| Bernice Orwig |
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A former USC and USA National Team standout, Bernice Orwig is in her second season as an assistant coach for Cal head coach Amber Drury-Pinto. Orwig has been involved in coaching water polo since 1994 and was the starting goalie on the United States Olympic Team that won a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. On March 10, 2005, she was hired as an assistant coach for the USA National Team. Orwig will join newly named Team USA head coach Bill Barnett and fellow assistant Heather Moody at the conclusion of the Golden Bears' 2005 collegiate season.
This past January, Orwig was an assistant coach with the United States Junior National Team that won a gold medal at the 2005 Junior World Championships in Perth, Australia. Cal sophomore Elsie Windes was a member of Team USA's gold medal winning squad. Prior to coaching at Cal and assisting with the junior national team, Orwig was an assistant coach for Drury-Pinto at the University of Michigan from 2000-02. In 1999-2000, Orwig was an assistant coach at her ala mater, USC, and from 1995-98 was the head girl's and assistant boy's coach at Foothill High School in Santa Ana, Calif. During the 1994-95 season, Orwig was an assistant boy's water polo coach at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana.
As an athlete, Orwig was a star goalie at USC, earning second team All-America honors as a sophomore and junior. During her senior year, Orwig helped lead the Trojans to the 1999 National Collegiate title, earning first team All-America honors, and was the recipient of the Peter J. Cutino Award as the nation's top female collegiate water polo player. She graduated from USC in 1999 with a degree in social science education.
As a member of the USA National Team from 1998-2003, Orwig not only helped the United States to a silver medal in the first-ever Olympic water polo competition for women, but to a silver medal at the 1999 Pan-American Games and a appearance at the 2001 FINA World Championships.
