Following the departure of Conrad Kohrs, the CHS boys’ swim coach for the past 17 years who announced he was stepping down from the job to focus on his club swim team, Carmel High hired Kamaron Rianda in January to take over as the new head coach.
Rianda is a CHS alumnus who swam for three years, serving as team captain his junior and senior years, and graduated in 2005. His swimming career was continued at ArizonaState.
Rianda has been coaching for the past eight years: five years for Monterey County Aquatic Team, three years as the Notre DameHigh School coach and two years as the Palma coach.
“My expectation for this year’s team is to take pride in the history of the program while making their own,” Rianda says.
Tuck Whitesides will be the assistant coach for his second year and says he is going to work with Rianda to improve the team by using what has worked in previous years, mixed with Rianda’s new plan. Whitesides is excited for a year to develop the program into something new and different.
This year both coaches hope to win MTAL championships—something the team has not done since 2010, as they were outscored at championships for the past two years.
Rianda said at a preseason meeting that he hopes half the team will be able to make CCS, whereas in the past few years, only five or six male athletes have qualified for CCS.
The new coach is planning for a successful season, remarking at the preseason meeting that if there were 60 water polo players in the fall, they should all swim as should many other athletes.
Rianda adds, “My goals for this season and beyond are to continue the great tradition the school has had in its aquatics program and to promote the education and maturation of the student-athletes that I have the opportunity to work with.”
-JOE SUNDE
