By Michael Randazzo, Swimming World Contributor
In a change that has been highly anticipated since former head coach Luis Nicolao abruptly departed last January, Mollie Marcoux Samaan, Princeton’s Director of Athletics, announced yesterday that Dustin Litvak, formerly an assistant coach at UCLA, has been named head coach of the Princeton Men’s Water Polo team. Derek Ellingson, who for the past 14 years had been Nicolao’s top assistant for the Tiger men and women, was promoted to head coach of the Princeton Women’s Water Polo squad.
Complicating the change was assigning coaching responsibilities to two separate candidates—for two decades Nicolao ran both programs—and Ellingson’s long, successful tenure at Princeton. As Nicolao’s assistant, Ellingson was intimately involved with seven NCAA tournament appearances: 2004, 2009, 2011 and 2015 for the men and 2012, 2013, and 2015 for the women. This past women’s season, he was an assistant to rookie head coach Rebecca Dorst, who led the Tiger’s to the 2018 Collegiate Water Polo Association’s (CWPA) title match—an 11-8 loss to Michigan. Dorst, named 2018 CWPA Coach of the Year, chose to return to her native California and pursue a career in nursing.
Perhaps key to understanding Princeton’s new coaching structure, Litvak will serve as an assistant to the women’s program and Ellingson will continue to serve as an assistant to the men’s team.
“I am excited to begin working with the high-achieving student-athletes on both the men’s and women’s teams as we look to continue the legacy Luis and his staff built,” Litvak said in a statement on the Princeton Athletics web site. “I also want to thank Adam Wright, Brandon Brooks, Molly Cahill, Kodi Hill, Ashley Armstrong and everyone at UCLA for an unbelievable experience there with both the men’s and women’s programs. I will forever be grateful to them.
“This is an exciting time to be a part of Princeton Water Polo and I can’t wait to get started,” he added.
Vojislav Mitrovic. Photo Courtesy: Princeton Athletics
For Litvak, a Pepperdine graduate (2001) who has been involved with one of the country’s most successful water polo programs, the opportunity to cross coasts and assume the reins of the East’s premier men’s programs proved a lure too great to resist. From 2013-15 he was an assistant to UCLA head men’s coach Adam Wright when the Bruins won back-to-back national titles (2014, 2015). In 2015 he switched over to assisting Bruin women’s water polo, first under Head Coach Brandon Brooks, and then under Wright for the 2017-18 campaign, when he assumed the top women’s water polo gig in Westwood.
Litvak also coached at Occidental College (2007-08) and was head coach of the boys’ water polo team at his alma mater, Agoura High School, where he earned Marmonte League Coach of the Year nine straight years. Aquoura won its first-ever California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Championship in 2007 and three additional crowns (2010, 2011 and 2012). He was a four-time CIF Division IIII Coach of the Year and a seven-time Los Angeles Daily News Coach of the Year.
Following in the wake of the charismatic Nicolao will be no easy task; the U.S. Naval Academy graduate—who returned to Annapolis to assume the Middies’ head coaching reins—established an exemplary record with 868 wins (402 with the Tiger men; 466 with their women), more than any other Eastern polo coach over that period.
Ellingson, who has been on the Princeton staff since 2004, has been integral to the Tigers’ success. With 12 CWPA Southern Division titles (six for the women – 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2014 and six for the men – 2004, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015) and the 2017 Northeastern Water Polo Conference (NWPC) regular season title, Princeton has represented the East in more NCAAs water polo tournaments this century than any other program. He has also been intimately involved in developing two of the greatest goalies to ever wear the Tigers’ orange and black. Vojislav Mitrovic (2014-17) who backstopped Princeton to the national tournament in 2015, was named the 2017 NWPC Player of the Year and is the program’s all-time leader in saves with 1,142.
Ashleigh Johnson playing for Team USA. Photo Courtesy: Catharyn Hayne
Ashleigh Johnson (2013-2017), arguably the greatest water polo player in Princeton history, led her team to NCAA berths in 2013 and 2015, was a gold-medal winning goalie for the U.S. Senior Women’s National Team at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and is the only player from the East to win the Peter J. Cutino Award (2016), given annually to the best male and female intercollegiate polo players.
Ellingson also has extensive coaching experience outside of Princeton. From 2000-2004 he coached at his alma mater, Queens College, first as an assistant (2000) and then as the men’s and women’s head coach. As a player in 1997, he led the Knights to their first-ever NCAA tournament. In 2002, as head coach, Queens returned to NCAAs, where they again captured third.
“I am truly honored and grateful for the opportunity to lead the Princeton Women’s Water Polo team,” Ellingson said in a statement. “I’m thankful for the search committee for giving me the opportunity to be the head coach of the women’s team and assist with the men’s squad. I am excited to continue the program’s tradition of excellence and look forward to the challenge of guiding the next generation of student-athletes in their pursuit of greatness.”
With content from Princeton Athletics