Misha Buchel has been the Acalanes Girls Varsity Head Coach since 2005. Misha began his water polo life at Clayton Valley High School in Concord where he was a 1st Team All-NorCal player. After graduating from UC San Diego with a degree in Bioengineering, he began coaching the boys’ and girls’ teams at La Costa Canyon High School in Carlsbad, CA. Over his 20+ years his teams have won North Coast Section and CIF-NorCal championships, including a two-year undefeated run in 2018-19. When he’s not coaching water polo, he is either teaching math and engineering at Acalanes High School (where he was named Teacher of the Year in 2012), or traveling with his wife, Brittany, and sons Jonas and Peter.

Patrick Reid is a graduate of UC Berkeley, where he won two NCAA Men’s Water Polo championships. He was an All-American and Team Captain. He played for two legendary coaches—Pete Cutino and Steve Heaston. In high school in Merced, CA, he was a three-time All-American. In 2015, he was inducted into Merced High School’s Inaugural Hall of Fame. He continues to play water polo with the Olympic Club. He has been coaching the girls’ water polo team at Acalanes since 2007, and helped with the boys’ program for several years prior.

Chris Lanier is in his 17th year coaching Acalanes Girls Water Polo. Chris graduated from UCLA, where he was a four-year Varsity swimmer and won an NCAA Championship in 1982. He swam in the US Olympic Team trials in 1980. He has two daughters, Barbara and Chase, who both played water polo at Acalanes. Primarily coaching the JV team, Chris has a coaching record of 167-63, including a stretch where the team was 85-0. Chris is also the equipment guru making sure everything works for games.