Harnessing Their Superpowers

Women's Club Rugby and Water Polo Coaches Chart Unique Paths to UC San Diego Success

By Shawn Cyr
Assistant Marketing Director

At first glance, rugby and water polo don’t have much in common. Water polo is played in a pool with 14 players tossing around a yellow ball most akin to a volleyball. Rugby, meanwhile, consists of 15 people on a field — sorry, a pitch — passing backward a white egg-shaped ball while trying not to get crushed. 

But sift a little deeper, and the similarities float to the surface. 

Both sports are physically rigorous and require next-level conditioning and team cohesion. Both sports are also still fledgling at the youth level — compared to sports like soccer or basketball — rendering experience at a premium when athletes reach the collegiate level.

And for the UC San Diego Sports Clubs teams, both sports are led by well-respected and inspiring female head coaches. Macey Kadifa is finishing her sixth season at the helm of the Tritons’ women’s club water polo program, while Derika Legg is in her third with the women’s rugby team.

While both women take great pride in developing their players’ skills, their ultimate goals go far beyond wins, records, and trips to national tournaments — although those are coming now, too.

“First, we want players to know what their individual superpower is and how they can use that to maximize their potential on the field while also leveling up those around them,” Legg says.  “I ask players regularly, ‘What do you want to be known for?’ and challenge them to keep training to utilize that superpower.”

Kadifa, named Southwest Division Coach of the Year by the Collegiate Water Polo Association in 2024, has a similar standard for success.

“Where are they when they are starting the program, and where do they end?” Kadifa says. “And if they haven't grown as a player, physically or mentally, then we didn't do our job. And it could be as simple as someone who shows up who doesn't know how to play and by the end of the season is taking a shot on goal in a game. And that to me is like, OK, we did it right.”

Together, Legg and Kadifa represent two of the five female head coaches for UC San Diego Sports Clubs. The others are Allena Wolfblack (Women’s Lacrosse), Selena Johnson (Dancesport), and Amanda Combs Warford (Field Hockey). These five are just a small number of women who have supported numerous Sports Clubs teams over the past five decades.

‘These are my people’

Legg, now 44, grew up on the Gulf Coast of Florida as “one of those kids who played everything” when it came to sports. A graduate of Loyola University in New Orleans, it was there that Legg joined her first women’s rugby team.

“I remember thinking, these are my people,” she says.

A career in consumer packaged goods followed (working with companies such as Heineken and PepsiCo in sales and marketing roles), leading her to stops in New York, Michigan, Washington, and Dubai. “With each move for work, I found the local rugby team to play for,” she says.

Legg jumped into the coaching ranks in 2008 and retired from playing in 2012. Fast forward to 2017 and after one more move — “I always wanted to live in SoCal because my first love in sport is beach volleyball,” she says — Legg came aboard at UC San Diego as an assistant coach. Already coaching with the San Diego Surfers Women’s Club Rugby Team, she took over as head coach of the Tritons in 2023. 

Just in time for the Great Rugby Boom of 2024.

“Rugby has been slowly growing in popularity in the US for several years, but it exploded in 2024 with the Women's National Team taking the bronze at the Paris Olympics and player Ilona Maher being so active on social media connecting with the world,” Legg says. “Anywhere I go on campus or across the US, people have heard of her and now know a bit about rugby.  The direct impact on UCSD was very apparent this past fall when we had 37 rookies show up to the first week of training.”

With so many new athletes every year — the team fields 15 players at a time, rosters 23, and usually keeps about 40 on the team — Legg says team cohesion (on and off the field) and player growth are always top of her priority list.

“We want players to learn and grow, so everyone has a developmental goal they are working on for each game and for the season,” she says. “It’s really fun to see someone conquer something they've been working on all season and finally nail it in a live game.”

The players feel the support, too. Lina Luedi, vice president and team captain, says there are so many lessons Legg has taught them, but the one that sticks with her the most is Legg’s mantra to “play to your potential.”

“Derika's belief in us as players is an incredible driving force of motivation,” Leudi says. “She reminds us over and over that we are capable of things we might not even see in ourselves, and it definitely shows in our team.”

The Tritons have gone from placing last in the league standings last year to second this season. 

“It's because of her that our players strive to better themselves in the pursuit of making this team greater than it already is, leaving the jersey in a better place than we found it,” Leudi says.

‘That’s where it clicked for me. This is what I love.’

UC San Diego has always been a second home for Kadifa. 

Originally from Covina (a suburb of Los Angeles), Kadifa has played water polo since high school. She came to UC San Diego to focus on academics, with dreams of being a marine biologist. While a losing battle with Organic Chemistry prompted a switch in majors to evolutionary biology, Kadifa says it was then that she “basically fell upon the Club Water Polo team.”

“I didn't even know what Sports Clubs were,” said Kadifa, who was one of 15 players on the team her senior season when she was team President. “I thought it was just like we show up and mess around and then we leave. And then I quickly realized, oh wow, this could be really competitive.”

Professionally, Kadifa — who turns 30 in July — worked for seven years at Scripps Institution of Oceanography as a staff research associate and project manager. In early 2020, she was asked by the UCSD women’s club water polo departing coach to return to the Canyonview Pool as head coach. While she had never considered being a coach during her playing career, the answer was easy: Yes.

Then came COVID and masks and shutdowns and social distancing and “out of an abundance of caution.” Boasting about 25 women in the program when she took over, that number dwindled to single digits during the heart of the pandemic. 

“And I remember hopping on a Zoom call with the girls,” Kadifa says, “and they were like, ‘What are we doing?’ And I was like, ‘I don't know. I have no idea. But I'm here to help you.’ ”

When sports (and life) reopened in late 2021, the Tritons were primed to strike. Their work in the pool paid dividends, and the enthusiasm for the program that Kadifa had forged — alongside assistant coaches and UCSD alums husband JJ Kadifa and longtime friend Mackenzie Cottle — produced a staggering 31 women who turned out for the team that year. 

