Lucca van der Woude, once considered one of American water polo’s top Olympic prospects, recently admitted under oath that he transferred prior to the 2024-25 academic year to Newport Harbor High School from Harvard-Westlake only after the nationally renowned private school banned him from its campus following his February 2024 arrest following allegations that he had sexually assaulted teammates, according to a transcript of a deposition of van der Woude reviewed by the Southern California News Group.
Van der Woude’s admission appears to indicate that he was ineligible to play for Newport Harbor under California Interscholastic Federation rules when the CIF Southern Section approved his transfer in August 2024, enabling him to compete for the Orange County school.
Van der Woude, a star on the U.S. national youth team, also admitted in the deposition that he used the N-word, usually without being disciplined by Harvard-Westlake coaches, employees or administrators.
“Are you surprised you didn’t get in trouble for saying the N-word?” van der Woude was asked in an August 6 deposition.
“I guess, yes,” van der Woude responded.
Van der Woude admitted in Los Angeles County Juvenile Division Court on Nov. 7, 2024, to sexual penetration with a foreign object (digital penetration) against a minor, according to Los Angeles County Juvenile Court, Los Angeles County Probation Department, Los Angeles Superior Court filings and U.S. Center for SafeSport documents reviewed by the Southern California News Group (SCNG).
Neither van der Woude’s admission nor his arrest at Harvard-Westlake nine months earlier prevented him from transferring high schools, leading his new school, Newport Harbor, to a CIF title, representing Team USA internationally or in December 2024 mentoring the nation’s top 13- and 14-year-olds at a camp sponsored by USA Water Polo, the sport’s Irvine-based national governing body, at the nation’s most prestigious Olympic training site.
Nine days after his juvenile court admission, van der Woude led Newport Harbor to the CIF Southern Section Open Division title.
Van der Woude’s most recent admission in his deposition is likely to renew pressure on the CIF to investigate the circumstances surrounding his transfer to Newport Harbor, whether Newport Harbor coach Ross Sinclair, a friend and coaching colleague of Harvard-Westlake coach Jack Grover, was aware of van der Woude’s arrest and banishment from the private school, and whether Newport Harbor should be stripped of the CIF title.
“There is nothing complicated about this. Lucca van der Woude was punished after being arrested for sexual assault against minors,” attorney Daniel P. Watkins told SCNG. “Lucca van der Woude was barred from Harvard-Westlake and the water polo team. He transferred because he could not return. Those are the facts. The only complexity comes from the effort to explain how those facts somehow disappeared when it came time to tell CIF the truth.”
Watkins represents former Harvard-Westlake and U.S. national youth national team player Aidan Romain, who alleges in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and with the U.S. Center for SafeSport that van der Woude on multiple occasions sexually assaulted him and directed racial slurs at him.
The suit alleges that despite being informed by Romain and another Harvard-Westlake student that van der Woude had digitally penetrated them, Harvard-Westlake officials did not contact law enforcement or child protective services as required by law, according to the lawsuit.
Van der Woude’s attorney Kate Hardie did not respond directly to SCNG’s request for comment on the deposition, instead she asked what material SCNG had.
Van der Woude was eventually arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department on campus in February 2024.
The lawsuit also details allegations that van der Woude and another Harvard-Westlake player “whipped (Romain) in the weight room in a re-enactment of slavery. They taunted him with racial slurs, calling him a ‘(N-word)’ nearly every day for approximately five months. When (the teammate) and Lucca van der Woude were questioned by the school, both admitted it. Harvard-Westlake still failed to take necessary steps to protect” Romain.
Van der Woude was ordered by the juvenile court to pay the Romain family $49,266 in restitution, according to an Order For Victim Restitution reviewed by SCNG.
Van der Woude’s deposition was part of a separate suit in which Alex Romain, Aidan’s father, is suing Harvard-Westlake to gain access to his son’s school records, which the suit alleges Harvard-Westlake is withholding.
Watkins did not ask van der Woude to admit to sexual misconduct as part of a pre-deposition agreement between Watkins and van der Woude’s attorney. Attempts to reach van der Woude’s attorney were unsuccessful.
“There is a larger point as well. CIF’s eligibility rules exist to protect fair competition and to ensure that the same rules apply to every student and every school. The other students who competed during the 2024 season were entitled to that. So were the teams that faced Newport Harbor in the playoffs and the athletes who competed for the honors ultimately awarded,” Watkins wrote in an August 22 letter to CIF Southern Section commissioner Mike West reviewed by SCNG.”The record is now clear,” Watkins continued in the letter to West. “Mr. van der Woude has admitted under oath that Harvard-Westlake punished him, that the punishment included his exclusion from water polo, and that Harvard-Westlake’s refusal to permit his return caused him to transfer. CIF-SS’s own rules dictated the consequence of those facts.
“CIF-SS should step in, correct what occurred, and do what is right for the students and teams that competed under those rules.”
West did not respond to a request for comment.
The CIF Southern Section approved the transfer on Aug. 22, 2024, because of a “Valid Change of Residence,” according to the CIF Southern Section website.Van der Woude’s family moved into a home in Costa Mesa in June, according to property records, although probation department records list his home in Sherman Oaks.
