IRVINE, Calif. — Former Yale University athlete and coach Andrew Lewandowski is the recipient of the 2022 USA Water Polo Brenda Villa Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Individual Award.
Lewandowski started playing water polo in 1984 and was a high school All-America selection. A four-time All-Ivy League selection when he played at Yale University, he competed in Vietnam where he lived from 1993-1995. In 2000, he returned to Yale for graduate school and settled in the New Haven area.
From 2002 to 2015, he coached the Yale men’s and women’s water polo teams, leading the Yale Men’s team to six Top 10 finishes nationally during his coaching tenure, and in 2011 was voted the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) National Coach of the Year.
In 2010, he began running water polo clinics for children at the Ridge Top Club in North Haven, Conn., and from these clinics emerged the Greater New Haven Water Polo Club in 2013-14.
In 2021, Andy used his relationships with various stakeholders, including USA Water Polo, Yale University, The Foote School, and Albertus Magnus College, to run the aquatics component for grades four-to-eight for Horizons, a summer educational enrichment program for local students.
In 2022, he continued this collaboration, and the success of the program, which has served nearly 100 students, 95% of whom are from BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) backgrounds, led Horizons to ask Lewandowski and his club to run its entire K – 8 aquatics program in 2023.
Information courtesy USA Water Polo
