Bret Bonanni’s first goal was just a basic step out, turn and shoot.

“I just remember being so unbelievably tired afterwards,” Bonanni remembers. “I was like, ‘All this for just one goal?’ I was used to basketball where you get two points for dribbling the ball down and shooting or just an easy layup, but with water polo you have to work so much harder. It gave me a really different perspective on what it means to score.”

On Oct. 31, many years after scoring his first goal, the Stanford senior made it look easy when he scored his 333rd career goal. The goal broke Stanford’s and the MPSF’s all-time scoring record, previously held by Stanford All-American and U.S. National Team captain Tony Azevedo ‘04, arguably the best water polo player in recent history.

The goal came with 2:09 left in the second quarter with the Cardinal tied 4-4 against Long Beach State. As Bonanni went on a drive, the goalie dove near side and Bonanni bulleted the ball across the cage for his second goal of the game. He would go on to score a total of six goals against Long Beach and has since tallied 11 more to bring his season total to 82.

“I was trying not to think [about the record], but it was hard not to because everyone makes such a big deal out of it,” Bonanni said. “Most people knew how many I had left, and really I didn’t even know.”

Along with holding Stanford’s and the MPSF all-time scoring record, he’s the only Stanford player to post multiple 90-goal seasons, which he did his sophomore and junior years, and he’s on track to make that three. He currently has the top two single-season scoring records, marking 97 and 96 goals, just ahead of Tony Azevedo’s 2002 95 goal season. On top of that, he is leading the NCAA in scoring for the season.

“I mean it’s pretty amazing,” head coach John Vargas said. “He’s got one gear, and it’s all out. He plays that way, and he trains that way. He goes hard all the time.”

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Bonanni was 13 when he played his first water polo game. His brother’s team was playing a summer tournament and they didn’t have enough players.

“I was just hanging out and my brother was just like, ‘Hey, you’re playing, we need one more person,’” Bonanni said. He wasn’t even on an official team yet.

Before that game he had only thrown a ball around in his backyard pool, which was equipped with a cage. His older brother was a goalie so Bonanni would often try to take shots on him.

Although he didn’t join a club team until he was 14, Bonanni always loved hanging out at the ocean, and after spending a lot of time in his pool, he felt comfortable in the water. And having played basketball for many years, the transition to water polo wasn’t a big leap because the game format was familiar.

What drew him most to water polo was the physicality of the game.

“In basketball you have to be so cautious with your actions, you can’t just go shove someone,” Bonanni said. “But water polo kind of allows for that.”

Bonanni never left the pool after that, and a few years later would go on to emerge as one of the top recruits of his senior class. In high school, Bonanni scored 435 career goals, was a two-time CIF Southern Section Division I Player of the Year and led Mater Dei to four CIF state championship titles.

But beyond just his impressive resume, Vargas recruited him to The Farm for his impressive work ethic.

“He’s striving to be the best. That’s what he’s always wanted to be,” Vargas said. “When I was recruiting him when he was in high school, he had his goals and nothing was going to get in his way.”

Bonanni quickly made an impression at Stanford when he led the team his freshman season with 73 goals, won MPSF Newcomer of the Year and made the All-MPSF First team. In both his sophomore and junior seasons he made the NCAA All-Tournament First Team along with maintaining superior ACWPC All-Academic status in the classroom.

Yet his extraordinary success at Stanford and his spot on the U.S. National Team haven’t come without a few sacrifices.

When Bonanni was younger he used to love to go snowboarding, skateboarding and surfing, but now that the stakes are higher – namely a trip to the Rio Olympics – he can’t risk injuring himself anymore.

“I haven’t snowboarded in years,” Bonanni said. “I gave both my boards away to my buddies and just said to take them. Skateboarding – same deal. I never was really without a skateboard my whole life and now I don’t even own one.”

Yet Bonanni has not regretted making those sacrifices, and unlike many student-athletes, who sometimes struggle to balance a tough athletic schedule with an intense Stanford course load, Bonanni has never felt any desire to quit or even take a break from the sport.

“I haven’t been burnt out on polo necessarily just because it’s been that sort of escape,” he said. “I can’t even imagine if I were just to constantly go to class and sit in my room all day and just have all these papers looming over my head. It just gives you an outlet in your mind to think somewhere else.”

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Bonanni will not be returning to The Farm after fall quarter ends because he will be starting what could possibly be his biggest adventure yet – he will be training full time with the U.S. National Team, preparing for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.

“If I was to go it would just be an unbelievable dream come true for me, because it’s just such an elite group and such a rare thing,” Bonanni said.

“There is no question that he will be an Olympian,” Vargas said. “And it’s going to be up to him to see how many he wants to go. He has two or three in him if he wants.”

And while Bonanni says he certainly has two or three Olympics on his mind if he has the opportunity, for now he has his sights set on an NCAA Championship.

Although he has lead the team in scoring since his freshman year, he still has no NCAA Championship or even an NCAA runner-up title to show for it.

“We’ve had a few heartbreaking season enders the past few years so this goal is the same as every year – just to put it all together at the end of the season and win a national championship,” he said. “That’s ultimately what’s most important to me and all my teammates.”

And broken records and NCAA championships aside, Bonanni has distinguished himself in ways that can’t be measured.

“I’ve been coaching a long time, and I haven’t really seen someone that can just bring it every single day,” Vargas said. “It’s a hard thing to do and he’s done it his whole time here. It really sets him apart from anyone else.”

Contact Laura Stickells at lauraczs ‘at’ stanford.edu.