Best of 2023: Dan Klatt

When looking back at 2023, no one has been more successful than the Director of Water Polo, Dan Klatt. 

Since taking over the women's program, Klatt has vaulted UC Irvine into elite status, capturing the program's ninth Big West Championship and advancing to the NCAAs for the eighth time in 2023. The women's team ended the year ranked fourth nationally, its highest final poll position after reaching an all-time best No. 3 national ranking during the season. The Anteaters finished the year 20-7 overall and a perfect 7-0 in the Big West.  

In only his second year at the helm of the men's program, Klatt guided the Anteaters to a Big West regular season title and Big West Championship victory, bringing UCI back to the NCAAs for the first time in 30 years.  

The nine-time Big West Coach of the Year on the women's side sat down to reflect on the historic year for UCI water polo. 

Let's start with women's team. How would you describe the 2023 team? 
Resilient. Their resilience was tested with external challenges. It was an experience very unique to this team. They could choose whether the experience tore them apart or brought them together and I think they did a really good job of leaning into each other. It forced the process to be a day-to-day process where they didn't dream really far ahead, they just put one foot in front of the other and made it a systematic process. As a result, I'd say it's one of the most high-achieving, capturing of potential of a team that we have ever had in the history of the women's program. With the talent that's in our conference, to be able to go undefeated in the Big West then win the conference championship was a pretty big deal. I would have liked to have seen if we were healthy going into the NCAA Tournament what would have happened.  I think having that depth would have helped us. 

Did you think this team would go 7-0 team in Big West games? 
I thought we could play the type of water polo we played. We played very well-rounded, scoring that went all-across the board. Any one of six players in the pool could score at any time and make an impact on the game. That shown true in the championship game where we had some people who maybe didn't have a ton of goals on the year, score some goals in overtime. I don't know that I knew playing that kind of water polo would lead to 7-0. I knew how capable we would be and how competitive, but I don't know that I would have guessed that. Hawaii was extremely talented and so was Long Beach so to get past those teams both in the tournament and regular season, meant we were playing well on the right days. 

Was there a pivotal moment in the season?
Beating Hawaii at Hawaii. That isn't an easy place to win. The distraction of the travel, time difference, weather difference, the location you are in. Not only that game, but that trip in general, was really positive and healing and connective for the team. I took a risk in letting them have time and not controlling every minute of every day, hoping that they would use the time to be together and they did a really good job of it. 

Talk about goalkeeper Erin Tharp and what she brought to the program.
She brought in a professionalism and knowledge. I think it was challenging for her to connect with a younger team when she was in a different phase of her life as a grad student working toward a career. The leadership, the savvy, film study, all of those things were really influential on the rest of the team. 

Talk about the Big West Championship game and beating Hawaii 10-9 in overtime. 
We started really well and were incredible defensively. Erin (Tharp) was really good. We went a little cold offensively in the second half of the game. We were up four goals in the third then gave up a goal on the last possession of that quarter. We didn't score and they went 3-0 on us to tie it up. The flood gates opened again in the overtime period and ended up winning 10-9. We were exactly where we wanted to be for a majority of the game, then didn't have a great fourth quarter, but then made it happen in overtime. Erin was amazing throughout the tournament. 

One of our goals is to work on playing with a lead and how to chip away and play the game similarly. 

On to the NCAAs, where the Anteaters led UCLA 7-5 at the half but would eventually fall 14-12. You mentioned being without a few players due to injuries, but was that really a key issue?  
We started well again and just ran out of gas. UCLA has great team speed and unfortunately the players we had out were two of our fastest players that could have helped us nullify their speed a bit and over the course of the game that just picked us apart. Fatigue of extra minutes set in and that's how they separated themselves and pushed ahead of us on counter attacks. 

I know we are reflecting on 2023, but can you give us a sneak peek of 2024?
We have a big hole to fill in the goal and our goalies need to step up and be good. We are fortunate that we have experience there with Jordan Frost, the Big West Championship MVP in 2022 and Faith Tedesco first team All-Big West goalkeeper in 2022. They just need to keep pushing, getting better, studying and making sure they are at their best. We will always be defensively focused, well-rounded and I think our freshman class will have an impact on how we do this year. There is some real talent there that spreads across both sides of the pool and players that have good water polo IQs. We just need to figure out how best to use our players and be competitive and blue collar about the little things. To me you can't always focus on goal to goal, but focus on the most minuit details – a pass, a block, a drive defense sequence, two-meter defense sequence – those things are ultimately the way to success and this team has to buy into that, figure out what part of the puzzle they are and make sure they do their job the best. Part of that is my job, but part of that is their job and accepting what piece they are and doing it with great pride and passion and great energy. 

