Los Alamitos High School has hired Scott Penttila as the new Boys Water Polo Head Coach. Penttila has been the Girls Water Polo Assistant Coach at Wilson High School (Long Beach) since 2020 and currently teaches P.E. at Hughes Middle School. He brings with him 25 years of coaching experience, including head coaching positions at Marina High School, Long Beach Poly High School, and Santiago High School.

Penttila has a knack for developing programs and leading them to new levels of success. While coaching at Marina H.S., Penttila coached the Vikings to the CIF Semi-Finals in 2002. During his 9-year tenure at Long Beach Poly, the Jackrabbits won the Moore League Championship for the first time in 35 years. Most recently, Penttila was selected by the Riverside Press Telegram as the Coach of the Year (2013) after leading Santiago’s Boys Water Polo team to the CIF Finals.

Penttila is highly regarded for his focus on developing player fundamentals and a team approach to success.

The Griffins are excited to begin a new chapter with Coach Penttila and welcome him to the Griffin family

Brent Danna grew up playing water polo in southern California. He began his playing days at SET Water Polo Club and continued playing at El Toro High School and Golden West College. Danna was an All-American at both schools, helping both programs maintain their rich tradition of winning.

After Golden West College, Danna decided to pursue teaching and coaching as a career. He graduated from CSU Fullerton with a degree in History and also received his single subject social science credential. After Cal State Fullerton, Danna studied coaching and athletic administration at Concordia University and received a Master of Arts degree.

Prior to being hired at Los Alamitos High School, Danna was a teacher and aquatics coach at Crescenta Valley High School for four years.  Before CV, Danna was an assistant coach at Golden West College, and the head coach at both Fountain Valley and Villa Park High Schools. While at CV coach Danna led the boys swim team and girl’s water polo team to 2 CIF titles and 8 league titles. In his inaugural season as the girl’s coach, he led CV to a 30-2 record along with league and CIF titles.

In 2014, coach Danna’s 12th year of coaching, he joins the Griffin Family as both the head water polo and swim coach, and a social science teacher. “Coaching and teaching in one of Orange County’s top schools for athletics and academics has always been the goal. I was lucky enough to get a job offer from Los Al, and I am here to stay.”

Dave Carlson started his aquatics career at Ocean View High School in Huntington Beach, CA.  After graduation from high school he continued his playing career as a member of 2 State Championship Water Polo teams at Golden West College under legendary coaches Ken Hamdorf & Tom Hermstad.  He completed his education at Cal State Fullerton earning a B.A. degree in History and then went on to receive his teaching credential in Social Science from National University.

His coaching career includes being a member of the US Men’s Water Polo National Team coaching staff 1999-2005, Assistant of the Men’s National Youth Team 2002 & 2005, Assistant of the Men’s Senior National Team 2005, Head Coach of the SOCAL Water Polo Club 18U Boys & 21U Men 2009-Present, and Head Coach of the Los Alamitos High School Boys and Girls Water Polo and Boys and Girls Swim Team from 2003 to 2014.

His many achievements include 2-time CIF Coach of the Year, 2-time Los Angeles Times Coach of the year, 3-time OC Register Coach of the year, and 12-time Long Beach Press Telegram Coach of the Year.  He has coached his teams to 8 National Championships, 5 State Championships, 4 C.I.F. Championships, 19 Varsity Water Polo Sunset League Championships, and 10 Varsity Swimming Sunset League Championships (5 boys, 5 girls).

Coach Grimm was a junior college transfer from Chaffey College and 1970 graduate of Cal State Long Beach, where he participated extensively in both swimming and water polo. He was NCAA College Division II 50 and 100 yard freestyle swim champion in 1968, received All-American honors in eight events (’68 and ’69) and swam in the 1968 Olympic Trials held at the then brand new Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool. 

To this day, his love and passion for competitive swimming endures. He finds great enjoyment and satisfaction helping Los Al swimmers develop and improve their technical swimming abilities and attain their competitive goals.

Miranda started swimming competitively at 7 years old for age group teams in Ojai and Ventura, California where she grew up. She attended and swam for Buena High School where she helped her team to 2 CIF championships. At UCLA she swam 4 years and earned a BA in Political Science. After a career in retail buying she taught at FIDM and now spends most of her time raising her two daughters. Miranda runs a part¬ time photography business (M. Shanti Photo) and lives with her family in Long Beach.