An Interview With UCI Water Polo Coach Dan Klatt; Compassion a Hallmark of Veteran Chief
IRVINE, CA. Water polo won’t ever be mistaken for a kumbaya-kind of athletic expertise. It’s bodily and emotionally draining. However those that care most in regards to the sport—particularly coaches—have great compassion for individuals who compete.
Depend Dan Klatt, head coach for UC-Irvine males’s and girls’s groups, as one such coach. In a latest interview on the Anteater Aquatics Complicated, his insights into his gamers and opposing coaches had been chock-full of respect and appreciation. Following a tough girls’s season in 2023, by which the Anteaters certified for an eighth NCAA match throughout his tenure, Klatt (392-196, 20 seasons) has the UCI girls once more ranked among the many nation’s greatest collegiate applications.
Following is an interview w/Dan Klatt performed through the 2024 Barbara Kalbus Invitational.
[Following accusations last season that she assaulted an opposing player, Nina Flynn left Irvine for Berkeley, where she is among the leading scorers for Cal this year. The disruption around Flynn might have sunk most programs, but the Anteaters advanced to the 2023 NCAA tournament.]
Regardless of points out of the water the UCI girls made NCAAs final yr.
It could be a discredit to them if I put that on myself—as if I did one thing to carry them collectively. In conditions like that, gamers can fracture, or they will come collectively. The selection was to return collectively.
It was a tough scenario for everyone, however they actually leaned into one another. Their group was virtually impenetrable from the surface.
I coached as exhausting as I may, however I believe they deserve the credit score for a way they carried out.
[In 2021 Klatt replaced long-time UCI men’s coach Marc Hunt, assuming the mantle formerly held by legendary Anteaters’ coach Ted Newland. An UCI alum, Klatt not only played for Newland but credits his success in the sport to one of the most successful and devoted coaches in NCAA water polo history.]
Two seasons in the past you added the boys’s program to your duties, this after a long time teaching the Anteater girls. Now, one season ends in December, and one other begins in January. How do you retain life in stability?
Courtesy: Nicola Bugelli
The exhausting half about being the chief for each is I’m actually intense and don’t have an excellent off change. So it’s exhausting in my moments of downtime to show it off as a result of there’s such a little bit hole between the instances by which we’re competing.
It’s a terrific honor for me to teach each of those groups. To have the ability to contribute to and coach a crew that I grew up taking part in for and which gave me my greatest pals, my alternatives in water polo… it’s a terrific honor to take that seat, and it’s one thing I take very significantly.
[It] retains me up some nights desirous to do a terrific job, not only for myself however for all the fellows who performed with and after me.
I’ll inform you, I didn’t know the way exhausting it will be bodily and emotionally on me to do each. I’m used to doing two jobs—the UCI girls and the nationwide crew—however Adam [Krikorian] was carrying the bags of the pinnacle coach and I used to be dwelling within the house of assistant coach… selecting the crew up, giving [out] info and tidbits of recommendation. As an assistant you reside within the second with the gamers; [as] head coach, your thoughts’s off into the longer term.
Now my head’s spending much more time sooner or later and rather a lot much less time within the second [laughs].
I actually loved these moments with the nationwide crew and having the ability to dwell in a special house.
[Klatt has been coaching against Hawai’i and its coach Maureen Cole since he took over the UCI women’s program in 2005. In many of those years, it has been either the Anteaters or the Rainbow Wahine who have represented the Big West in NCAAs. Earlier this year Cole announced she is leaving Hawai’i to pursue other interests]
Maureen Cole, the Hawai’i coach, is retiring this yr.
If I’m not taking part in towards Mo I’m at all times cheering for her. She is an unbelievable position mannequin and advocate for feminine coaches. She has battled her means by adversity in teaching. Her values and her depth have stayed constant. Her love for her groups and their success has stayed constant.
There’s not one other coach who’s teaching proper now that may miss her greater than I’ll. Each time I see her I really feel like I noticed her simply yesterday as a result of over time we’ve created that form of relationship. I’ve a lot respect and love for the way in which she [coaches] and the eagerness she does it with.
[With Curtain Set to Drop on Coaching Career, Maureen Cole Leading Hawaii in Chase of NCAA Water Polo Crown]
We’re each within the Large West; we’re each gonna try to win it. [Hawai’i] has a superb crew and I will probably be rooting for them if it’s not us.
I believe they acquired an actual shot. It is a yr the place there’s 5 – 6 groups that would win it. Possibly some groups that we are able to’t even see [yet] are gonna get rather a lot higher over the following month or two who would possibly shock individuals on the finish of the yr.
It’s a enjoyable yr in that means. This match’s seeded in a different way than it’s been earlier than. You’ve Hawai’i at two and Fresno State at three. Usually the 2 4 groups are at all times Pac-12 colleges.
[For a decade Klatt was the top assistant to US women’s coach Krikorian and was on the bench when the American women captured three Olympic titles (2012, 2016, 2010).]
Showing weak after falling to fifth on the 2023 World Championships, the US girls once more seize gold on the 2024 World Championships in Qatar. Does it shock you the way resilient Krikorian and his crew are?
No, I’m not stunned as a result of Adam is the toughest employee I’ve ever been round. He’s good, he’s personable, he’s about the suitable values. When he will get a crew round him in full coaching, like he has proper now, there’s a contagion of greatness that he expects and that he exudes in his personal work ethic.
The crew is catching it… and everybody else ought to be careful.
