Kyle Utsumi returns to the Cardinal for his 13th season with the women's water polo program as a volunteer assistant coach in 2020.
In his 12 years on The Farm, Utsumi helped guide the Cardinal to a combined record of 305-33 and six NCAA Championships (2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2019).
Utsumi returned in 2017 after a one-year hiatus spent researching, writing and publishing his book Sydney’s Silver Lining, which chronicles the journey of the 2000 USA Women's Olympic Team, including the decades-long fight to include women's water polo in the Olympic Games and the Olympic final in Sydney, played in front of a record crowd of 17,000 spectators.
Utsumi was the head coach of the U.S. Junior National Team from 2004-09, and prior to that helmed the Youth National Team from 2001-03. His success coaching at the junior level includes gold medals at the 2004 Junior Pan-American Games in San Salvador, El Salvador, and at the 2005 Junior World Championships in Perth, Australia. He was also named the USAWP Women's Elite Coach of the Year in 2004. In 2007, the Junior National Team, featuring Stanford players Kim Krueger, Amber Oland, Lauren Silver and Jessica Steffens finished fourth at the World Championships in Porto, Portugal.
During the 2008 Olympics, Utsumi served as the videographer for the U.S. Water Polo Olympic Team staff, as both the men's and women's teams captured silver medals in Beijing.
Utsumi also served as head coach of the Menlo School girls’ water polo team, which he led to nine league and three Central Coast Section titles in his nine years at the helm.
He began his coaching career in 1993 and still coaches with the Stanford Water Polo Foundation club, where he has tutored every age group over that time and was instrumental in starting both the boys and girls 14-under programs.
Utsumi, who played at Stanford under head coach Dante Dettamanti in 1991, graduated in 1995 with a bachelor's degree in economics, and in 1996 also earned his master's in sociology from Stanford.