Three-time Olympian and former USA Water Polo captain Wolf Wigo was hired as head coach of the UC Santa Barbara Men’s Water Polo team prior to the 2005 season. Over his 20 seasons, Wigo has led the Gauchos to a 268-227 record, coached student-athletes to 29 individual All-American honors, and reached The Big West Championship Final in 2023. For leading the Gauchos back to the conference’s title match, Wigo was named 2023 Big West Coach of the Year.
In 2024, Wigo led the Gauchos to a 15-12 record, only being knocked out of The Big West Championship by eventual winners Long Beach State. Three of Wigo's student-athletes: — Brock Zamanian, Danilo Dragovic and Dom Brown — were named All-Americans after the season. Brown was also called up for his senior debut with Team USA in January of 2025, while Dragovic earned a spot on Montenegro's U20 National Team in June. A third Wigo pupil, Sam Nangle, saw international action playing for Australia at the FINA World Championships in July of 2025.
Wigo’s Gauchos went 17-13 in 2023 thanks in large part to the highest-scoring offense in The Big West, tallying 415 goals. They posted three 30-goal games, including a program-record 34 goals against Westcliff on Sept. 9. Dash McFarland was named The Big West Player of the Year and earned All-America honors that year after scoring 82 goals, tied for the most by a single player in a single season under Coach Wigo.
Santa Barbara produced a pair of All-Americans, Sam Nangle and Danny Roland, under Wigo’s tutelage in 2022, and a trio of All-Americans in 2021 powered Wigo’s Gauchos to a 22-9 record. The ’21 campaign was one of two consecutive 20-win seasons for Santa Barbara, having gone 21-7 in 2019 and finished in third place at the Golden Coast Conference Tournament. Six Gauchos: Roland, Nangle, Ivan Gvozdanovic, Jacob Halle, Nathan Puentes and Leo Yuno earned All-America honors that season.
In total, Wigo has led the Gauchos to three 20-win seasons, having achieved a 21-14 mark in just his second season at the helm in 2006. The next year, 2007, Wigo began coaching one of the greatest water polo players in UC Santa Barbara history: school record goal-scorer Milos Golic. Just the fourth Gaucho Water Polo player to be named an All-American all four years of his collegiate career, Golic scored 272 goals for Wigo from 2007 to 2010. In 2008, he became the first Gaucho in over 20 years to be named to the All-America First Team.
In total, six of the Gauchos’ top 10 career goal-scorers have played under Wigo, with Boris Jovanovic, Matt Gronow, Zsombor Vincze, Ross Sinclair and Dash McFarland joining Golic on the all-time list. At the other end of the pool, five of Santa Barbara’s top 10 goalkeepers by career saves, including school record holder Chris Whitelegge (857), played under Wigo. Rick Wright, Myles Christian, Danny Roland and Fraser Bunn join Whitelegge on that list.
Twice during his career at UC Santa Barbara, Wigo has assumed the role of Director of Water Polo, coaching both the men’s and women’s teams. In his first stint in the role from 2008-2011, he led the Gaucho women to a 51-37 overall record and a Big West Championship final appearance in 2009. Gillian Morgan earned All-America honors in 2009, and Lizzie Rouleau did the same in 2010. Wigo returned to the role for the 2013 men’s and 2014 women’s seasons, posting records of 17-11 and 20-15, respectively, with Samantha Murphy earning an All-America nod.
Prior to his arrival in Santa Barbara, Wigo spent two years as head coach and administrator of the Saddleback El Toro Water Polo Club in Orange County. Under his direction, the program grew from 20 members to over 160 in 10 different age groups ranging from five to 60 years old. Wigo oversaw all aspects of the organization including fundraising, scheduling and supervision of seven assistant coaches.
Wigo’s first coaching position was at his alma mater, Stanford, where he served as a graduate assistant in 1995 and 1996. He returned as a full-time assistant coach under former Gaucho Head Coach Dante Dettamanti in 2001, helping the Cardinal win another NCAA Championship.
In his time as a student-athlete at Stanford, Wigo helped the Cardinal to back-to-back National Championships in 1993 and 1994, part of a tremendous four-year career in which he was named an All-American every season. Wigo was named Stanford’s Outstanding Male Senior Athlete and NCAA Player of the Year in 1994, and had earned his first Team USA call-up the year before.
A three-time USA Water Polo Male Athlete of the Year (1999, 2000, 2003), Wigo competed at the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, becoming the first player born east of the Rockies to make the U.S. Olympic water polo team since 1956 when he was selected for the 1996 squad. He won gold at the FINA World Championships a year later. In Sydney in 2000, Wigo led the team with 16 goals and was named to the All-World First Team by NBC Sports and USA Water Polo, making him a finalist for World Water Polo Player of the Year. When he played at his final Olympics in 2004, he did so as Team USA’s captain. Wigo returned to the Games in 2008 as a commentator, serving in the same role at the 2009 FINA World Championships and 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Wigo still plays to this day, and in 2023 helped the New York Athletic Club “A” squad to the USA Senior National Championship. That same summer, Wigo coached his son Channing to the 12U Platinum Division Championship at the Junior Olympics with Channel Islands United, making them the first father-son duo to win national titles in the same year.
The New York City native resides in Santa Barbara with his wife Barbara, daughters Athena and Devereaux and son Channing. Athena currently plays on the UC Santa Barbara Women’s Water Polo team.
