Preslav Djippov Is Exactly Who Poets Water Polo Needs
Preslav Djippov has joined Whittier College Staff as the new head coach for men’s and women’s water polo.
Djippov has been coaching for seven years. Before he came to Whittier, he was head coach at Westcliff University circa 2020, where he established the program.Their team won the NAIA Championship, an impressive record for only their second year of competition.
Before Westcliff, he was also the head coach at USC and assumed leadership of the women’s water polo program at Columbia University, which won the New York State Division Championship in 2017.
Djippov moved to Whittier because he wanted a new opportunity and challenge to develop himself as a coach at an NCAA level. Working with the water polo team at Whittier has helped him practice his craft and use it to assist a group didn’t have experience working with prior.
“It is an honor to be part of this incredible college. Here, we also have a very good and helpful Athletics department that has high ambitions that match my expectations, and I have everything that I need to build a very strong and solid program from scratch and set up my ideas and plans with short- and long-term goals,” Djippov said.
Currently, he also leads Patriot’s Aquatics in Irvine, where he coaches the U18 Boys team. He has been working with them since 2021 and even led that team to the Junior Olympics in 2023.
Captain of the Water Polo Team, Bens Raman, says that Preslav helped ease the former concerns on whether there would be a proper water polo season this year. But with his guidance, Raman is hopeful for the seasons to come with him as coach.
“For me, this has been a weird experience. I honestly thought I was not going to have a season. But having Preslav come in and knowing he turned that thought around in just one season has made me very hopeful for the coming seasons,” Raman said.
Djippov’s passion for the sport has given his athletes more things to look forward to as they continue preparing for the season and has made them a favorite among the coaches they have had in the past.
“I like Preslav, out of the many coaches I’ve had in my years of playing polo, he gets a spot in the top 3 for sure. His passion for the sport and for us as athletes and students brings me a lot of hope for the program’s future. This year, I’m really just looking forward to competing again, for one last time,” Raman said.
In the beginning, there weren’t many people on the team besides Raman and a freshman before Djippov joined . In that short period, Djippov accepted the challenge to create a new water polo team that could salvage the season. Most of the athletes had come from Bulgaria. With 13 athletes, Djippov was pleased with his lineup, but his strength in numbers wasn’t exactly what he aimed for. “Currently, my goal is to keep these athletes learning the game and have them become more experienced and skilled,” Djippov said.
The team recently got invited to the MPSF Invite, a higher-level competition ground for Pacific sports. Djippov’s main concern wasn’t whether or not his team would win any games but to expose them to those more advanced athletes and encourage others to join in on future seasons.
“The purpose was to be exposed at that high level, which will encourage more student athletes to join our team next season and become part of a team that has no fear to face the highest competition and become part of this great tournament,” Djippov said.
Djippov’s plan for the Poets is to create a competing team for. men and women and bring them to the position he knows they belong in as. top SCIAC teams. After he wraps up the men’s season, he wants to continue focusing on the women’s team, adding more recruits and building strength in numbers overall.
Photo Courtesy of Tony Leon / Action West Photography
