SAN DIEGO – Carin Crawford, San Diego State women's head water polo coach, announced the addition of Dana Ochsner as the program's assistant coach. Ochsner brings a background of both playing at the highest levels of the sport as well as coaching locally.
"I'm thrilled to have Dana join the Aztec Water Polo program," said Crawford. "She has coached at the junior college, high school and club level, has playing experience at the collegiate level, with the USA Water Polo national team and professionally, so Dana knows what it takes to win championships.
"As a standout player at Cal, I am confident our athletes will benefit from her coaching and mentoring every day. As a San Diegan, Dana has great pride in where she is from, and will have an easy time speaking to recruits about how great it is to study, live and play at San Diego State University."
"I would like to thank Carin for this opportunity," said Ochsner. "I'm incredibly excited to get to coach at the next level and to be able to work with this amazing group of female athletes and the rest of the Aztec staff."
Ochsner competed collegiately for four years at California (2010-13). In that time, the Bears went 87-30 and won the 2011 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) championship. They finished third in the NCAA Tournament in her freshman season (2010) and runner-up in her sophomore year (2011).
Individually, the Oceanside, Calif., native, was honored as a second-team All-American and a second-team All-MPSF performer after the 2011 and 2012 seasons and in 2013 was named a third-team All-American and an honorable mention All-MPSF athlete. Also, in the 2013 season, she was honored by being named both the team captain and its MVP. Her 40 goals in 2010 were, at the time, the sixth most by a freshman in Cal history and still rank as the 10th highest on that list.
Ochsner was selected and competed as a member of the USA Water Polo's Women's Cadet National Team from 2005-08 and the US Junior National Team from 2009-12. As a member of the US Junior National Team she competed and won a gold medal in the 2010 Global Championships and participated in the 2011 Junior World Championships.
Professionally, Ochsner played in Seville, Spain for Club Water Polo Dos Hermanas in 2013 and 2014 and followed that up in 2015 with a season with UTS Balmain Water Polo Club in Sydney, Australia.
During her playing career and after its conclusion, she has coached both at the high school, club and junior college level in the San Diego area. Beginning in 2013, Ochsner was the assistant coach for the boys team at El Camino High School and helped to lead the program to three CIF-San Diego Section Division 2 playoff appearances. She added the responsibility of head girl's coach at El Camino in 2016 and led that squad to CIF-San Diego Section Open and Division 1 playoff appearances which included a championship in 2019 and a semi-final run in 2019.
In 2017, she was named the girl's head coach for the North San Diego Stars Water Polo Club. Under her tutelage, the U18 team competed in the Junior Olympic National Tournament in each of the last three seasons and at Miramar College, from 2015-17, Ochsner was an assistant coach for the men's team.
Ochsner earned a bachelor's degree in political science from California in 2013 and is currently pursuing a master's degree in education from Grand Canyon University.