Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribe now

Orange Lutheran has hired one of the greatest female water polo players to lead not only its girls team, but the school’s aquatics program.

The Lancers on Wednesday announced the hiring of four-time Olympic medalist and USA Water Polo Hall of Fame member Brenda Villa as its girls water polo coach and aquatics director.

Villa helped Team USA medal in the first four Olympic Games featuring women’s water polo, including a gold in 2012 in London, her final Olympics. She also served a long-time captain for the U.S. squad and was named FINA’s player of the year decade for 2000-2010.

The native of Commerce played with the boys team at Bell Gardens High before the school had girls water polo. She went onto to help Stanford win a national title in 2002 and earn national player of the year that same year.

The aquatic center in Commerce is named after Villa.

She arrives at Orange Lutheran after the Trinity League school endured a coaching controversy this past girls season.

The school announced on Feb. 8 that Nestor Nunez, who received a three-game suspension late in the regular season for multiple red cards, was no longer the coach of the Lancers’ girls or boys teams. He was in his first season with the girls and coached the boys two seasons.

Kellyn Carlson, an assistant for boys water polo and the school’s swim coach, served as the interim girls water polo coach as the Orange Lutheran reached the semifinals of the CIF-SS Open Division.

Orange Lutheran hasn’t announced the hiring of a boys water polo coach. The school stated that Villa will assist with boys water polo and swimming.

She joins an Orange County coaching community that includes one of her former U.S. teammates, three-time Olympian Melissa Seidemann.

Also a former Stanford standout, Seidemann guided the Sea Kings to the CIF-SS Division 1 title this past season. Villa and Seidemann were teammates at the 2012 Games.

On the boys side, JSerra features former Olympian Brett Ormsby as its coach.

Trinity League girls water polo has seen some other coaching changes recently. Rosary hired Fullerton College’s Gabriel Martinez as its coach. Mater Dei is seeking a replacement for Djoko Radunovic, who is coaching at Long Beach City.

Please send water polo news to Dan Albano at [email protected] or ocvarsityguy on Twitter

Related Articles