Kody Moffatt, who competed for the Comets as recently as 2014, leads the team to its third conference title in four years.<\/p>\n
SAN MARCOS \u2014 When Kody Moffatt graduated from Chaparral High School in Temecula, he was a competitive swimmer and water polo player. Like many young athletes from Southwest Riverside County, Moffatt found his way to Palomar College, where he arrived in 2010 with his sights set on the Summer Olympics.<\/p>\n
Within six years, Moffatt would be coaching at Palomar, where the water polo team won its third regional title in four years last fall.<\/p>\n
On a recent afternoon at the pool, Moffatt climbed out of the water, where he had been scrimmaging with the team, and emerged from the locker room minutes later wearing shorts and sandals. Around him, swimmers were pulling the goals out of the water, refastening the swimming lane buoys and toweling off.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s such a rewarding experience, seeing guys improve, and being a part of their journey,\u201d he said during an interview after a recent practice at the college pool. \u201cThe two years the athletes have here, this is just one step, so to be a part of it and see their success each season is one of the more rewarding things about being a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n
At age 26, Moffatt knows he\u2019s one of the youngest coaches on campus. He said it took some adjustment to get used to hearing athletes only a little younger hail him as \u201cCoach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott Cathcart, Director of Athletics at Palomar College, had nothing but praise for Moffatt after his first season in charge: \u201cI\u2019m thrilled with how he\u2019s running the program,\u201d said Cathcart. \u201cHe did a great job this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Members](\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2018\/01\/Water-polo.jpg\")
Members of the Palomar Comets men’s water polo team practice in the college pool. Photos by Tom Pfingsten.<\/p><\/div>\n
For two years after arriving at Palomar as a student in 2010, Moffatt divided his time between the pool and the classroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy personal goal was to make the Olympic trials; it\u2019s a whole other level to actually make the Olympic team,\u201d Moffatt recalled.<\/p>\n
He came the closest to his Olympic dream while swimming the 100-meter freestyle\u2014within a fraction of a second of the qualifying time: \u201cThe 100 freestyle is a blue-ribbon event. When people think of fast swimming, they usually think of the 100 or 200 freestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Moffatt left water polo to pursue Olympic swimming, when he returned to Palomar for a final season, in 2014, he was back in the pool as part of the Comets\u2019 first title-winning polo team.<\/p>\n
The transition from player to coach happened with remarkable speed: In 2014, he was in the pool as a student athlete; in 2016, he was on the pool deck with a whistle, as a coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love working with athletes,\u201d Moffatt said, \u201cbecause I can relate. I can speak that language. I really think sport brings people together who might never have a conversation outside of the pool deck. It\u2019s common ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moffatt earned an associate’s degree at Palomar before going on to earn his bachelor’s in kinesiology at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas in 2014.<\/p>\n
Today, Moffatt is pursuing a M.S. in Physical Education from Azusa Pacific University. He hopes to teach physical education while he continues coaching.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing out of high school and into Palomar, I really wanted to work with athletes,\u201d he recalled. \u201cAthletic training fascinated me\u2014taking an athlete who was injured or needed rehab and getting them back to where they were playing. After taking some classes, I realized, why not help healthy athletes reach their potential? So I shifted to wanting to become a teacher and a coach, specifically focusing on aquatic sports.\u201d<\/p>\n
As head coach of the men\u2019s water polo team, coming into the 2017 season, he set a goal of winning the conference title.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were a little freshmen-heavy this year,\u201d he said, \u201cso our goal was to just get back to where we were last year. At first, that looked like a tough task, but as the team developed and we went through the season, we started getting more traction.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, I\u2019ve just been reflecting on our season\u2014what our strengths were, where we could improve,\u201d he added. \u201cWe want to compete to our highest ability, and pursue excellence in the classroom and in the pool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kody Moffatt, who competed for the Comets as recently as 2014, leads the team to its third conference title in four years. SAN MARCOS \u2014 When Kody Moffatt graduated from Chaparral High School in Temecula, he was a competitive swimmer and water polo player. Like many young athletes from Southwest Riverside County, Moffatt found his… \u00a0Continue Reading: Water polo coach sees success in and out of the pool<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10413,"featured_media":2095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9,23,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carousel","category-features","category-home","category-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWater polo coach sees success in and out of the pool - Palomar News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kody Moffatt, who competed for the Comets as recently as 2014, leads the team to its third conference title in four years.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/comets-polo-coach\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Water polo coach sees success in and out of the pool - 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