:46
#Power #Belief #California #Golden #Bears #Athletics
