The 2022 season will be the eleventh as head coach at Azusa Pacific for Julie Snodgrass, as she has led her teams against some of the toughest schedules of any Division II program in the country.
A former college star, Snodgrass hasn't shied away from a challenge. The ambitious coach has scheduled contests against perennial NCAA powers, including USC, Arizona State, and UC Santa Barbara among others. Snodgrass was also instrumental in helping Azusa Pacific find its first water polo conference home, assisting in the formation of the Golden Coast Conference, which opened its inaugural season in 2014.
In 2021, the Cougars finished the season with a record of 4-4, finishing in a tie for fourth in the Golden Coast Conference. The program also saw its first ever national award, as Milena Guzman Ortiz was named National Player of the Year.
The Cougars had a breakthrough campaign in 2019, finishing with a program-record 19 victories, amassing a 19-14 record and a fifth-place finish at the GCC tournament. Snodgrass notched her 100th victory as Azusa Pacific head coach in a 10-9 victory at San Diego State to open conference play.
The 2018 campaign proved to the best program's most successful. Snodgrass led the squad to a 16-win campaign while coaching three All-Americans. For her efforts she was named the National NCAA Division II Coach of the Year. During the season she guided the team to three wins over top 25 teams after not having accomplished such a win prior to the season's start.
Snodgrass played four years (2005-08) at California Baptist University, earning AWPCA All-Academic honors throughout her career while tallying 133 career goals, 112 assists and 137 steals to finish among the Lancers' career top 10 in all three categories. She helped lead the Lancers to program-records for season win totals in two of her four collegiate seasons, including a 26-win campaign in her senior year when California Baptist won the inaugural NAIA National Invitational tournament.
She served as an assistant girls water polo coach in 2006 at her high school alma mater, Rowland High in Rowland Heights. She took her first head coaching position at San Dimas High in 2009, guiding the Saints' water polo program while also leading the girls swim team to a 10th-place team finish at the CIF championships.
Before college, Snodgrass was the 2004 CIF Player of the Year during her senior year at Rowland High in Rowland Heights, Calif., and she led Rowland to back-to-back CIF Div. VI championships in 2003 and 2004. Her father, John Hale, for whom a prestigious annual summer club tournament is named, was a San Gabriel Valley-area aquatics coaching legend who built successful swimming and water polo program at Rowland while serving as youth coach for the nationally-competitive Chino Hills Area Water Polo (CHAWP) club before he passed away in 2002.
| Year |
Overall Record |
Conference Record |
| 2012 |
9-27 (0.250) |
-- |
| 2013 |
11-21 (0.343) |
-- |
| 2014 |
16-21 (0.432) |
1-5 (6th) |
| 2015 |
10-17 (0.370) |
2-4 (6th) |
| 2016 |
11-22 (0.333) |
2-5 (6th) |
| 2017 |
14-15 (0.482) |
3-4 (5th) |
| 2018 |
16-16 (0.500) |
3-4 (4th) |
| 2019 |
19-14 (.576) |
4-3 (4th) |
| 2020* |
4-9 (.308) |
0-2 (N/A) |
| 2021^ |
4-4 (.500) |
3-4 (5th) |
| Totals |
114-166 (0.407) |
18-31 (0.367) |
* - Season cut short due to COVID-19 | ^ - abbreviated season due to COVID-19