Van der Woude recalled in the deposition crying during a meeting he and his parents had with Harvard-Westlake president Rick Commons after his arrest. It was during that meeting that Commons rejected the family’s request to lift Lucca’s banishment from campus, van der Woude said in the deposition.
“CIF Defined ‘Valid Change of Residence’ certified by the receiving school in accordance with Bylaw 206 and all other applicable eligibility rules; student is eligible in all sports at any level. If it is later found that the student DID NOT complete a valid change in accordance with the Bylaw, the school will forfeit any contests in which the student played,” the CIF Southern Section wrote regarding the van der Woude transfer.
But CIF Southern Section rules also state, “Students who have disciplinary action taken or pending at the previous school are not eligible to transfer” and “Students who left a school for disciplinary reasons are not eligible to participate in athletics at the new school.”
“There is now sworn testimony about what actually occurred,” Watkins wrote to West. “And it removes any plausible ambiguity about the circumstances of the transfer.
“Mr. van der Woude first confirmed that Harvard-Westlake, not he or his family, made the decision that he could no longer attend school in person.”
Early in his deposition, van der Woude was asked by Watkins, “So someone from your school in the spring of your junior year told you [that] you couldn’t return in person on campus; correct?”
“They thought it was best, yes,” van der Woude said.
“And they weren’t allowing you to return on campus; right?” Watkins followed up.
“Yes,” van der Woude said.
Later in the deposition, Watkins returned to the ban.
“This is after you had been banned from campus; right?” the attorney asked.
“Yes,” van der Woude replied.
Van der Woude could “not come to the campus at all, whether it was for sports or school,” according to the deposition.
“So I am going to ask you plainly: What is your understanding of the reasons that Harvard-Westlake told you that you were no longer allowed to come to campus after you were arrested in February of 2024?” Watkins asked later in the deposition.
“To my best knowledge it was because of the police investigation that was ongoing,” van der Woude said.
In his letter to West, Watkins wrote, “And, most importantly, there is no need to debate whether what Harvard-Westlake did amounted to punishment. Mr. Van der Woude answered that question himself:
“And you weren’t allowed to participate in any water polo activities at Harvard-Westlake?” Watkins asked in the deposition.
“Yes,” van der Woude responded.
“That was part of the punishment?” the attorney asked.
“Yes,” van der Woude answered.
The Harvard-Westlake ban also prevented van der Woude from continuing to play club water polo for LA Premier, a club coached by Grover and that trained and played games at Harvard-Westlake. During the summer of 2024, prior to his transfer to Newport Harbor, van der Woude played for a club coached by Sinclair and made up of Newport Harbor players, van der Woude said in the deposition.
Sinclair did not respond to a request for comment.
Van der Woude committed to UCLA, but the university rescinded his provisional admission after the March 2025 Orange County Register report detailed his arrest and the allegations against him. Van der Woude played water polo at Golden West College last season.
Van der Woude repeatedly gave vague responses or said that he didn’t know repeatedly during the deposition when initially asked why he was banned from the campus and who informed him of the ban.
Who asked you not to be on campus? Watkins asked.
“I don’t know,” van der Woude said.
He later responded to similar questions saying, “I don’t remember who told me. It was a while ago” and “maybe someone — most likely from — someone from the school.”
Van der Woude admitted he was suspended by the school for a week during the 2023 season after boasting to teammates he would direct a racial slur at Grover after one rival school beat another rival school in a tournament.
“I said if J Serra lost to De La Salle, I would call Grover the N word,” van der Woude said. Van der Woude insisted in the deposition that he said he would call Grover “N word” and not the actual word.
Van der Woude confirmed in the deposition that he used the N word, the actual word, at school and practices.
“Have you ever used the N word?” Watkins asked van der Woude.
“Like, have I ever said it? Yes,” van der Woude said.
“When you were in high school?”
“Yes.”
” And I’m – I mean “(the actual word) “; I don’t N word,” Watkins pressed.
“Oh, well, like, like, that –,” van der Woude responded.
“You can spell it if you don’t want to say it,” Watkins said.
“Like,” van der Woude answered before spelling out the N word.
“Yes,” Watkins said.
“Yes, I believe I have said that,” van der Woude said.
“You said you believe you have said it?” Watkins asked.
“I have said it,” van der Woude acknowledged.
“Did you ever get in trouble for saying it in high school?”
“No,” van der Woude said.
Van der Woude was asked by Watkins why he apologized to Aidan Romain after the Grover “N word” incident.
“Because it, like, offended his, like, race and culture,” van der Woude said.
“How do you know that?” Watkins asked.
“Because he is African-American,” van der Woude said.
Later Watkins asked van der Woude to recall the circumstances of the apology,
“Well, I mean, after we were back — after I was back, I remember we were just eating lunch, and I remember I also apologized to him, like, face-to-face and, like, that was kind of it,” van der Woude said, referring to his suspension. “I thought we were friends again.”
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Water polo abuse allegations detailed in civil suit filed against Harvard-Westlake