Mike Giles: Experienced rookie

Tony Altobelli

Talk about being at the right place at the right time.

First-year head coach Mike Giles came to Orange Coast College with the

intention of being an assistant to aquatics legend Don Watson for the

women’s water polo team, when life changed for the 39-year-old.

“When Don decided to ‘semi’ retire and lighten up his work load, he did

everything he could to help me fit into this new situation,” Giles said.

“He’s built this aquatics program to such a high level of tradition, I’m

really excited to keep this tradition rolling in the right direction.”

Giles has done a rather excellent job of starting winning traditions

wherever he’s been throughout his coaching career.

After competiting in water polo at Oxnard High in Ventura County and at

Orange Coast College, Giles got into sales and was a lifeguard for a few

years, before becoming a coach.

It was at Woodbridge High in 1985 when Giles first got the opportunity to

develop youngsters into not only great swimmers and water polo players,

but responsible young adults as well.

“That was just a summer job for me,” Giles remembered. “But at that

point, I realized how much I loved working with kids, getting the results

out of hard work, keeping fit and having a blast doing it. I knew this is

what I really wanted to do.”

From Woodbridge High, Giles became a head coach for Newport Beach

Aquatics, as well as Newport Harbor High’s swim team.

But perhaps his most impressive high school coaching achievement came at

Canyon High where Giles led the boys water polo program to five straight

CIF Southern Section playoff appearances and its best win/loss record in

school history.

On the girls side, Giles led the Lady Comanches to their first-ever

Century League title, as well as forming the school’s first-ever girls

water polo team.

“When I first started coaching water polo, I used to be extremely

aggressive on the sidelines,” Giles said. “I was tough on officials and

firm with my players. Now, I’ve learned to let things play themselves out

in the pool and I’ve learned to stay cool under pressure. Kind of like a

Pat Riley-style of coaching, is what I’m trying to pattern my coaching

style after.”

Giles has been a strong force in developing girls water polo in the

Southern California area.

He in the founder and banquet coordinator of the All-CIF Girls Water Polo

Banquet, which aids in honoring outstanding high school play throughout

the area.

“Last year, we had the Women’s National Team and the U.S. water polo

executives present awards and recognize the top 250 girls in Southern

California high school water polo,” Giles said. “Hopefully, it will keep

getting bigger and stronger as the game gets even more popular.”

So just how popular is girls water polo at the high school level?

“It took almost 20 years for the boys to have six different divisions in

CIF,” Giles said. “In 5-6 years, there’s already five CIF divisions of

girls water polo.”

On the club level, Giles has also won his share of titles, winning seven

Orange County Swim Conference championships in 12 years, as well as

coaching the ORCA boys 18-under water polo squad to it’s first-ever

National Junior Olympics Title.

Now here at OCC, Giles looks to bring his experience to an already

successful Pirate program, with some help from Watson and others.

“Don will still be here as our strength and conditioning coach,” Giles

said. “Having him and (men’s coach and Olympic team captain) Chris Oeding

here really makes for an unbelievably strong reputation and I think that

helps in building a winning tradition.”

So far the women’s team is playing a strong role in that winning

tradition. In only three years, the Pirates were ranked No. 2 in the

state in 1997 and No. 6 in 1998.

“At this level, it’s much easier to weed the athletes out who come out

here because they feel like they have to,” Giles said. “Here, the players

are doing the work and are on time because they want to be here. They

want to be successful and want to get to the next level. My job is to

help them get to whatever level they want to get to.”

Being a first-year coach at a college with such a high reputation for

winning is not always easy, but fortunately, for Giles, his goals are

similar with that of OCC’s.

“Obviously I would like to help us reach the State playoffs again,” Giles

said. “I really want to keep up the tradition around here and with the

caliber of players we have, along with support staff I have around me

with Watson and Oeding, along with the tremendous support of Jane

Hilgendorf, our success should remain high.”