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Drake alum Danny Roland finding a new home at UCSB

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  • UC Santa Barbara goalie Danny Roland goes for the ball in a game against Stanford on Sept. 20, 2019. Roland, a former Drake High standout, helped the Gauchos to a No. 1 nationwide ranking earlier this season. (Photo by Catharyn Hayne)

  • Danny Roland (in goal) transferred to UC Santa Barbara after spending his freshman year at UCLA. The Gauchos face the Bruins on Friday. (Photo by Jeff Liang)

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The last two years have been a rollercoaster for Danny Roland.

In 2017, the Drake High goalkeeper helped the Pirates capture the first NCS Division I water polo title in the history of Marin County to cap off his high-school career. But after spending the next summer training with the Junior National Team, Roland found himself on the sidelines at UCLA behind First Team All-American Alex Wolf.

The Bruins are among water polo’s Big Four universities, which are unlike any other oligopoly in college sports. Since 1998, powerhouses USC, UCLA, Cal, and Stanford have combined to win every men’s national title, with the Trojans making 14 consecutive trips to the championship game. During that span, only two other schools (UC San Diego and University of Pacific) sniffed second-place finishes.

The Big Four are often held up on such a high pedestal that stepping down can be difficult. When Roland opted to leave UCLA for UCSB earlier this year in a transfer that reunited him with Drake teammate Connor Moynihan, he caught a lot of criticism for choosing a Gauchos squad that missed the postseason last year.

“‘Oh, you’re going from UCLA to UCSB?’” Roland recalled people saying in the spring. “UCSB is kind of looked down upon because people just think that it’s a party school.”

Roland has certainly given the Gauchos cause for celebration this season. The sophomore began his tenure in Isla Vista by winning Golden Coast Conference Player of the Week before taking down top-ranked USC and Stanford to secure UCSB’s first No. 1 ranking in program history.

It marked the first time in six years that a non-Big Four school stole the top spot in the rankings, and the first time since 1990 that the Gauchos took down the Trojans.

“I think that seeding proved to everyone that we are competing this year and we are capable of hopefully winning a national championship,” Roland said.

At 15-0, the Gauchos looked to improve on their best-ever start against the only Big Four opponent they had yet to upset: UCLA. For Roland, it meant returning to a hostile environment he used to call home.

“It was cool to be back, but it was also like now I remembered why I left and what happened,” Roland said. “I knew going in that I was going to be a target for UCLA fans for a ‘traitor,’ as some people said in the crowd.”

Roland ended up on the losing side of a defensive battle, 9-8, as the Bruins spoiled UCSB’s perfect season. But he doesn’t mind the defeat, or the fact that the Gauchos fell to No. 4 in the rankings — in fact, he prefers being the underdog.

“That fuels me,” Roland said. “That literally gets me going during games. When you’re an underdog and you’re playing one of these top-tier teams, you want to go out and do everything you can to win and prove that you’re the better team.”

The Sleepy Hollow Aquatics (SHAQ) product has always loved to play with a chip on his shoulder. Although SHAQ previously had talented recruits such as Stanford’s Dylan Woodhead, it was Roland and Moynihan’s class — headlined by Dylan’s brother, Quinn, and fellow Cardinal Spencer Hanson — that put the local club team on the national stage.

“No one knew who SHAQ was before them,” said Matt Swanson, head coach at both SHAQ and Drake.

At age 12, Roland’s team finished fourth at a Junior Olympics (JO) tournament in which SHAQ rarely placed higher than 40th. Two years later, he helped SHAQ reach the championship game at Stanford. With the crowd chanting “Danny, Danny,” Roland made multiple penalty saves in a pressure-packed shootout before future UCLA teammate Ashworth Molthen and Vanguard secured a 12-11 victory.

In high school, too, he seemed more at home as an underdog. As a sophomore, Roland and the Pirates started 29-0 only to suffer a heartbreaking loss to Campolindo in the NCS D-I finals. But with five losses their senior year, they clawed back from down two goals in the fourth period, tied the game with 44 seconds left, and ultimately avenged their 2015 title defeat in a 12-10 double-overtime win over Campo.

“You don’t want to be undefeated going into the playoffs because it’s too much pressure,” Swanson said. “All anyone is talking about is that you’re undefeated.”

Roland’s sights are now set on winning a conference championship, which also serves as UCSB’s ticket to the postseason. First, though, he’ll try to snap the No. 4 Gauchos’ losing streak in a rare Friday night matchup at No. 2 UCLA (10-1). And even if UCSB (15-3) loses again, Roland won’t be second-guessing his decision to transfer. In his eyes, his bet on himself has already paid off.

“At the rate our season is going,” Roland said, “if we’re capable of winning a national championship here, it would be a lot more meaningful to me than winning two or three at UCLA.”

If he’s successful in his national title aspirations for UCSB, it could change a collegiate water polo culture largely consumed by the Big Four.

“The whole Big Four thing, it’d be great to get rid of that acronym, not even have that be a thing anymore,” Swanson said. “Now if you go to Long Beach State or Santa Barbara, it’s almost looked at as, ‘Oh, you’re not going to a Big Four school.’ It’s almost like a demotion or something.”

“So get rid of that stigma,” Swanson added. “You’re going to play college water polo and compete for a championship.”

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