Alicia Lourekas ’12
Staff Writer

When the wreckers boys water polo team splashes into the pool after school they are ready to learn how to play the ‘real’ game of water polo.

This year the team has a new coach Charlie Gulotta. He has been involved with water polo for over 50 years. He started his career in high school where he was a high school All-American and his high school team won the Junior National Championships.

In college, at Fordham University, he was the captain of the Swimming & Water Polo Team and was also named to a College All American Team.

“I participated in the Olympic Trials for the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City and made it to the Olympic Training camp but did not make the final cut,” said Gulotta as he mentions one of his highest achievements in water polo.

When asked why he started coaching for Staples, he said it was for the “love of the game and [he] had gotten a lot out of [his] experiences involving water polo and feel[s] it is time to give back.”

With this coach, the team is ready to improve their skills this year, and have in their sights the possibility of becoming a varsity sport.

“Yeah, it would be great if boys water polo could become a varsity sport…we have good team chemistry and everybody wants to improve their game,” stated water polo captain Matt Mirkine ’10.

Along with Mirkine, Coach Gulotta said, “I find the Staples team to be very committed and enthusiastic. We need to gain more experience and have more pool time to practice.”

Most of the water polo team’s games are against private schools, which have players who have been playing since they were young.

“Competition is strong, but were able to play to the best of our ability,” said Mirkine ’10.

After a couple games, Coach Gulotta felt that the more experience the players get, the better the team will be. This is why he feels that the team played well a few weeks ago at Hopkins. He also mentioned that if the team did well at the upcoming games at Greenwich and Hopkins, he would be very happy.

One reason why the team is improving is because of the new coaching style of Coach Gulotta.

“[He] is much more technical and knows the game from his experience in water polo,” said assistant coach Brandon Arias ’06.

When asked how he coached the players he said, “Water Polo is a very rigorous sport which requires excellent physical conditioning. Swimming needs to be second nature and you tread water constantly. So we focus on physical conditioning and fundamentals like passing, dribbling and shooting. Doing this in the water over your head is not natural. The more we practice the better we get.”

With their new coach, boys water polo is ready to take on their toughest competition this season.