James Robinson-O’Brien was named the fifth head coach of UCLA women’s water polo Aug. 18, 2026, returning to his alma mater after a successful coaching stint at Hawai’i and prior service on the Bruins’ coaching staff.
A three-time NCAA champion as a member of the UCLA men’s water polo team, Robinson-O’Brien spent the prior four seasons coaching at the University of Hawai’i, including the last two as head coach. He posted a 38-11 record at the helm, going 13-0 in Big West Conference play and earning the league’s Coach of the Year award in each season. Robinson-O’Brien led Hawai’i to the national semifinals in 2025, and his teams recorded back-to-back top-five finishes in the Collegiate Water Polo Association Top 25 poll.
Robinson-O’Brien was voted Women’s Assistant/Associate Coach of the Year by the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches in 2024, shortly after being chosen as successor to longtime Hawai’i head coach Maureen Cole. The Rainbow Wahine went 22-5 in his first season, giving Robinson-O’Brien the highest winning percentage (.815) for a first-year head coach in program history.
The 2026 team finished 16-6, capturing its third consecutive Big West title and sweeping the conference’s major year-end awards for the second straight season. Out of the pool, a Hawai’i student-athlete earned the NCAA Elite Scholar-Athlete Award for women’s water polo during three of Robinson-O’Brien’s four seasons with the program.
Robinson-O’Brien began his collegiate coaching career under UCLA Athletic Hall of Famer Adam Wright, serving on the Bruins’ women’s water polo staff from 2020-22. During that span, which included two shortened seasons, UCLA went 58-13 and finished as the national runner-up in 2021. Robinson-O’Brien also served as an academic mentor for UCLA Athletics’ Academic and Student Services office before returning to coaching full time.
Signed by Wright out of Palos Verdes High School in Palos Verdes, Calif., Robinson-O’Brien helped the Bruins to one of their finest stretches in program history. After redshirting in 2013, Robinson-O’Brien totaled 44 goals, 48 assists and 35 steals in 55 career games while helping UCLA capture NCAA championships in 2014, 2015 and 2017. Following his collegiate career, Robinson-O’Brien played professionally in Australia for the National Water Polo League’s Hunter Hurricanes before coaching at the club and high school levels in New Zealand.
Robinson-O’Brien is a lifelong Bruin. He graduated from UCLA in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and married former UCLA women’s water polo standout Kelsey O’Brien-Robinson (2014-17) in June 2024. His parents and three siblings all attended UCLA. His father, Ed (1977-1980), and brother, Brian (2012), also competed for the Bruins’ water polo team.
James Robinson-O’Brien
