Aquatics: Lynch joins Tars

NEWPORT BEACH - Jason Lynch, who guided the Costa Mesa High boys

water polo team to three CIF Southern Section championship games and one

title in five years at helm (1989-94), will replace Brian Kreutzkamp as

boys water polo and boys swim coach at Newport Harbor High.

Lynch, who has spent the last seven years coaching at Capistrano

Valley High, will also teach biology at Harbor, as well as assist Bill

Barnett with the girls water polo team.

Barnett and Kreutzkamp considered themselves co-coaches of the boys

and girls water polo teams, with Kreutzkamp assuming the more traditional

assistant’s role with the girls and Barnett doing the same for the boys.

Lynch, 36, the U.S. national youth team coach who leaves today for

Europe for a month of international competition with that boys squad,

said there are several reasons behind his decision to leave Capistrano

Valley.

Since the Mission Viejo-based school does not have a pool, Lynch’s

Cougars were forced to work out at Saddleback College, which frequently

created scheduling difficulties.

“I’ll be getting done with practice earlier, which will help me spend

more time with my family,” said the Mission Viejo resident, who is

married and has two daughters.

“The facilities at Newport are very good, they have one of the elite

aquatics programs in the nation, and working with Bill (who coached two

U.S. Olympic men’s water polo teams) is a great opportunity for me, as

well,” Lynch said.

Lynch will begin working with the Sailors in August, as Kreutzkamp,

who resigned to become men’s coach at Golden West College, continues to

see the program through its summer schedule.

Lynch, who played at Marina High, attended UC Santa Barbara and became

a head coach for the first time at Costa Mesa, won South Coast League

water polo titles with the boys (1997) and girls (2001). He also won a

South Coast boys swim crown, the school’s first, this past spring.

His 1997 boys water polo team lost to Long Beach Wilson in the CIF

Southern Section Division I final and his best girls team lost to

Foothill in the CIF Division I semifinals last season.

“It’s still a little hard, emotionally, to leave the kids at Capo,”

said Lynch, who anticipates letting Barnett take the lead for the boys

program next fall.

The Sailors lost 14 seniors off a CIF Division I championship squad.

“I want to prove myself as a coach next year,” Lynch said. “I won’t be

upsetting the apple cart.”