The storied Newport Harbor High boys and girls water polo programs have produced 22 CIF-Southern Section championships, countless league titles and several Team USA members, including medal-winning Olympians.
When Coach Ross Sinclair’s boys open the 2025 fall season, they will try to defend their CIF Open Division title. The Sailors won their 15th CIF championship last year, the most of any school.
They will also play in the shiny new Bill Barnett Aquatic Center.
The facility, named after the school’s legendary former coach, is set to open for practices this month, with a formal dedication and alumni game slated for Oct. 25 during the school’s homecoming weekend.
The Newport Harbor girls program also has a distinguished history with seven CIF championships and myriad players advancing to the collegiate level. Former Newport Harbor standout Kaleigh Gilchrist played in the 2016, 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games.
Barnett, who coached water polo at Newport Harbor for 49 years, retiring in 2015, was also a two-time Olympic coach for the U.S. men’s water polo team, leading Team USA to a silver medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games and fourth place at the 1992 Barcelona Games. Barnett’s coaching career at Newport Harbor produced Olympians Gilchrist on the U.S. women’s team and Eric Lindroth, Kevin Robertson and James Bergeson on the men’s team. Gilchrist was a gold medalist in 2016.
Barnett died in 2018 at age 76 after a brief battle with acute leukemia.
The roughly $13 million aquatic center remodel, supported by the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, includes a new entry structure, a new 8-foot-deep pool and deck replacement, new bleachers, locker room, coaches’ offices, restrooms, a shade structure, sports lighting and a new scoreboard on the east wall.
A privately funded Newport Aquatics Legacy Wall will be a permanent fixture honoring the celebrated history and individuals who have helped define the Newport Harbor water polo and swim programs.
The facility also features a new layout and trim of pool walls and installation of underground pool plumbing and utilities in the existing building.
All former aquatics athletes will have an opportunity to purchase their own plaque to be displayed on the Newport Aquatics Legacy Wall by donating to the Bill Barnett Legacy Fund as a way to leave a lasting impression.
Each plaque is $500, with multiple ways to participate, such as purchasing an individual plaque, a combined plaque highlighting a specific graduating class or a plaque to honor a deceased friend and teammate.
Organized by the Newport Harbor water polo booster club, the goal is to have every former aquatic athlete represented on the wall, creating a lasting tribute and a reminder of Newport Harbor’s unparalleled history and tradition. It’s a narrative that will continue to grow as future Newport Harbor student-athletes write their own chapters and add their own plaques to the wall.
The Bill Barnett Legacy Fund has been established to construct the legacy wall, as well as build a new concession stand, help with coaches’ stipends and replenish scholarship funds for the end-of-year awards earned by Newport Harbor aquatics athletes: the Mike Grier Award, the Grey Lunde Award, the Bill Barnett Award and Kaleigh Gilchrist Award.
Barnett coached the Newport Harbor boys to 10 CIF-Southern Section Division 1 championships and the girls to five section titles. He coached the Newport boys for three decades, beginning in 1966, and transitioned to the girls team in 1996.
Barnett, considered a master at strategy and fundamentals, was hired at Newport Harbor out of Long Beach State, where he graduated with a degree in physical education. Barnett has been inducted into the Long Beach State Athletics Hall of Fame and USA Water Polo Hall of Fame.
Richard Dunn, a longtime sportswriter, writes the Dunn Deal column regularly for The Orange County Register’s weekly, The Coastal Current North.