USC’s Luke Nelson: East Coast Water Polo Player makes good on West Coast

Editor’s Note: Your correspondent was recently in SoCal, cradle of American water polo. As part of my time in the Golden State, I took in UCLA vs. USC at Uytengsu Aquatics Center on Senior Day for the Trojans.

If you were to pick players emblematic of the recent rise of East Coast water polo athletes in U.S. men’s polo, you might be tempted by the success of the Ohl brothers of Greenwich, CT. Conner (freshman at Stanford), Ryan (Stanford junior) and JP (senior at Princeton), have achieved rarified heights for the sport in the USA, with Conner and Ryan making the USA Water Polo senior men’s roster and competing this spring in the 2026 World Aquatics World Cup.

Looking at one family’s success might miss the overall excellence of the Greenwich Aquatics program, and the Ohl’s former teammate, Luke Nelson.

[On The Record with Ulmis Iordache, Greenwich Water Polo Coach]

Now a senior for USC Head Coach Marko Pintaric third-ranked squad, Nelson is also one of three polo-mad brothers who previously competed in Connecticut for Greenwich Head Coach Ulmis Iordache. Along with brothers Austin (sophomore at George Washington) and TJ (Greenwich High School), Luke towers over his competition. A 6-6 attacker, the oldest Nelson was also on the roster for US men at the World Cup last April in Alexandroupolis, Greece. 

Enjoying a breakout season for the Trojans (29 goals, 15 assists), Nelson spoke recently about his time at SC, his national team experience and the challenge of being a talented East Coast athlete in a sport dominated by Californians.

This interview edited for content and clarity

- You are coming to the end of your SC career. Your time in Troy includes two NCAA finals appearances and a role as one of the team’s most important contributors.

One thing that stands out from my time at SC is the culture. When I did recruiting [visits], I thought that SC was unique in that you got a great balance of academics, social life and athletics. This is something that I valued. 

The culture within the team is incredible. The players have a great relationship with each other; we're truly like brothers outside of the water. That's something important to me because I didn't want to join a team solely focused on winning, but rather a community that I could be accepted in.

I thought it was unique that the players all lived in the same community right off campus. It was 95% of our team lived [together]. My freshman year I was able to live with the entire team and was integrated very quickly. 

That was great; not only did it help me fit in socially, but it also helped our chemistry being so close outside of the pool.

- USC and UCLA have squared off in the last two NCAA finals. What will it take for you / your teammates to capture a national championship in your senior year?

Our team has a goal every single year: win the national championship. We've been successful winning the MPSF tournament recently. But the main goal is always winning the national championship. After losing last year with under a second [left], this game can come down to the smallest things. Even though we put in all these hours in the pool and work so hard year round and then in our games… and somehow everything that you've worked for in an entire year can come down to less than a second… [it] shows that the team that really puts in the most work is the team that will end up winning it all.

This year we're focused much more on details. A lot of this comes down to studying our opponents. Not everything that we do is focused on our own team and making ourselves better. It’s about preparation as well. We faced all the best teams this year. Every Big Four team is unique in the sense they all have talented players as well as different playbooks. So, you're never playing the same team, which means that you have to prepare differently. 

That right here every team being unique is why every season in water polo is unique. Just recently, Stanford went into overtime with Long Beach; the fact that a Big Four team could go to the very end with a team that on paper shouldn't even be close to beating them.

That's one of the things that makes water polo so interesting to watch as a collegiate sport.

- You are now on the US national team roster. Congratulations for that! What does the future look like for Luke Nelson possibly representing the US in the LA2028 Olympics?

For the future of me and the national team, it's a great opportunity. I got to go to the World Cup qualifiers recently in Greece, my debut with the team. And it was incredible. Playing with a new group of guys and coaching staff was beneficial. It's great playing with SC, but it's even better when you get to play with another team, another group of guys and play in Greece against even higher level [players].That did nothing but help me. 

I'm going to continue working hard. I love the squad that I had the chance to play with! I'm going to continue to train with them and do everything I can just to make the most out of [my] experience with the national team.

- You have accomplished so much – especially coming from the East. How has it been to overcome the hurdles faced by polo athletes not minted in California?

This is a great question because I want to go back to recruiting. One of the main hurdles is visibility; the sport here in the US is dominant in California. Aside from that, it's a European sport. So, it's hard getting visibility [while] playing on the East Coast. 

A lot of that came down to playing with the Olympic Development Program (ODP) regional team, where we competed for our zones. I was with the Northeast Zone; we would go out to California and play other zone teams. Then there would be a selection process, and they would choose the highest performing athletes and put them all on [one] squad. That's one way that we got visibility.

Another way was through playing with my club, Greenwich Aquatics. We made a statement because of how we performed against Californian teams, which helped all of us individually getting looks from California coaches. 

Going off into the second part of this question, there's no doubt that Californian coaches like to pick some players that aren't from California because they see the potential.

It's a no-brainer we don't get the same competition that athletes in California do. We're not playing every single weekend. One thing these coaches from California see is potential. If they see natural potential in an athlete and recognize that they may have not had high competition levels, it's like they can take these players with natural talents, turn them into a project player, then hope they could turn into a huge benefit for the program. 

I think it's less about having respect for players outside of California and more trying to find this potential because there's way less visibility on the East Coast.

- Your brothers both play polo; what’s it like when the Nelson boys are all back home talking about their separate paths in the sport?

Both my younger brothers are playing water polo right now. Austin's at George Washington, doing great. TJ is out in Spain playing with BIWPA, which I did as a sophomore [in high school]. 

There's no doubt that we talk a lot about water polo in the household. We play at all different levels. And we all really take pride in this sport! It's cool because we all played on the same club team, Greenwich. And with some practices, I'd be getting off the pool deck and see my brother hopping in for his practice.

Austin had a statement freshman year; he had a game winner against Navy. That's very different because I came into USC and wasn't really playing as much as a freshman, especially for high level games. Austin was starting as a freshman, making a huge impact. And I think that although we developed in different ways, I think that both me and Austin found our own paths to success. 

I'm really excited to see where TJ ends up. He's incredibly fast and an extremely hard worker. I think he's incredibly talented and with him going to Spain, I think he's going to come back a lot better.

[Water polo] is always a topic in the Nelson household. I'm always happy to see my brothers succeeding.