When you think about the greatest at a sport, the accolades would look something like a 3x gold medalist (2012, 2016, 2020), the record of the most goals scored in an Olympic game (21), a 3-time NCAA Champion (2014, 2015, 2017), 2-time NCAA MVP at Stanford University (2015, 2017), a 3x sportswoman of the year nominee (2012, 2014 & 2017), etc. Her name is Maggie Steffens, and she is considered to be the best at women’s water polo. However, it all started somewhere. Steffens is a Monte Vista alumnus from the class of 2011. She led the high school team to three league championships from 2007-2009 and was a top 100 athlete in those three years. After her high school tenure, she committed to Stanford University, becoming a 3-time NCAA Champion, and 2-time NCAA MVP.
Steffens is still remembered by staff here as a good student. “Very humble. You wouldn’t know she was a superstar,” said Jennifer Schikora, front office manager.
The humbleness by Steffens however, showed in the pool as well. Physics teacher and her coach all four years for water polo Scott Getty spoke about her humbleness.
“She always [said] that her greatest accomplishments were not her accomplishments, but team accomplishments,” Getty said. “I remember at one point she talked about one of her favorite moments of her high school career was a game that every field player scored a goal. It has nothing to do with her individual things; it was everyone working together. And that was always her thing, is that everyone is involved.”
Her excellence in the sport showed past high school. In the Olympics this year in Paris, she served as team captain of her team. Team USA is always expected to win every year under Steffens, as that was the case the last three Olympics. However, in this year’s Olympics, things took a turn as team USA did not even receive a medal. The United States were favorites to win the gold, and they were the winning team for three years in a row. Things took a tumble and team USA lost to the Netherlands 11-10 for bronze. Sabrina van der Sloot’s goal in the final second gave the Netherlands the win.
“[Team USA] made dumb mistakes. High school level mistakes that I’ve never seen that team make before,” Getty said. “Hands that weren’t up that should’ve been, and poor passes that should’ve led to goals that ended up being counterattacks the other way. Maggie was as good as she’s ever been, it was just a team-wide mistake that they’ve never made in the past.”
Unfortunately, before the start of the Olympics, Steffens struggled with family issues. Her sister in law, Lulu Conner died suddenly at 26 years old, which couldve potentially affected her mindset throughout the Olympics.
For a team that has never lost with Steffens, it felt all of a sudden that team USA suffered a loss. Getty said he emailed her before the Olympics, and asked if this was her last Olympics, to which she replied with, “not a chance.”
For Steffens, this loss does not take away from what she has done in her career, considering she has already been solidified as one of the most accomplished women’s water polo players to ever play the sport. She looks to potentially show even more success with continuation in her career, as a member of Team USA for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
