Women's Water Polo
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- baking@gwu.edu
- Phone:
- 994-5777
Barry King has taken the GW water polo program to new heights over his since taking over in 2017. The veteran coach led the Buff and Blue to their first conference championship and NCAA Tournament berth in 2017 before earning a repeat title and their first victory in the national tournament in 2018.
Over his eight seasons, King has led the program to an overall record of 128-76, including a 63-29 record in MAWPC play. GW has produced six All-American selections and 21 MAWPC First Team and First Team All-Torunament honorees during his tenure.
The Revolutionaries have stayed towards the top of the conference since King's arrival, with two first-place finishes, one second-place finish and four third-place finishes.
GW has seen the best goalkeeper in program history, Luca Castorina, play under King. Castorina is all over the GW record book, with the most all-time saves (1,358) in program history.
In 2018, the GW men put together its best season in program history, capped by a memorable postseason run. At the MAWPC Championship, the Buff and Blue beat McKendree and Wagner before taking an epic conference final over top-seeded Bucknell. They tied it on Atakan Destici's goal at the end of regulation before earning a 12-11 overtime victory.
GW then erased a five-goal deficit to down Princeton in overtime for their first NCAA victory and advanced to face perennial power UCLA in the national quarterfinals. Led by All-Conference honorees Destici, Austin Pyrch and Andrew Mavis, the Buff and Blue earned their best-ever national ranking at No. 11 and tied the program record with 23 wins.
In 2017, GW completed a remarkable turnaround by capturing the MAWPC title with three wins in as many days at Navy's Lejeune Hall. The squad then advanced to NCAA play, where it fell to Harvard in overtime. The Buff and Blue finished the season with their most wins (15) in nearly two decades and a No. 17 national ranking.
For his first three seasons in Foggy Bottom, King also led the women's program. In 2018, that program tallied 14 victories in its first season under King to post its best winning percentage since 2013. The Buff and Blue also collected their most CWPA wins in 13 years to earn the No. 6 seed for the CWPA Tournament.
King, who turned the women's program at Indiana University into a national power through the course of a 19-year stint, was named head coach for GW men's and women's water polo on July 31, 2017.
At IU, King brought the Hoosiers from a club squad to a powerhouse that made six national championship appearances and achieved 20 or more wins in 17 of 19 seasons. He accumulated a career record there of 426-225-2 (.654).
In his final three seasons at IU, King led the Hoosiers to a 70-26 record with three consecutive appearances in the CWPA championship game, including a title in 2014.
King's squads captured five conference championships (1998, 2000, 2003, 2011, 2014) and finished in the top 20 of the national rankings in each of his final seven seasons. Twice the Hoosiers ranked among the top 10 in the country, finishing eighth in the polls in 2014 and ninth in 2011.
Among IU's six appearances in the national championships, King led the Hoosiers to a Final Four appearance in 2003 and a seventh-place finish in 2014. He was named CWPA Coach of the Year in 2013 after leading IU to its first Western Conference Championship in program history. King's student-athletes have been no strangers to success either, as Hoosier water polo players tallied 15 All-America, 58 All-CWPA, 14 All-Big Ten (1998-2000), 106 ACWPC All-Academic, 107 Academic All-CWPA and 153 Academic All-Big Ten honors under his tutelage.
In 2012, the Hoosiers won a school-record 28 games and finished the year ranked No. 14 in the nation. The year prior, King surpassed 300 career wins as IU qualified for the NCAA National Championship.
IU first became a varsity program in 1998, when the Hoosiers won 26 games and a Midwest Regional Championship to earn a trip to the National Championship. Appearances at nationals followed in 1999 and 2000 before he guided IU from the Big Ten to the CWPA in 2001, where the same success followed. The Hoosiers narrowly missed the NCAA Championship in 2002, 2004 and 2005, while reaching the Final Four in 2003.
The Madera, Calif., native earned his Bachelor of Arts in athletic counseling (1988) and Master of Arts in exercise physiology (1996) from Fresno State.
Before going to Indiana to work on a doctorate in exercise physiology, King coached men's and women's water polo at Madera High School (1987-88), freshman boys basketball at Clovis High School (1986-88) and varsity swimming at San Joaquin Memorial High School.
King and his wife, Mindy, have two sons, Creighton and Aidan.
