Water Polo Coaches

Huw Helman, Head Coach

Coach Huw Helman played water polo for fifteen years; for the Tigers through middle school and high school and La Salle University. He represented the Tigers in seven Junior Olympic Games, including a 4th place finish in the 18U Gold Division in 2015. Huw went on to play for a year at La Salle University before returning to the Tigers to coach. Huw is now entering his 12th season coaching PTAC. 

Huw is currently an Assistant Coach for the Princeton University Men's and Women's Water Polo teams. During his time at Princeton he has won four conference championships on Men's side, one on the Women's side, and Final Four berth with the Men's team. During his time at Princeton the Men's team has seen wins over Cal and Stanford, while regulary being ranked inside of the Top 10. While at Princeton Huw has coached numerous Men's and Women's All-American athletes, and a Cutino Award finalist.

In 2023, Coach Helman, was named an Assistant Coach in the USA National Pipeline for the Cadet National team. In that role, he was part of a staff that came 5th at World Championships, only dropping one game to eventual Champions Spain. In 2024, he moved up to be an Assistant Coach with the Youth National Team, in which he travelled with the team to Italy to compete in the Sori International Cup; ultimately taking 2nd place.

Email: [email protected]
 

Derek Ellingson, Coach

Coach Derek Ellingson is working with the Tigers' men's and women's water polo programs. Coach Ellingson, an experienced and accomplished water polo coach and player, spent five years coaching at his alma mater, Queens, first as an assistant and then as the men's and women's head coach prior to joining the Princeton staff in the summer of 2004. Born in San Francisco, Ellingson was a high school All-America water polo player at Monte Vista before graduating in 1991. In his senior year, he also started coaching the high school girls' team that was league champion. Ellingson became the junior varsity swim coach at Monte Vista in 1992, when it won the league championship. Coach Ellingson received an associate's degree from Grossmont College in 1996 before attending Queens. He was a junior college All-America in 1995, when he led Grossmont to a second-place finish in the state championship. At Queens, Ellingson helped the 1996 squad win the Northern Division and finish second at Easterns. The following year, Queens finished first at both Northerns and Easterns and third at Nationals, marking the first time an East Coast team finished higher than fourth. That year Ellingson was named an All-America. Coach Ellingson began coaching at his alma mater in 1999 as an assistant and became the head coach in 2000. He was the women's New York Division Coach of the Year in his first year, when Queens won the New York Division championship and finished sixth at Easterns. On the men's side, Queens finished fourth at Easterns in 2000 and second in 2001, when it also won Northerns and Ellingson earned Northern Coach of the Year honors. The men had their best season the following year, winning championships at Northerns, ECACs and Easterns and finishing third at Nationals. Ellingson was named the 2002 Eastern Coach of the Year. That same year, Ellingson earned the Northeast Zone Elite Men's Coach of the Year award.