“They were just like, ‘I just want to be part of something,’ ” Kadifa says.

And they were. 

Entering the 2021 postseason tournament as heavy underdogs, the Tritons upset Arizona State in the Southwest Division finals to secure a spot at Nationals and cement everything Kadifa had been trying to build since taking over.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, we won,” she says. “We came back from literally having four to five people show up to practice to getting a group of girls who just want to win. That's when it clicked for me. I was like, ‘Wow, this is what I love.’ ”

The Tritons placed third at Nationals and “we just took the momentum from there,” Kadifa says.

“Every year, we gain more women to our program,” she says. “No matter how we did, even though we lost the next year and didn't get to go to Nationals, we still had 38 women come out. People just wanted to be around.”

Kadifa says a critical indicator of their success is carefully noting how many women participate each season. The water polo team doesn’t cut anyone. Some don’t know how to swim, and others are players with a Division I pedigree who want a different experience. Others still are content to just be in the pool with the team. “Even if they may not travel or play games, they still want to be part of the program.”

And in a sport as rigorous as water polo, that speaks volumes.

“The level of grit that you need to have to just be like, ‘I want to jump in the pool and get beat up,’ ” Kadifa says. “That takes a certain type of person. That's something else that we tell the women all the time is, think about the sport you're playing and how hard that is. So when you look back and you're really hard on yourself, or maybe not winning a game, just think, you play one of the hardest sports, and you're really good at it. 

“That's pretty amazing.”

Kayleigh Dennen, a senior and club president, says one lesson she has learned from Kadifa is the importance of consistency and adaptiveness.

“Her ability to balance so many responsibilities while maintaining a motivating attitude has shown me that with hard work and the right mindset, I can accomplish any of my goals,” says Dennen. “I am so excited to cheer her on — whether it be from the sidelines of her triathlon or next year in the stands — I am so grateful for the lessons Macey has taught me over the past four years.”

Drawing inspiration

Coaches are always listening. To their players, to their families. But also to other coaches. 

For Kadifa, that tends to be fellow female water polo coaches, because she says most high-level women’s teams are coached by men. 

“That's different because a lot of my male coaches growing up just didn't understand women's water polo, which sounds crazy, but they're two completely different sports,” she says. “For women, you've got a water polo suit. You've got something you can grab. It’s just that women play differently than men. And so I like to draw on female coaches like, what are you teaching the girls? 

“It sounds corny, but a female basketball coach or a gymnastics coach will say something, and I’ll be like, ‘Oh God, I like that quote. I'm going to write that down.’ ”

For Legg, her earliest coaching inspiration dates back to elementary school: Coach Schaibly.

“What made her so great was her ability to coach a team while also being able to connect with individual players to address their needs,” Legg says. “She could adapt her coaching style so that we all grasped what she was trying to teach, and she just seemed to know when you needed to chat outside of practice because something else was on your mind.”

Another confidant for Legg is Emilie Bydwell, coach of the US National Sevens Rugby team, who she played with for the San Diego Women’s Team. 

“I love her style in how she works with a team to really help them craft a story around what that team is about and what the season is about,” Legg says. “She's great with being very thoughtful and purposeful in how she builds culture and the identity around the team.”

Those lessons have resonated with Legg and transferred onto her players. She meets regularly with Leudi and trusts her captain and team leader with critical decisions such as play calling, goals for each game, and lineup decisions. 

“Derika's leadership is never about control, but empowerment,” Leudi says. “She has this incredible ability to make every player feel seen and valued, while still holding us to the highest standard.”

Outside the lines

Kadifa is in the final stretch of a professional pivot — call it a flip turn. In December, she’ll graduate from San Diego State University with her Master’s in Business Administration and a new dream of a career in sports management. Balancing school — which consists of six or seven hours of classes, three days a week — and coaching has been “way harder than undergrad,” Kadifa says. But she’s managed to stay above water.

“So I'm basically (at SDSU), I come here, coach, go home at 10 p.m.,” she says, “And do it all over again.”

Kadifa volunteers with Women in Sports and Events in San Diego (WISE), where she plans and runs most of the organization’s events. She’s also taken on a role with USA Water Polo, making the once-a-week drive to Irvine to run events and member services, which she calls “an eye-opening experience.”

“Whether it's for a team, for an agency, my big goals would be going Olympic level,” says Kadifa, whose brother works for a sports agency in her native LA. “I just love being in the weeds of sporting events, planning and executing. And it's stuff I do in coaching constantly.”

Kadifa is still playing water polo, of course. She and JJ play for the co-ed South Swell Water Polo Club based in San Diego, which she founded with other friends (obviously). When not in the pool, the couple enjoys working out at Orangetheory, bingeing the latest sports documentary on Netflix, and taking trips to the Happiest Place on Earth.

“We are big Disneyland people,” Kadifa says with a laugh. “We love Disney. OK. I guess I'm speaking for myself and I drag him along with me.”

Legg is already well into her career in sports, of course. She currently splits her time between consulting in building brands —  leaning on her marketing expertise — and leadership development coaching to help people and teams optimize their performance. 

“I spend a lot of time with athletes in my coaching practice at The Next Playbook,” she says, “where I work with them on what might be next after retiring from playing at the top level of their sport.”

When she’s not spending her free time working in her community garden or playing beach volleyball, she also hosts The Next Playbook podcast, where she chats with top-tier athletes about the challenge of redefining themselves after their sporting careers. 

Her advice for current students is simple. If they’re considering trying a new sport: Go for it.

“You are guaranteed to learn something about yourself — and may find you love it,” she says.