Grant Gaumer kneeled down on the white outer edge of Forest Park Community College’s indoor pool on March 25, the first game of the season.

Water Polo’s new varsity head coach looked down at the defeated faces of his players and then back up at the scoreboard behind him.

10-SLUH 0-MHS, it read.

“I see a bunch of deer-in-headlights,” he said, gesturing with his hands. “We need to pick it up or this is going to get out of hand fast.”

Gaumer’s tone, although forceful, never shifted away from hopeful.

His mannerisms seemed to match his personality throughout the game. Relaxed, but never calm. Intense, but never irate.

As a self-proclaimed Water Polo guy, Gaumer’s experience in the sport stems from his playing career, a career which began when he was 11.

After playing his freshman year on the junior varsity team at Kirkwood High School, he moved up and was a three-year varsity starter, where he played for the 2001 Final Four team and captained his senior year. Once graduated, Gaumer played and head coached for Wake Forest University’s club team. A year refereeing eventually lead him back to Kirkwood where he was the varsity assistant coach for one year and then the head JV coach for the last five before interviewing for the head coaching job at MHS.

He explained that while interviewing for the job, he told Activities Director Shane Matzen that there was a good match between the personality of the team and his coaching style.

“Marquette has always been one of those teams that you sort of don’t want to play because they work so hard,” Gaumer said. “They’re grinders and that was really the reputation the team had before I got here and that matches my personality a lot.”

Jake Jesielowski, junior, said that after Gaumer took the MHS job, he introduced three different offensive schemes compared to last year’s traditional offense, a change Jesielowski believes is beneficial.

“I expect us to improve a lot over the season with the new coaching style compared to year’s past, I expect a lot more wins this year than losses,” he said. “I expect us to make it to the final four in the district tourney.”

Gaumer explained the biggest part of the transition is building new rapports with a new community.

“Building the relationships through the years is going be the biggest difference because I had those relationships built at Kirkwood.”

With 16 juniors out of 24 players, he said the team’s goal next season is a State Championship, but he doesn’t think his players should wait.

“Obviously we’re focused on next year as sort of being our big year, but part of the thing I’ve been telling them is, we don’t necessarily have to wait,” he said. “We have a ton of talent here.”

MHS’ squad, having the most Olympic Development Program (the U.S. Olympic club program) players in the area, ranked fourth in the Gateway West Conference at the start of the season.

The Mustangs’ 19-4 loss to St. Louis University High, a team dubbed “The New York Yankees of Missouri Water Polo” by STL Today writer Greg Uptain, may lower that ranking, but Gaumer was pleased with his players’ resiliency.

“When you get down that big, that fast, I think the tendency of most high school athletes is to pack it in and say ‘we’ll try it again another day’ but that wasn’t the attitude we took at all,” he said. “We had our best quarter against SLUH in the fourth quarter.”

After the blowout loss to the top-ranked Junior Bills, the Mustangs bounced back against a program Gaumer knew all-too-well.

His former Kirkwood Pioneers.

“We already had some positive things to work off of, we had some positive vibes and we had a lot of energy,” he said. “Yesterday was personal for I think both Kirkwood and for us and I think it was a big game for both of us so having those positives to build off of that grinding attitude.”

Michael Butler, junior, added that despite their rough start, the team is improving each game.

MHS’ offense, a few days after scoring a measly 4-points against SLUH, went off against the Pioneers and the Mustangs went on to defeat Kirkwood 16-9. Gaumer stressed how impressed he was by his team’s ability to improve their offense so early in the season.

After finishing the interview in the humid MHS pool building, Gaumer, clad in a green polo shirt that no longer matched his fiery red hair or the colors of his former school, walked back to his players with a smile on his face.

His goal this season is make it into the final four and be a State championship contender, just like in 2001.