Serela Kay, a former standout collegiate water polo player and an experienced and well-rounded coach, is in her second season at Maryland.
Kay's addition to Carl Salyer's staff in July of 2010 paid immediate dividends as the Terps finished 19-14 last season which included a perfect 4-0 mark in the CWPA Southern Division.
Maryland also had an impressive postseason, finishing third in the 2011 CWPA Eastern Championship which matched the best showing in school history.
She was promoted from assistant coach to associate head coach over the summer.
Kay came to Maryland from Princeton where she served as a men's and women's assistant coach in 2009. She spent the previous four years at California.
Kay was also on the staff of the U.S. Women's Senior National Team that won a gold medal at the 2009 FINA World Championships in Rome.
Kay has more than 20 years of water polo experience, both as a player and a coach. She previously served as an assistant coach at Princeton from 2002-04, helping lead the Tigers to a men's and women's Southern Championship in that span.
The native of Annapolis, Md., also served as an assistant coach with the USA Water Polo Youth National Team from 2004-10.
In her four seasons working with the Cal women, Kay was heavily involved in the team's recruiting and the building of the team's strength and conditioning programs.
Prior to working at Cal, Kay was the director and senior head coach of the Santa Barbara Water Polo Foundation from 2004 to 2005. She was named USA Water Polo Women's Elite Northeast Zone Coach of the Year in 2003.
As an athlete, Kay was a four-year starter and team captain as a senior, helping lead UCLA to national titles in 1997, 1998 and 2000. She was a member of the USA Junior National Team from 1995-97 as well, helping Team USA to a gold medal at the 1996 Junior Pan American Games in Havana, Cuba.
Kay graduated from UCLA in 2000 with a degree in psychology, with a specialization in business and administration. She received a master of sport science in sport management degree from the United States Sports Academy in 2004, and a master of arts in education degree from Cal in 2008.
