Dante Dettamanti has produced winning and championship water polo teams at all levels. He started as a graduate assistant coach at UCLA, under the legendary Bob Horn. While at UCLA the school won the first ever NCAA Championship ever held in 1969. From there he went on to Occidental College, where he transformed a program that had been the league doormat, into league champions, in just two short years. After coaching at Oxy for 4 years he went on to UC Santa Barbara and turned the water polo program around, again producing a league champion team and a NCAA top four finish in just three years time.