NOTE: This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in May 2020.
Water Polo will have a new head coach this fall, as Brian Bacharach, the team’s associate head coach for the past two years and co-head coach last season, has been promoted to head coach. Bill Harris, the team’s coach since 2004, will remain on Bacharach’s staff as the interim head coach. The transition has taken place over several years, as Bacharach joined Fordham in 2013.
“This transition plan was put together by Coach Harris several years ago, wholeheartedly embraced by athletic director David Roach and Ed Kull, and all those in the administration,” Bacharach told Fordham Athletics. “Coach Harris has been a great mentor and I am thrilled that we will continue to work together.”
Under the duo of head coaches, Fordham achieved a top-20 national ranking and won 24 games last season. Harris will move on from the head coaching post as one of the winningest coaches in program history, having amassed 208 wins over his 16 seasons. Now, he will fully hand the reins over to Bacharach while remaining on his staff.
“It’s an exciting time for our Water Polo program,” Fordham Athletic Director Dave Roach said. “Under Bill Harris and Brian Bacharach’s leadership the team has had much recent success. That will continue with Coaches Bacharach and Harris switching roles as Brian will now be the head coach.” Roach is retiring at the end of June.
Bacharach was previously an assistant at Loyola Marymount, after scoring 141 career goals as a player at Cal. He takes over a roster that had three players — senior Jake Miller-Tolt and sophomores Bailey O’Mara and Dimitris Koukias — earn Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches honors at the end of last season. O’Mara and Koukias will be back next season.