Switching gears to the men's side. When you took over in 2022, what was your hope for this program?
Realistically, the program is important to me as an alumnus. I think a lot of us learned to be self-confident, learned how to be self-motivated, learned how to collectively fight for success with our experiences in the program, so that's what I wanted to bring to the guys. I wanted to bring a culture of hard work, detail-orientation and support of each other. UCI has always had its own brand in men's water polo with NCAA Championships and Olympians and that brand has always been to out-work everyone else. I don't know if you can tell if you are out-working another team, but you know if you are out-working yourself from the day before. Creating a culture of continuous improvement – our goal is achieving a level of Kaizen to where we then sustain it. 

There was an improvement in your first season then entering this season did you think this team would be conference champion?
I thought we could, I don't know if anyone else did, but myself. It's my job to believe that first. I understood from being in the Big West with the women's team how important it is to establishing yourself then winning the Big West is an expectation. I knew how we had to do it. There were teams that were probably more talented, but top to bottom I thought we could play a style that leaned into everyone's strengths and encouraged success through that. 

What win was pivotal during the regular season?
Beating UC Davis at home. The way we won the game, we were down twice by three goals and had a good run down the stretch. That showcased our greatest strength – they are very competitive, didn't quit, trained extremely hard so they had energy in those final moments. There was a build-up of endurance that helped with being successful in those late minutes of the game. This team had a really good bond of friendship and in times that are hard, those things shine through if they are authentic and with this team I think it was authentic so it transformed into success. 

Talk about winning the Big West Championship.
Jacob Pyle was great. I think goalie play at the end of the year is really critical. That game on Oct. 28 where we came back and beat Davis, we found ourselves in that position again in the semifinal so the fact that we did it before gave us belief that we could do it again. In the final, we started great, I think that might have been the best first quarter we had then the last half of the second quarter into the third quarter we lost our way. We found our way again in the fourth quarter and were able to win. Championship games always come with nerves, with surprises and you just have to be ready to deal with those as they come.  

I think Jake Liechty's leadership was important. He is a fifth year. He scored the first goal of the game and the last goal of the game. I was frustrated during the game at how we were playing and he looked at me and said we got it coach. I felt like his composure and understanding of what needed to be done and how it needed to be done was instrumental. 

The return to the NCAAs wasn't exactly what you wanted, but describe the experience.
Unfortunately it's really hard to be really good at anything the first time. The NCAA Championship adds some things we may not see – a giant banquet, staying in a fancy hotel and having breakfast on the 69th floor where you could see all the way to Irvine and I don't know if you can minimize those things the first time. It also extended our season by two weeks, no one had ever trained past the weekend before Thanksgiving. Adding two weeks is two more weeks together, two more weeks of being yelled at by your coach, two more weeks of hard work and its not easy to get refocused when that's not your norm. I'm glad they got to experience that and hopefully the older guys can now share that experience and have us be a little more ready for the playing aspect. I learned this from my Olympic experience, treat it like any other water polo game. Acknowledge that it is the Olympics but treat every other process just as you would in any other game. We weren't able to do that at the NCAAs and Princeton had years of NCAAs under their belt. They had lost opening round games several times and were hungry for the next opportunity and that showed in their play and experience. They weren't distracted by the other things and that's what set them apart. 

Just a couple more things before we let you go. What type of athlete do you recruit? 
I want people that are willing to do any job and fill in any space for the team. They may have played a position in high school and may have an expertise, goalkeepers and centers aside, I want everyone else to be ready to do anything, any job. I want growth mindset people. They are coming in to learn, grow and be taught. I like people that are defensive-oriented, have length and speed. The last thing I'd say is unselfish players. Players that love to pass as much as they love to score. Players that love to stop someone defensively as much as they much as they love to score. People that can be the one on the counter who occupies a defender and never touches the ball so their team can score a goal. Those are the type of players I'm looking for. 

You went to UCI and have stayed at UCI. What is it about UCI that makes it special?
The thing I love about the university is that it meshes with coaching in that there is a growth mindset. I believe that UCI, because it's so young, is still growing. We are already a world-renowned campus, but continue to blaze a trail and make our mark being part of the UC system. The Anteater promotes that we are establishing our own space in the realm of universities period, but also in collegiate athletics. Location is a big deal. We are in one of the best locations in the world. For our sport, primarily an outdoor sport that has a beach culture attached to it, there is no better place to be where you can do that.  

I also think UCI celebrates individualism and not forcing anyone to be any sort of way. We want them to be proud of UCI, but not trying to produce robots that are only thinking one way. We have a collection of strong independent individuals that we are bringing together to create a team and celebrating the uniqueness in the way that the campus operates and how the athletic department operates. 

Coaching also plays in to it. I think we have excellent coaching at UCI. Ultimately, I believe that coaches are the most important component when it comes to a athletic department. We have coaches that want to be at UCI, they want to be part of this community, they've had opportunities to go elsewhere, but continue to choose to be here because they believe in what this place can be so we keep their talents here. We keep elite level coaching here that can maximize potential. We have a lot of alumni that are part of the department and when there is a continuation of pride that's decades long and people that want to be part of the growth because of their experience as a student, because of the love the gained of the area and institution while they were here. That kind of love is different than the love of a sport. A love of your place, for protecting your area, is different than just coaching and loving your sport.