It is with sadness that I relay the message former UCLA bruin water polo player lost a courageous battle with the debilitating decease ALS (also known as Lou Gehrigs disease en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyotrophic_lateral_sclerosis) just shy of his 29th birthday. While in Florida Manga played for Miami Beach Senior High School for four years and was a four-time All-America, All-State and All-City selection. During this time he was named state MVP as a senior and city MVP accolades the three previous seasons. Santos was the leader and star player of two state championship water polo teams and also competed for the Brazilian Junior National Team. After leaving Florida, Manga was highly recruited and chose to attend UCLA upon graduation. At UCLA Manga was able to do something that not many players from Florida have ever done, win a national championship. Manga was not simply on the team for the Bruins, but a top starter and one of the best centers in the NCAA. In 2007 Manga played in all 28 matches, making 27 starts. As a bruin he scored 86 goals and earned second-team ACWPC All-America accolades and second-team All-MPSF honors proving without a doubt that he was among the nations top centers. He finished his senior season with a team-best 36 earned exclusions and also tallied 10 steals, five blocks and two assists. After graduation from UCLA, Manga traveled to Europe where he played professional. Manga was playing professional in Italy when his career was cut short as he was approaching his prime due to this serious and depilating illness. Manga’s bio can be found at uclabruins/sports/m-wpolo/mtt/santos_marco00.html Just as notable as his abilities athletically are his attributes as a person. Competitors and teammates alike note his humble attitude and tireless work ethic. Coaches and teammates cannot say enough about the type of man he was. It was for this reason that USA Womens National Team head coach, Adam Kirkorian (Mangas coach in college), made the trip down to Miami to run free clinics for kids that would have otherwise never been able to have that type of experience. Olympic gold medalists Kelly Rulon and Tumua Anae joined by several Bruin teammates of Santos, including Krsto Sbutega and others, made the trip as well in order to spend some time with Manga and give back to the Miami water polo community that Santos loved. For more information on his illness please visit: MDA Website:mda.org/ MDA-ALS Website:als-mda.org/ Regards, Nick Gaffey USA Water Polo, Southeast Zone [email protected] facebook/SEwaterpolo (321) 356-9696 usawaterpolo.org iamwaterpolo.org splashballusa.org facebook/usawp twitter/usawp youtube/usawp Polo in Every Pool!
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 17:32:35 +0000
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