December 14, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

A tsunami shakes up water polo

by Keith Peters

Ed Samuels wanted to coach his Sacred Heart Prep girls' water polo to the Central Coast Section championship this season. He did not. Nor will he have that opportunity next season.

Kyle Utsumi did coach his Menlo School girls to that very title, the Knights' second in as many seasons. Yet, Utsumi won't be around for a possible third such championship.

In the biggest coaching shakeup to hit one sport in recent years, these two highly successful veteran water polo coaches are gone. Both, however, left under different circumstances.

Samuels, who guided the Gators to a school-record 30-2 season that was ended by an upset loss to Menlo-Atherton in the CCS semifinals, is not being rehired. He is the victim of a new rule, which goes into effect in June of 2006, that states that no one may coach at Sacred Heart Prep if he or she has a student attending the school.

Utsumi, who put the finishing touches on a 28-4 record with a 6-4 win over M-A in the section championship match, has decided he needed a break from coaching at the high school level.

For both, their respective leave-taking was very difficult to take.

"It's a tremendous emotional loss," said Samuels, a Palo Alto lawyer who in four years as head coach had forged a strong bond with his players and turned the Gators into a powerhouse in Northern California. "I didn't want to leave, and I'm going to miss it forever."

According to Holly Goodliffe, communications director for the Sacred Heart schools, SHP principal Richard Dioli and Dr. Joseph Ciancaglini, Director of Schools, had been discussing the new coaching policy since last year. The idea was to eliminate any possible conflicts of interest. Goodliffe said SHP Athletic Director Anthony Thomas and Brian Kreutzkamp, Director of Aquatics, both "were involved" in the final decision not to re-hire Samuels.

Samuels has a son, Elliott, a sophomore who plays for the Sacred Heart Prep boys' water polo team.

Ironically, Ed actually coached his own daughter, Bailey, two years ago. Yet, there was no rule in effect then nor was there any apparent problems with the father-daughter tandem at that time.

Goodliffe said that Thomas put this same coaching restriction into effect while he was athletic director at Urban School in San Francisco two years ago.

"I'm sure that influenced the decision," Goodliffe said. "Many of the private schools now have this policy."

In San Francisco, perhaps, but not on the Peninsula. There is no such coaching policy in place at Menlo School, Woodside Priory, Pinewood or Eastside Prep.

At Menlo, for example, Athletic Director Craig Schoof has a daughter, Brittany, playing on the girls' basketball team. A few years ago at Pinewood, girls' basketball coach Doc Scheppler coached his daughter, Kacey.

"I could never imagine having that (restrictive) policy," Schoof said. "I wouldn't want to risk losing a good coach over that."

The timing of not re-hiring Samuels comes at a strange time. The Gators are coming off the most successful girls' water polo season in school history, when they were ranked No. 1 in Northern California during the year.

By the end of the campaign, however, there were rumors of tension on the team caused by outside influences. The bond that held the team together came unglued at the worst time, perhaps resulting in the upset loss to Menlo-Atherton.

Those who know local water polo believe there was an agenda to move Samuels out, which had more to do with playing time (or lack thereof) than anything else.

Most of the Sacred Heart Prep players were devastated at the news their coach would not be re-hired.

Said one player in a letter to Dr. Ciancaglini:

"It has been explained to me that there is a new policy in place that prohibits Ed from returning, because he has a son who attends the school. I am saddened that Sacred Heart has created a rule that forbids exceptional coaches from coaching, based on the fact that they are personally invested in the Sacred Heart community . . . I am upset that the administration did not wish to hear our side of the story, and I can only hope that no outside source affected the decision to create the new policy . . . I feel as though this new policy goes against a lot of the same principles that I have been taught in Sacred Heart classes . . . Sacred Heart's reputation as a responsible community has been tainted by your decision."

There was considerably less intrigue surrounding Utsumi's decision to walk away from the girls' water polo program after nine years.

"There was really never a break," Utsumi said. "I was just looking for one place to cut back and this was the place to do it."

In addition to coaching water polo, Utsumi began teaching sixth grade at Menlo this year. During the winter and spring, he coaches the Stanford Water Polo Club team. This summer, Utsumi will be the head coach of the U.S. Senior B women's team that will travel to Brazil and Venezuela and the head coach of the women's U.S. Junior National Team, which has tournaments in Greece and Canada. Somewhere in between, Utsumi will coach the Stanford club team in the National Junior Olympics.

"This summer's going to be real busy," he said. "It's time to take a break."

Utsumi informed his players of this decision last Friday.

"It was a tough conversation to have," Utsumi said. "It was the toughest thing I've had to do in coaching."

Utsumi said the decision to walk away has been building for some time.

"I told the kids they were the reason I stayed so long," he said.

With Menlo losing only one senior starter off this season's championship team, the Knights already are favored for a third straight CCS title in 2006. Utsumi says the only thing different next season will be his absence from the pool deck.

"The players who we have, have enjoyed a lot of success and will continue on in much the same way," Utsumi said. "I'm not leaving water polo behind. I'm still doing the club and I'll be coaching a lot of these same Menlo players."

Ed Samuels wishes he could say the same thing about his Sacred Heart Prep players.

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