Education
She attended the University of Hawaii on a swimming scholarship, since there were no water polo scholarships for women at that time.
She attended the University of Hawaii on a swimming scholarship, since there were no water polo scholarships for women at that time.
In over 30 years in the sport, she set multiple firsts for women in water polo, received all the top honors, and in her time was recognized as one of the best water polo players in the world. O'Toole started playing water polo during the swimming off-season at age thirteen. At Wilson High School in Long Beach, California she joined boys' water polo because there was no girls' team.
She played at Long Beach City College on the men's team for national team coach Monte Nitzkowski. At age 17, O'Toole was invited to join the Women's National Water Polo Team. When women's water polo was added to the 2000 Summer Olympics, Maureen re-joined the US team out of retirement in 1997 and helped qualify the US women's team as one of the six teams eligible to participate in Sydney.
She has coached water polo at Rio Hondo College in Whittier, California and at UC Berkeley from 1995 to 1997, and has a master's degree in education. She also does motivational speaking to various companies about teamwork. In April 2005, Maureen O'Toole married Jim Purcell, once a national and international championship water polo player and now coach of the Monte Vista High School boys' water polo team.
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