After 33 seasons at the high school level, Mack Haines stepped down Monday as coach of the boys water polo team at Live Oak High School, ending a storied 26-year run in crafting one of the top programs in the Central Coast Section.
Haines, 58, said the “time was right” for both him and the team to move on, with his youngest son, Connor, set to graduate from Live Oak in June and the Acorns in a rebuilding phase after missing the CCS playoffs for only the second time under Haines.
“It’s hard to say ‘never, ever, ever’ in life, because it never works that way,” said Haines, who will continue to teach psychology and sociology at LOHS. “I’m really sure at this point that I’m ready to retire.
“I think you get to a point where bringing in new blood and new people sometimes is a positive. We still have some kids left in the program, and you don’t want to be the coach that waits until the talent’s diminished or it’s not there and then take off and stick another coach in a negative situation. I don’t want to do that to this program.”
Live Oak athletic director Mark Cummins said Haines’ résumé “speaks for itself,” but his impact transcended water polo.
“He is simply a coaching legend,” said Cummins, who was hired at LOHS in the same year (1986) as Haines. “Mack is one of the most passionate coaches I have ever been around. He loves the sport of water polo and spreads that love to his players. He cares about players as individuals and has served as a life coach to many. Mack is a great motivator as he demands a lot from his players, but his players eagerly give him everything they have.”
Haines’ career ends with 19 conference titles, eight CIF-section finals and two section championships spread across stops at Salinas (1984-86), Hanford (1979-84) and Live Oak. He was named a CCS Honor Coach in 2000 and groomed 29 high school All-Americas, two junior national team members and more scholarship recipients than he could count. Two of his players made All-America at the college level.
Sobrato coach Dave Letts was one of them, having graduated from Live Oak in 1998. He was part of the 1997 team that captured the Acorns’ lone CCS title under Haines and cemented itself as one of the top teams in the country by winning the Hawaiian Invitational.
“He commanded, earned and received respect from all of his player,” Letts said. “He taught discipline, integrity and respect.
“The intensity he brought to every practice was incredible. … If you made a mistake during practice, he would stop practice and let you try again until you did it right.”
Adam Zintsmaster, another member of the ’97 team, said Haines had a unique way of getting the best out of his players.
“Mack was always one who coached from a positive stance,” Zintsmaster said. “He is not a yeller per se, and he provided far more encouragement than discouragement. That said, his points were never missed.”
When the going got tough, players would reach a little deeper to produce.
“He always got the most out of his players,” Letts said. “The players loved playing for him.”
His ability to relate to all of his players, even the most adolescent, was among Haines’ greatest attributes.
“I know that I drove him nuts at times, but I did not get what an amazing mentor he was until I left for college and entered the real world,” said Steve Traverso, a 1999 graduate of Live Oak. “His ethics for the game and life are something that should be practiced by every coach (and) teacher who is working with our youth today.”
Haines also helped usher success to the Live Oak girls program with coed practices. Rachel Cretcher, a 2011 Live Oak alumna who now plays for Long Beach State, still hears his distinct voice – part John Wayne, part Jeff Spicoli – in the back of her head during games.
Head on a swivel!
If you don’t know where the ball is, you’re not playing water polo. You’re swimming!
“He is brilliant in the fact of knowing when to be friendly and laid back with the players and when to intimidate the crap out of everybody,” Cretcher said. “Mack first introduced me to the game and has been an outstanding influence on how I fell in love with it. He has given me so much support and confidence in my abilities as a player as well as a human being.”
When Greg Gamble arrived at Hanford High School in 1979, he could barely swim. Four years later, he graduated with All-America honors and a water polo scholarship to Stanford.
The team that Haines inherited demonstrated a lack of discipline, Gamble said. But Haines whipped his players into shape with Bobby Knight-like toughness. Whereas Knight has his sweater and chairs, Haines had his flip-flops.
“Usually, he beat these on the pool deck à la Kruschev for effect. … I don’t know how he afforded to replace all the mangled flip-flops on a teacher’s salary,” Gamble said. “When I think about Mack, I think about intensity and principle.”
Haines had his own fair share of missteps while growing up in Saratoga. His mother, Barbara, who would raise five public-school teachers like herself, used him as an example of the kid that misbehaved and made it – Haines found out at her funeral in 1986.
“People would come up and say, ‘So you’re the guy,’” Haines said. “It was pretty funny. I guess that’s why I can relate so well.”
The secret to working well with high schoolers, Haines says, is having a sense of humor.
“I’m going to miss the interactions with kids most,” he said. “ … The trips to Hawaii and some of the road trips we took in the summer; you had to have a sense of humor. It was funny, funny stuff.”
Haines enjoyed mentoring youths as much as he enjoyed watching his teams pull an upset, using his intense, physical style of play.
“It’s all about the challenge,” he said. “Coaching is a humbling experience. One minute, you think you’ve got the answer; the next, you learn the hard way (that) you’re only as good as your team. I like that challenge.”
Haines was at his best when his teams faced a stronger opponent, according to San Jose State women’s water polo coach Lou Tully, who ran a U.S. Water Polo area camp with Haines.
“The competition often ended in his team’s favor,” Tully said. “If he did lose the game, his comment would be, ‘I ran out of mirrors.’”
Although he stopped holding his introductory summer water polo programs years ago, Haines said he never lost his passion for coaching, even as the Live Oak boys slipped further and further from section-championship contention after the opening of Sobrato High School in 2003. The Acorns have not advanced beyond the CCS quarterfinals since their last title-game appearance in 2005.
“If you go back and weigh your entire career, there’s moments where negative things happen and positive things happen,” Haines said. “If you weigh it all out, it generally comes out OK.
“Years like this make you treasure the success you had in the past. I always just tried to keep a balance. In the last few years, we haven’t dominated in the win-loss column, but I don’t think that makes me any less of a coach.”
In Haines’ mind, water polo has given back more than he has put in. He met his wife, Trish, through coaching and raised three children – Trevor, 29, Jessilyn 26, Connor, 18 – who excelled in the sport.
“Coaching’s been very good to me,” said Haines, still strapping and boyish, save for his salt-and-pepper hair. “If you give everything to something, you suffer somewhere else. So I’ve tried to be a good high school teacher, a good coach and a good parent. I would be happy if I could be remembered for that.”
Haines’ colleagues remember him as more.
“He is a person that in my opinion would be ranked in the same category as John Wooden, Bill Walsh and George Haines,” said two-time Olympic medalist and local swim coach Lynn Gautschi. “I have always been so proud to walk into a coaches meeting with (him).”
Donna Cretcher, Rachel’s mother, saw Haines as another parent for her three kids. All of whom played for him.
“For Mack, it really seemed to be about the process rather than the product,” Donna said. “What I will always respect the most about Mack is that the person was always more important than the game.”
