BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Former Olympian Alberto Ghibellini and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) alum Jack Clark will aid head coach Dave Andriole as assistant coaches for the MIT men’s water polo team during the 2017 season.
A native of Genoa, Italy, Ghibellini competed for his homeland in both the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia and the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. A Bronze Medalist at the 1996 Olympics, he most recently competed for the University of Chicago water polo team.
The recipient of a Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Genova (Italy), he conducted research as a post-doctoral fellow and lectured as adjunct professor in History of Political Thought at the institution. He has been research fellow at the Luigi Einaudi Research Center in Torino, visiting researcher and research assistant at the Institute for Research in the Fundaments of Law at the University of Lucerne (Switzerland), as well as visiting scholar at the University of Southern California, the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and at the Leo Strauss Center and the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. He has published on authors such as Plato, Richard Rorty and Leo Strauss, on whom he has also written the monograph Al di là della politica. Filosofia e retorica in Leo Strauss (Genova University Press, 2012). In addition to being a lecturer at the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering, he is currently also visiting scholar at the Department of Government at Harvard University.
Success in the sport of water polo is a family affair as he is the son of Italian water polo standout Alessandro Ghibellini who led the country to fourth (1968 in Mexico City, Mexico), sixth (1972 in Munich, Germany) and second place/Silver Medal (1976 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) finishes during three Olympic appearances.
2015 MIT graduate and native of Laguna Beach, Calif., Clark returns to his alma mater to also serve as an assistant coach on Andriole’s staff.
The recipient of a degree in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in biomedical devices, Clark earned Second Team honors at the 2014 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Division III Championship as the Engineers defeated Johns Hopkins University, 14-10, for the championship title.
He concluded his career with 82 goals as he helped MIT record a 50-63 record during his tenure in Cambridge, Mass., for head coaches Mark Lawrence (2011: 10-15; 2012: 11-14), Ivan Ivovic (2013: 13-17) and Andriole (2014: 16-17).
A 2011 graduate of Laguna Beach High School, he was named a Fifth Team All-America selection and helped Laguna Beach to the CIF Southern section championship as a senior.
