Klatt now has passion for coaching

Standing on the pool deck at the USA Water Polo National Training Center in Los Alamitos, Dan Klatt is unassuming.

He wears a visor, T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops. Sunglasses cover his eyes, and he smiles from time to time.

But looking closer, there's something about the blue Team USA visor. On the side, "DK 9" is sewn in.

It is left-over from the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, where Klatt was a member of the United States national team.

"These are visors that my parents got made for our entire Olympic team when I was playing," said Klatt, 28, who lives in Costa Mesa. "It's amazing how much stuff you acquire over those years of playing and coaching, how many piles of USA T-shirts and shorts and sweatsuits and robes you have. I had to do a major spring cleaning not too long ago, really get rid of some of the stuff.

"I had to quit living the dream; it's someone else's now."

But Klatt's new dream is helping others to live that dream. The former UC Irvine water polo player, who coaches women's water polo at his alma mater, is also an assistant coach for the U.S. junior national team at the 2007 FINA Men's Junior World Championships.

The 24-team tournament for players 20-and-under begins today at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, as well as on the campus of Long Beach State.

Back in Klatt's playing days, kids from California had to go a little bit further away for tournaments like these. Klatt played in the Junior Worlds exactly 10 years ago, 1997, in Havana, Cuba.

"Obviously, I had a great experience as a USA water polo player," Klatt said. "I'm very appreciative of that, what I received and the growth in this program. I look on the faces of these guys and I see the same ambition that I had."

But Klatt, originally from Fresno before starring at UCI, is no newbie to coaching. He started coaching girls' water polo at Foothill High in Santa Ana in 1999, a job that opened up to him through coaching for the SoCal Water Polo Club, based in Tustin.

At the same time, he was standing out for the Anteaters under legendary coach Ted Newland. A two-time All-American in water polo, Klatt also stood out in swimming. His best marks of 20.51 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle and 45.00 in the 100 meters are both fourth on the UCI all-time list.

And, like most Anteaters players, he participated on Newland's team for the Newport Water Polo Foundation. Klatt helped Newport win the club title in 2002.