Credit: Victoria Santana
Aragon kinesiology teacher Andrew Silva went to the Paris Olympics this summer as part of the coaching staff of the USA women’s water polo team. He played the role of video coordinator to the team, a position he is honored to have been chosen for. His job was to film all of the games and organize data and statistics for both the USA team and the opposing teams.
Silva describes attending the Olympics as a very memorable experience because of all the people he met there.
“Everything that happened that first day of competition was really, really special, not just to see, but to also be a part of it,” Silva said. “It’s so exciting to be around other people [who] are really motivated and really want to be successful. You look at all the time and effort and sacrifice and the commitments they’ve made to make it to the Olympics, and just to be around those people is really, really special.”
Silva decided to coach water polo because of his own experience playing water polo and swimming in high school. When he found out that he wouldn’t be able to play sports in college, Silva decided that the best way to continue being involved with the sport was to become a coach. He takes his experiences of playing with him into his coaching career.
“Being coachable is extremely important,” Silva said. “So all the feedback and the instruction that the different coaches give you, take it and try to use it every chance you can, because you know that the coaches are there to help you get better.”
Silva has been a part of USA water polo for 12 years and has been a coach and administrator for many different national teams during that time period. He has coached the under-18 and under-20 teams. Silva is also the head coach for water polo at College of San Mateo, teaching some classes there, as well.
At Aragon, Silva teaches one period of dual enrollment kinesiology, which covers the study of human movement, health and exercise. Silva enjoys teaching kinesiology because he feels that those learning kinesiology can learn about many aspects of life.
“Building that classroom environment and building those relationships with students and getting to know them as individuals is really exciting,” Silva said. “It allows me to teach them about different parts of kinesiology that I know they’re going to be motivated and excited about.”
Some of his students took the class because they wanted to apply the knowledge to playing sports.
“I’m really invested in sports,” said junior Tessa Sandhu. “I play three sports, and sports has been a part of my whole life and my mom especially recommended taking [kinesiology] to help a lot with injuries because it tells you what’s moving while you’re playing the sport.”
Silva is very passionate about what he does.
“I just want to get better at my job every day so I can provide students [and] student athletes with the best experience I possibly can,” Silva said.
In the future, Silva hopes to continue teaching kinesiology and motivating students to apply their knowledge to playing sports.
