BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Former Villanova University men’s collegiate club athlete/former Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) collegiate club officiating assignor/official Mike Gordon was named the 2025 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Coach of the Year for his work with the Villanova varsity women’s water polo team.
In his second season as the head coach of Villanova University women’s water polo, Gordon is the first coach in program history to win the award outright and the first to earn the honor since 2004.
Named the seventh head coach of the Villanova women’s water polo program in July 2023, he joined the Villanova program in 2018 and served as an assistant for five seasons prior to assuming the head coaching role.
As an assistant coach, Gordon helped the Wildcats played a part in the program’s first All-America selection with current assistant coach Kaysie Stuba receiving the plaudit for her efforts during the 2022 campaign. The 2022 season saw Villanova tally the second-most wins in program history with a 20-15 record, including a 9-7 mark in conference action.
His first season at the helm in 2024 was historic as he led the Wildcats to 21 wins, the second most in a single season in program history. Villanova broke numerous team and individual records and Stella Byles was an All-MAAC Second Team selection. Gordon’s .656 win percentage is the highest of any first year head coach in Villanova history. The team will continue to excel in the future with bright young talent stepping into bigger roles.
He has amassed 41 wins in two seasons at his alma mater and is 18-1 at the Villanova Swim Complex during his tenure. This season, he helped the team go 20-11, recording their first back-to-back 20-win seasons in team history and scoring a team record of 431 goals and counting. Gordon was able to lead the team to a postseason berth in the 2025 MAAC Water Polo Championship for the first time since 2016 and recorded two ranked wins on the season. His squad became the first to be ranked in either the official National Top 25 or the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) National Polls as the Wildcats earned that honor four times this season.
A member of the Villanova men’s club water polo team and a two-time Collegiate Club All-America selection prior to matriculating in 2006, he served as an assistant coach at Miramar College in San Diego, Calif., from 2008-2010. In 2011, he was named the head coach for Serra High School, also in San Diego.
Gordon has worked as an official for the CWPA and other organizations since 2006. A National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) official during the men’s season, he officiated high school and varsity games on the West Coast prior to returning home to the East Coast during the Summer of 2018.
