Long Beach State University Athletics
Baker's New Role is to Expand Water Polo
9/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Water Polo
Sept. 24, 2008
Guy Baker isn't stepping down as coach of the USA Water Polo women's national team as much as stepping up to an even more pivotal role in the sport.
The former Long Beach State star player and assistant who led the women's Olympic team to three medals has been named the organization's new Director of Olympic Development, a position that will serve to shape the national program for years and Olympics to come.
The newly created position will oversee both men's and women's water polo in the development of elite athletes and teaching of coaches and referees. It will attempt to expand the number of athletes in the national program and emphasize training in addition to competition.
He will also have a role in choosing his successor as head coach of the women's team.
"I was approached with the idea in late March, and I loved the initial talks," Baker said. "I wanted to go through the Olympic Games and then have some time afterward to decide what I wanted to do.
"This is a very good thing for me. I love coaching and we have been very successful, but at the same time I was looking forward to the opportunity to do something else. Over the last eight years, I've also spent a lot of time building our pipeline and developing coaches, and it's something I've enjoyed.
"We want to dramatically expand the national team program and develop athletes, coaches and referees. We need to focus on the present but also the future and make Advertisement sure the national team needs are met."
In Baker's eight years as national team coach, his teams have won a medal at 14 of 18 FINA events, including world championship titles in 2003 and 2007, two Pan Am Games gold medals, three World League titles, and three Olympic medals.
The 2000 Olympic team won a silver medal, losing the gold-medal game on a last second shot, the 2004 team claimed a bronze and the 2008 Beijing team took the silver in another close game decided in the last seconds.
"To win three consecutive Olympic medals is very rare in water polo," he said. "Competitively, we've outshone the competition. I know we're missing the Olympic gold, but when you look at all of our international play, the team has been a tremendous success.
"Losing in the last second happens all the time in water polo. All of the major tournaments are tremendously close. In my time, we've been on the flip side and won many titles that way. So it doesn't detract from the success we've had."
After his All-American playing career, Baker became an assistant coach to Ken Lindgren at Long Beach State in 1985, staying with the 49ers until he was named head coach at UCLA in 1991, where he would eventually coach both the men's and women's teams and win seven NCAA titles, three with the women and four with the men.
He joined the national team program as an assistant in 1998 and became national team women's coach in 2000, coinciding with women's water polo being added to the Olympic Games program.
Baker will play a significant role in finding his replacement. USA Water Polo will open up the process and consider all of its alternatives, be they candidates from within the national program or coaches with college or foreign experience.
"We want to find out who is interested in the job and then get the best candidate," he said. "We're not committed one way or the other. The women's college season goes through the spring and a lot of our top players are competing professionally in Europe, so we'll take our time and do a thorough job to find the best candidate."
The women's team operates out of the Los Alamitos Training Center.
Part of Baker's new job will be to create new regional training centers across the country, create a national calendar for the sport that complements club play, and strengthen the relationship between the national program and college water polo.
