Water Polo - 2011

Samuel Bailey continues to make his mark on water polo – as he has done as a player and coach since first hitting the water as a youth in San Clemente.

The current head coach of girls water polo at Corona del Mar High School has found success at each scholastic level of the sport, reaching the pinnacle of individual prep coaching honors as the CIF Division I Coach of the Year in 2004 when he turned a previously 8-19 Corona del Mar boys water polo squad into a CIF semifinalist with an impressive 20-9 overall record.

Bailey was a member of three UCLA national championship water polo teams (1995, 1996, 1999), earning his degree in Geography before turning to coaching at the high school and club levels. Two years later, he became an assistant coach to the CDM girls water polo team that would win CIF titles in 2004 and 2005.

He joined the Stanford coaching staff in 2005, when the Cardinal would finish as NCAA Division I runner-up in men’s water polo; he then returned to his alma mater of UCLA as an assistant on the men’s and women’s teams in 2007. The Bruins women’s team captured the NCAA crown in 2008.

Bailey also coached the Stanford Junior Water Polo Club to the bronze medal at the 2005 National Championships in the 18-under division. Outside of water polo, Bailey is founding director of Eco Surf Volunteers, a non-profit that combines medical, environmental, and humanitarian international volunteer work with cultural immersion activities in a small fishing village in Ecuador.