Justin Papa hired as Corona del Mar girls’ water polo coach

Justin Papa has been hired as the new Corona del Mar High girls’ water polo head coach, CdM Athletic Director Don Grable confirmed Friday.

Papa, 25, takes over for Kevin Ricks, who resigned in March for personal reasons after two seasons.

Papa is quite familiar with the CdM polo program. He played for the CdM boys’ water polo team before graduating in 2010 and playing at UC Irvine. For the past three years, he has also been coaching at CdM. This season he was the frosh-soph boys’ water polo coach and the junior varsity girls’ coach.

“The position opened up and I knew it was something I was interested in,” Papa said. “It’s such an honor to be leading a program with so much storied success and history as the CdM girls’ program. I have a sister [Cassidy] who went through the program, I went through the boys’ side of the program. I really have a good grasp of the tradition of developing great athletes, great citizens and members of the community. I’m excited to continue that tradition and legacy.”

Cassidy Papa helped lead the CdM girls to their only CIF Southern Section Division 1 title as a senior in 2013. She is now a senior and four-year player at Stanford. Justin and Cassidy also have a third sibling, Shane, who is a sophomore at CdM and also plays water polo.

“We are very excited to have Justin Papa as our new head girls’ water polo coach of Corona del Mar High School,” Grable said in an email. “He is a CdM alum who has much experience as both a participant and coach in our aquatics community. We look forward to his passion and leadership in upholding our strong tradition of CdM aquatics. We are absolutely confident that our school will benefit from the family culture that he will cultivate on the pool deck, in the classroom, and in the community.”

There has been a good amount of turnover in the prestigious program since Aaron Chaney resigned in 2010. Papa will be the fourth head coach since then, none staying for more than three seasons. CdM has advanced to the Division 1 quarterfinals each of the last two years, losing on the road to San Marcos each time.

Papa said he has not yet met with the team. The CdM swim program was at Pacific Coast League finals this week, which ended Friday, so he said he plans to meet with the team early next week.

“I’m really excited to get started,” he said. “We have a really great group of girls.”

[email protected]

Twitter: @mjszabo