Johnny Hooper (water polo)

Hooper attended and played water polo for University of California, Berkeley from around 2014-2018 under Head Coach Kirk Everist where he helped lead the team to a Division I NCAA Championship in 2016. Hooper earned a B.S. in Business Administration at Berkeley. where he had a collegiate career total of 245 goals, making him one of the highest scorers in program history. At UC Berkeley, Hooper usually played as an attacker, a versatile utility position on offense that can alternate between driver, wing, and even hole-set or center. Though he spent much of his Senior year playing with the U.S. National Team, he earn Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) honors as a Player of the Week twice in October. As a Sophomore in 2016, he was the recipient of First Team All-American honors, and earn All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation honors. Hooper was a finalist for the 2018 Peter Cutino Award, which honors the best collegiate water polo player of the year. As a Freshman in 2015, he scored 74 goals, 75 as a Sophomore in 2016, 47 as a Junior in 2017, and 49 as a Senior in 2018. ==Olympics==

Hooper played with the U.S. Water polo team at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where the U.S. team placed sixth under U.S. Head Olympic Coach Dejan Udovičić, with Serbia taking the gold, Greece taking the silver, and Hungary taking the bronze. Four years later he played for the U.S. water polo team at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, where he won a team bronze medal in the Olympic water polo team competition. Cooper was coached by Head Olympic Head Coach Brian Flacks. Serbia, a pre-Olympic favorite, performed well in the semi-finals, defeating the U.S. team 10-6, leading to a match with Croatia in the final, where Serbia took the gold in a 13-11 gold medal win. In America's bronze medal match, the U.S. team defeated Hungary in a penalty shootout, making it to the podium for the bronze medal for the first time since the team won silver at the 2008 Beijing Games. Cooper scored six goals in Olympic play in 2024. After the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, he worked for Goldman Sachs in San Francisco where he gained experience focusing on Mergers and Acquisitions, Initial Public Offerings, and financing. Ending his professional career in 2023-4, he worked for March Capital. To remain in condition, he has played water polo part time for the Olympic Club of the United States National League, and has considered training for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. ==References==