Tom Hyham Retires from La Salle—Just When the Explorers Were Finding Themselves

BROOKLYN, NY. With the 2022 women’s NCAA season now complete—Stanford beat USC 10-7 for the DI national championship, while Pomona-Pitzer topped Whittier 8-6 in the DIII title match—it’s opportune to examine Tom Hyham’s recent retirement from La Salle women’s water polo.

Four years ago, the veteran club and high school coach from Huntington Beach, California came East to rescue an Explorer men’s and women’s program that had little success after being founded in 2016. A tough 2018 campaign saw the La Salle men go 2-23 in Hyham’s first year. In 2019 his Explorers finally won their first-ever Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) match as they recorded a program-best six wins.

[On The Record with Tom Hyham, Head Coach, La Salle Men’s and Women’s Water Polo]

Following a season off due to COVID-19, Hyham’s team produced even better results in 2021. They unexpectedly advanced to the MAWPC final, where they lost to Bucknell. Despite better times ahead, in a cost-cutting move the men’s team was eliminated by La Salle Athletics.

[La Salle Men’s Water Polo Cancellation a “Shock” for Hyham]

The Explorer women have achieved even greater success, and Hyham leaves a program infinitely better than when he arrived. In their first two years of existence under Paul Macht, the inaugural head coach, La Salle’s women won a single game—against 34 losses. In Hyham’s first season, the Explorers found their way to ten wins, including a couple of first: a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) victory and a first-ever home win.

For his accomplishments, Hyham was named 2019 MAAC Coach of the Year.

In succeeding seasons, La Salle fared even better. In 2021, the Explorers enjoyed their first-ever winning season, advancing to the 2021 MAAC Championship final where they dropped a 12-11 overtime decision against Marist. This season saw a program-record 22 wins, fourth place in the MAAC regular season standings, another berth in the MAAC Championships and a record-setting season by Hyham’s daughter Kalista. Following a spectacular career at Bucknell—where she tallied 196 goals, good for sixth all-time in the Bison record books—the younger Hyham transferred to Philly to play for her father. Immediately blending in with her new teammates, Kalista shattered La Salle records for goals in a season with 108 while drawing a program record 97 exclusions.

Kalista, Tori and Marina Hyham back in California. Photo: La Salle Athletics

That a father-daughter reunion would pop-up in Philly is no surprise. During his times in the East, Hyham has focused on family. His wife Karla is often in the stands for matches—torn when Kalista and her sister Marina, a goalie for Marist, competed against Tom’s team or each other. During a recent weekend visit to Brooklyn for matches at Long Island University and St. Francis College, Hyham as well as daughters Kalista and Tori—the Explorers’ team manager—spoke about their family connection to polo as well as the Explorers’ prospects for the postseason.

“It’s definitely a different experience playing for my dad,” Kalista said about a switch from a successful career at Bucknell—where the Bison regularly competed against the Explorers—to La Salle. “I spent four years in a different program, [but] I’ve had a lot of fun this year winning games.”

Asked about the switch from the Collegiate Water Polo Association to the MAAC, and foes like LIU, the younger Hyham said it was all good.

“When I went to Bucknell [LIU was] the last team we played in 2020 before we got sent home [a 12-6 Bison win at the Harvard Invitational]. The MAACs fine, my sister’s [there] and I like all the girls on our team.”

Now a senior, Marina Hyham has been a star at Marist, helping the Red Foxes to the 2021 MAAC title and their first NCAA berth since 2010. Besides Tom, Kalista and Marina, there’s Tori, who blazed a polo trail for her younger sisters by playing high school ball. She too is on the Explorer sidelines, engaged with the family obsession.

“It’s really great. It keeps us close, and we have something to talk about all the time,” said Tori. “While the games playing our family group chat is just going off, with my sister and my mom watching at home.”

With two Hyhams by his side, dad Tom had hopes of a run to a MAAC title, especially because the conference appeared to be more competitive this year, thanks to the success of La Salle, LIU, Villanova and Iona.

“It’s more wide open this year than in the past,” he said about MAAC play following a 20-18 loss on March 26 to host LIU. “I believe it’s going to come down to the last weekend to find out where we’re at… hopefully we're one of those top four teams.”

That hope proved prophetic, as the Explorers were one of four teams—LIU, Marist and Wagner were the others—to make the postseason. The La Salle season drew to a disappointing close with Wagner—which went on to its seventh straight MAAC title—prevailing in a hard-fought MAAC semifinals. The third-place match pitted La Salle against Marist and Hyham against Hyham, with Mariana and the Red Foxes prevailing, ending the collegiate careers of all four Hyhams.

Tori, ever the coach’s daughter, spoke of how her family deals with the closing of a significant chapter in their polo adventure.

“They just try to keep a level head—almost like amnesia,” she said. “When good things happen, you move past them. When bad things happen, you move past them, too.”