Chris Segesman

Christopher "Chris" Roberts Segesman (born 17 June 1979) is former American male water polo player who competed for Long Beach State, and played with the United States men's national water polo team, as a center back. He was part of the US team at the Olympic men's water polo tournament at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He later coached water polo for Mater Dei High School's Men's and Women's water polo teams from 2005 to 2017.

Segesman was born June 17, 1979 in Santa Barbara, California. From 1994 to 1997, he attended Santa Barbara's Dos Pueblos High School where he played water polo under Head Coach Jim Ranta. As a Senior, he helped lead Dos Pueblos to a three-way tie for the Channel League Championship, and had 128 season goals, with 72 steals and 42 assists. In 1996, he was named the Channel League's Most Valuable Player. In club play he competed for the Los Angeles Water Polo Club.

Cal State Long Beach

Segesman attended Long Beach State (LBS), where he played water polo from 1997 to 2002 under Ricardo Azevedo, a 1976 Water Polo Olympian for Brazil, and a USA Water Polo Hall of Fame inductee. Azevedo coached California State Long Beach Water Polo from 1999 to 2005, where he amassed a record of 107-96.

Segesman received All-American honors at Long Beach State in water polo in three years, and received the distinguished honor of being named a finalist for the Peter J. Cutino Award, presented to the year's top male collegiate water polo player. Completing his BA for Long Beach State, he minored in kinesiology, while majoring in human development.

2004 Athens Olympics He was part of the US team at the Olympic men's water polo tournament at the 2004 Athens Olympics under Head Coach Ratko Rudić, where the men's team placed seventh overall. Segesman's former coach Ricardo Azevedo's son Tony Azevedo, who was a valuable 2004 Olympic team member, was second on the 2004 Olympic tournament's total goals scored list with 15. Pre-Olympic favorites Hungary and the combined team from Serbia and Montenegro (formerly Yugoslavia) met in the finals, with Hungary winning a close game that went back and forth until the fourth quarter when Hungary scored three goals to win the final 8-7. Pre-Olympic favorites Hungary took the gold as they had in 2000, Serbia and Montenegro took the silver, and the Russian Federation took the bronze.

Post competition careers Segesman later coached Santa Ana's private co-educational Catholic Mater Dei High School Women's and Men's Water Polo for twelve seasons from 2005 to 2017. At Mater Dei High, he led the Boy's team to California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Championships in seven years over a ten-year period, and was the Boy's CIF Southern Section Coach of the Year in five seasons. He led the Mater Dei women's team for 3 years as runner-up finishers in the CIF Southern Section. While at Mater Dei, he received honors as the 2009 Orange County Boys Water Polo Coach of the Year, and the 2011 Southern California Fall Coach of the Year. Segesman returned to coach youth water polo for the SOCAL Water Polo Foundation in 2021 for their youth teams. In 2023, he briefly coached the women's teams at Mater Dei High School.

Honors He became a member of the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Hall of Fame in 2012, and earned CIF Southern Section Hall of Fame Honors for his role as a water polo player and Coach in 2022.