Brian Flacks heads wraps up his third season on The Farm as The Dunlevie Family Director of Men's Water Polo with a 60-18 overall record.
Flacks led the Cardinal back to the NCAA Championship in 2024, winning a quarterfinal matchup with No. 5 Princeton to advance to the NCAA semifinal. In the semifinal, Stanford came up just short to eventual champion UCLA. The Card was one of just two teams to beat the No. 1 Bruins on the season, including an LA sweep in the regular season, winning at UCLA and at USC in the same weekend.
The team's 4-2 record in conference play during the 2024 season was the best of Flacks' tenure, which saw seven players earn All-MPSF honors as the Card finished second in the regular season and third at the conference tournament. Stanford finished the season with 13 top-10 wins on the year, including five top-five wins. Stanford also took home a Big Splash win over California, beating the Bears three times in 2024.
In his second season at the helm, Flacks' Cardinal squad boasted a trio of All-Americans in Jackson Painter, Riley Pittman and Ethan Parrish. The three selections extended a run of multiple Stanford representatives earn the honor every year since 1975.
The 2023 team picked up four top-four wins on the season, defeating No. 4 Princeton on Sept. 23, No. 3 USC on Oct. 7, No. 2 California on Oct. 14 and then-No. 1 UCLA in the MPSF third-place game.
Flacks made a splash in his first campaign with the Cardinal, surpassing Dante Dettamanti's record for the best start by a first-year head coach in 2022, guiding Stanford to a 17-0 record, its best start to a season since 2001. Highlights of the season saw the Cardinal win the MPSF Invite at home, defeating UCLA and California, and advancing to the MPSF Championship game in postseason play, while overseeing All-American efforts from Painter and Quinn Woodhead.
The fifth head coach in the history of the program, Flacks arrived at Stanford with over a decade of coaching experience at both the prep and national team levels. He had served as the Aquatic Director and Head Boys' Coach at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles since 2011 and was the head coach of the United States U-18 National Youth Team, while serving as an assistant for the senior men's national team.
Flacks earned the Monte Nitzkowski Coaching Award in 2019, given by USA Water Polo to the top men's coach in the country. Additionally, he won the Bill Barnett Distinguished Coaching Award in 2014, also given by USA Water Polo to the top youth coach in the country. Flacks is a five-time CIF-SS and Daily News Coach of the Year.
In his time in LA, Flacks established Harvard-Westlake as the top high school program in the country, producing four CIF-SS Division I championships and more NCAA players than any other school.
Alongside his role at Harvard-Westlake, Flacks founded LA Premier Water Polo Club, one of the most successful in the country, and coached the Harvard-Westlake Girls' Water Polo CIF-winning program to one of the longest active winning streaks in the country. He became head coach of Olympic Club, where he coached several notable Cardinal alumni, including Ben Hallock, Drew Holland, Connor Stapleton, Jackson Kimbell, Blake Parrish, Tyler Abramson and Dylan Woodhead. His role as head coach of the Team USA U-18 team for the last four years has seen the team produce success on the international stage while developing, maintaining and evaluating the pipeline of top youth talent in the nation.
A native of Santa Monica, California, Flacks earned his bachelor's degree in history and played two seasons at UCLA, graduating in 2010, before playing one season at Loyola Marymount that fall. Flacks is also an alumnus of Harvard-Westlake School. He features experience as a player for the United States U-17 and U-19 national teams.