By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Todd Clapper remembers the early days of recruiting in international markets. Sun Devil water polo was an unknown commodity outside the U.S. so when Clapper arrived at foreign locales, he was met with skepticism.
"I would show up to training and the players were very apprehensive about talking to me," ASU's 11th-year coach said. "They looked at me as some kind of salesperson and were probably thinking 'what do you want from me?'"
Clapper has no such issues now. The Sun Devils have qualified for two of the last three NCAA Tournaments -- a big deal since the field comprises just eight teams -- and Clapper reached the 300-win total in his coaching career with a win over San Diego State at the NCAA Tournament.
Since 2012, the Sun Devils are 105-42 under Clapper, and have garnered 14 All-America honors while earning the first victory over UCLA in program history, beating Cal on the road for the first time in program history and matching a program best upset with a victory over second-ranked USC last season.
"This year was a special year," said Clapper, whose team took fifth at the NCAA Tournament. "We lost a lot of players from last year's team that were significant impact players for us but we had a core group step up and really perform in their best season ever. As a team, everybody worked together to have the success we had this year."
With a strong returning core and a promising recruiting class that still isn’t complete, Clapper feels ASU has another level to give.
"This year was another culture changer for our program," he said. "When we're having meetings with players now, we're not having to outline a plan for the summer. All of our players already knew what they were doing over summer for training.
"I think and I hope that means we're ready to make a jump into another tier; into the top four in the nation."
Clapper's rapid success provides hope to other fledgling programs at ASU -- women's triathlon, men's tennis and women's lacrosse -- as they look to replicate that formula.
"Coach Clapper has done a tremendous job with the water polo team and it's a huge milestone reaching 300 wins as a coach in any sport," Sun Devils triathlon coach Cliff English said. "The successes of the team and any team in my opinion is hard work, great coaching staff and good recruiting; no magic bullet and no overnight successes. It's also a testimony to the support that the coaches and athletic department receive at ASU."
Lacrosse coach Courtney Martinez Connor agreed.
"I'm a firm believer that success follows in the wake of support from the athletic department and the coaching staff that is put together, in addition to the quality of recruits brought in. Clearly Todd has brought all of this for his water polo program," she said. "As the sport of lacrosse continues to grow across the country, it's simply a matter of showing what great opportunities lie outside of the east coast. Programs have had success initially when starting a program but it's a matter of keeping the interest and continuing to grow."
Clapper actually feels the water polo could have reached this plateau earlier if he hadn't lost key player Rowie Webster to the Australian National Team, but getting past the hurdle on anonymity in international recruiting waters was a key turning point in the program.
ASU may never be able to overcome the inherent advantage that Mountain Pacific Sports Federation schools such as USC, UCLA, Cal and Stanford enjoy in the fertile recruiting grounds of California, but the combination of international players coupled with Clapper's ability to find diamonds in the rough in the eastern United States, and other parts of the west has put the program on a more of a level playing field.
"There's a lot of really good athletes around the country in places like Washington, Oregon, Illinois, Texas, Ohio, the Northeast and Florida," Clapper said. "The biggest thing is they don't necessarily see the regular high-level competitions so when we recruit those players, it's someone who has made a lot of progress in that tougher environment.
"We look at their families, we look at the support they have and we project in a year whether they will be better than one of those second tier kids coming out of California.
"We've gone after those diamonds in the rough and I think we've been successful in that area."
Despite all those advances, Clapper cautions that the final step is the hardest one for a program to take.
"When a team has the goal of making it to NCAA Championships, that's a great goal and we've done that, but there's a higher responsibility and commitment to replicate what USC is able to do," said Clapper of the national champs. "They have a great program and a lot is because of culture they have of training together a lot in fall and making sure they are as prepared as possible.
"It’s on the players to do that because of NCAA rules regarding practice time. They have to ask to do it and they have to want to do it."