Sea Kings hire new coach

Rick Devereux

Corona del Mar High hired Matt Flesher as the boys swim coach Monday.

Flesher, 24, was an assistant boys water polo coach under Sam

Bailey, the CIF Southern Section Division I Coach of the Year who

guided CdM to a 20-9 season where the Sea Kings advanced to the

semifinals.

Flesher, who is a substitute teacher for the Newport-Mesa

district, takes over a program that finished fourth out of five

schools in the Pacific Coast League last year.

“I have no idea how we did last year,” Flesher said. “I know the

last couple of years swimming was not taken seriously. I am looking

to instill into the program the notation that this is a varsity

sport. This isn’t recreational swimming at the local YMCA.”

Flesher is currently on the U.S. national water polo team and is

an Olympic hopeful for the Beijing summer games in 2008.

Flesher was a standout water polo player for UCLA and was a

three-year MVP and captain of his Brea Olinda High water polo team.

He earned first-team All-American status his senior year at Brea

Olinda and led the Bruins in assists his junior year to garner

first-team all-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation honors.

Flesher admits to not having participated in competitive swimming

since high school, but said he started out as a competitive swimmer.

“I’ve been swimming in meets since I was 8 years old,” Flesher

said. “A water polo coach wants you to get from point A to point B as

fast as you no matter how you do it. In swimming, it’s all about the

mechanics. All of the little things are important when you’re talking

about a tenth or even one-one hundredth of a second difference in

your time.”

CdM will participate in the Capistrano Valley High relays March

11-12.