Gautschi takes over as coach of Live Oak boys water polo

Live Oak announced Ryan Gautschi will take over as the new head coach of the boys water polo team.
Gautschi takes the job after it was vacated by his former teammate Shea Coleman earlier this summer.
The hiring of Gautschi means he will be reunited with his former high school coach Mack Haines, who signed on to coach the girls this year.
“The fact that I’ll be with Mack on the pool deck is going to be huge for me. I’m really excited about that,” Gautschi said.
The Acorns are coming off a 9-12 season from last year and will immediately look to Gautschi’s experience to carry them in 2013.
“The biggest thing I will take to them is the mistakes I made in high school,” Gautschi said.
He said his mindset was ‘water polo first, school second’ and that cost him some big opportunities when his high school career was over.
“I had these big D1 recruiters and their second question always was — after ‘hi, what’s your name’ — was ‘what are your grades like?’” He said. “I’d tell them and they say, well here’s my business card. You can go play at a junior college and give me a call if you still want to play.”
He said he has the time to help the kids with school work so no one will run into grade problems this  year.
Gautschi is a 2005 graduate of Live Oak and played for the boys during a pair of dominant years in 2003 and 2004.
He received back-to-back Tri-County Athletic League MVP honors and ended his tenure at Live Oak as its all-time leading goal scorer. He received High School All American honors in 2005 before he graduated.
Gautschi also swam, earning several TCAL titles.
He said the team is going to be extremely young, with no seniors competing on varsity.
“There’s no seniors, which is awesome because we can grow the team,” Gautschi said.
Gautschi comes from a strong family of swimmers, which includes his sister Ronni Gautschi, who carved out her own piece of Live Oak lore in both water polo and swimming, and his mother Lynn Vidali, who was an Olympic swimmer, earning a silver and a bronze in 1968 and 1972, respectively.
He spent the early part of this week getting to know the team and laying out his coaching philosophy.
Gautschi is no stranger to coaching. He works with kids in the mornings and helps coach the Makos Water Polo Club.