Last fall, Jack Murad committed to play Division I water polo at Bucknell University. 

Murad first started playing water polo when he was nine years old because while he enjoyed swimming, he found it rather boring compared to other team sports. So his dad, who played water polo in high school, introduced him to the sport. 

In eighth grade, Murad decided to come to Menlo rather than feeding into his respective public school, Gunn. The fact that Menlo has a much stronger water polo program was a factor in Murad’s decision. “Part of the reason I came to Menlo is because of their water polo program. I was going to feed into Gunn which is not a super great program,” Murad said. This decision was a turning point in his recruiting and with his admission to Menlo, Murad began to take water polo much more seriously and worked to continue his career into college.

Along with his hard work and dedication in the pool, during the summer of 2020, Murad began taking online college tours for schools he was interested in. He focused on schools with DI water polo teams because of the extra offerings that lower-division programs cannot provide. 

This led Murad straight into the recruiting process. He began as many 2022 graduates did, with online tours from many different schools. After thoroughly enjoying a regular, non-water polo, online tour for Bucknell, Murad decided to continue his interest in the school. Despite not previously hearing much about Bucknell, he was surprised when he discovered a strong water polo program. As he thought about committing, Bucknell stayed at the top of his list.

When it came time to commit, Murad factored in his life after college. “[Water Polo] doesn’t feed into a professional league or anything like that,” Murad said. This meant that Murad wanted to attend a school with both a competitive water polo program and a school that would provide a rigorous and prestigious education. When Bucknell offered him a spot on the team, Murad was happy to take it. 

“Jack is a great teammate, leader and competitor. He pushed our team to work hard every day and made a huge difference in our season” said fellow teammate Gregory Hilderbrand who is committed to playing at the University of California, Santa Barba.