BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — McKendree University men’s and women’s water polo coach Colleen Lischwe recently appeared as a guest on the Brandon’s Sports Talk podcast.
After serving as the programs’s Graduate Assistant in its inaugural year, she was named the head coach for the women’s water polo program in February 2017 and in June of 2018, Lischwe was named head coach for the men’s water polo program. She is currently the only female head coach of a men’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) water polo program.
On the women’s side, in her first season with McKendree, Lischwe was selected as the 2017 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Collegiate Club Midwest Division Coach of the Year. She took over the reins of the program as head coach in February 2017 and led the Bearcats to their first Midwest Division Championship match. The following season, Lischwe lead the Bearcats to a 9-16 record in their first season as a varsity program as a part of the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) where they placed seventh overall. Lischwe coached Emily Westlove who was given the program’s first Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-America nod. In 2019, Lischwe helped the Bearcats to an 11-15 record, their winningest season to date. Prior to the start of the 2020 season, Lischwe was awarded the Sandy Nitta Distinguished Coaching Award by USA Water Polo for her work developing women’s water polo at the collegiate level.
After serving as assistant coach to the men’s program for its first two seasons, Lischwe became head coach of the team in June 2018 and delivered the team’s most successful season in program history. She led the team to its first winning season in 2018, finishing with a 15-13 record overall.
The 2018 Coach of the Year Award at the CWPA Division II Championship and the recipient of the Dick Russell Coach of the Year Award at the 2018 Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC)-West Championships, she guided the Bearcats to the program’s inaugural MAWPC-West Championship, ending the 20-game winning streak of Gannon University along the way and defeating Salem University in the finals. Further, she was honored with the 2018 Monte Nitzkowski Distinguished Coaching Award for the Midwest Zone by USA Water Polo.
As a player, Lischwe had a successful high school and college playing career.
The 2005, 2006 and 2007 Missouri State High School Female Player of the Year, Lischwe competed for Marist College. As a starter and successful player for the Red Foxes, the attacker helped lead the team two Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Championships. During her time at Marist, Lischwe competed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship tournament twice, finishing eighth in 2008 and seventh in 2009.
Prior to coaching at McKendree, Lischwe served as the head water polo coach at Kirkwood High School in St. Louis, MO. Additionally, Lischwe acted as the Midwest Zone Women’s Cadet Coach for from 2010-2016 through the USA Water Polo’s Olympic Development Program and reprised this role in 2019. In addition to her collegiate coaching duties, Colleen also coaches both the boy’s and girl’s groups at St. Louis Area Polo.
