April 2, 2024

Collegiate and international water polo player. On campus green-sports organizer. Future sport ecology PhD student.

San Jose State University’s Ivanna Anderson-Villela now adds EcoAthletes Champion to that already impressive resume.

“I was pleasantly surprised to learn about EcoAthletes last year,” she offered. “I see that so many people, athletes and otherwise, get interested in climate action but then give up because they see how hard it is to make progress. EcoAthletes provides us with the resources to inspire us and our fans to stick with it and that is crucial!”

Born in Seattle, Anderson-Villela got involved with gymnastics when she was in pre-K. After moving with her family to La Paz, Mexico in Baja California Sur when she was five, she switched to diving when she was eight (“I thought it was very cool and it involved some kind of gymnastics”). Then, at 14, the water polo coach at her swim club said she should give it a try.

“She thought that my body type would translate well to the sport,” remembered Anderson-Villela. “Two problems: 1. I was not that strong a swimmer, and 2. I did not know the sport at all! Still, it looked fun, so I gave it a try, while still on the diving team. It really was a lot of fun, especially once I improved my swimming. After two weeks, my diving coach and I decided I should concentrate solely on water polo.”

Within a year, Anderson-Villela was surprised to learn that she was under consideration for Mexico’s youth national team. But maybe she shouldn’t have been.

“We often practiced with men; that helped me get better fast,” she noted. “I loved the competition. My older brother and I had a competitive mindset instilled in us by our grandfather to work, work, work. And weekly solo practice sessions with my coach helped me develop quickly into a strong ‘hole set’, similar to a center forward in soccer. I love that you create scoring opportunities for your teammates or can finish yourself.”

Anderson-Villela made the Mexico national youth team on her second attempt at 16, earning a bronze medal at the 2016 Youth PanAm Games in Jamaica and a spot on the team that competed in the Youth World Championships in New Zealand. The following year, she continued her rapid ascendancy by being selected to the senior national team which won silver in the Central American Games in Trinidad and Tobago. They followed that up in 2018 with a bronze at the same event, qualifying Mexico for the PanAm Games.

Next up was selecting a US university where she would continue her education and play college water polo. She took her “best offer”, that being at Division II Cal State East Bay, embracing new learning experiences that the Hayward-based school offered. “I had to learn a new position, outside swim, which was not easy at first, while backing up at hole set,” said Anderson-Villela. “But I picked it up and adapted, ending up in the starting lineup by the end of my freshman year, which was unexpected.” 

Her sophomore year was more challenging with a back injury forcing her to the sidelines for the first half of the season. Being hurt and out of the lineup “negatively impacted me mentally. I was very tough on myself.  The lesson? That the mental side of water polo is crucial, and I worked hard at it. So, despite a dip in my play when I came back for the second half of my sophomore year which also played a role in me not making Mexico’s 2019 PanAm Games team, that mental toughness helped me over the longer term.”

Using the PanAm Games miss as fuel, along with that newfound mental toughness, Anderson-Villela’s junior season was by far her best…before the COVID pandemic shut things down.

“We were in Boston where we lost to Harvard by one when the pandemic hit,” she shared. “The craziest thing was we couldn’t shake hands after the match and didn’t understand why. And that was it until the next fall and the beginning of my senior year. And even then, we could only swim and not play water polo.” Even though play resumed in the spring semester of 2021, too many players had left the Cal State East Bay squad to field a squad, so she missed her entire senior season as well.

After turning down an opportunity to play professionally in France and taking a gap year where she coached at the club and community college level, she decided to pursue a master’s degree in sport management. And since she wanted to make use of her two remaining years of athletic eligibility, finding the best fit in the classroom and in the pool was paramount. San Jose State University checked all the boxes but life as a Spartan was challenging at first for Anderson-Villela.

“Outside issues negatively impacted the team’s play in the pool,” she admitted. “While it was hard, in the end those difficulties drew us together as a team and set us up for a rebound season this year.”

The Spartans are currently 9-10 on the season with Anderson-Villela delivering stellar play — she’s leading the team in assists with 21 and provides a strong veteran presence. “We are a young team, but we are focused on improving each game and it shows” she admitted. “We’ve been competing against top ranked teams, and I can see an improvement from last year. We are very lucky to have a driven and hard-working group of seven freshmen including fellow EcoAthletes Champion, Rose Jensen. who have done incredible things in the pool” she shared. She said that the team is looking to peak at MPSF Conference Tournament at the end of April.  

Out of the pool, Anderson-Villela is leading the charge behind San Jose State hosting of its first ever Green Game on April 7th when the #3 ranked USC Trojans come to town. It will feature an athletic clothing drive, as well as adding recycling bins to the facility. She is also teaming up with the aforementioned Rose Jensen to create a plan to educate spectators and staff on environmental issues and how to fight for the #ClimateComeback. In the classroom, while she started her master’s degree program at San Jose State in sport management, she soon switched her focus to sport ecology. The seeds of this decision were sewn during her days at Cal-State East Bay.

“My freshman year roommate was very passionate about sustainability and that really rubbed off on me,” she remembered. “First, I made some small changes, getting into recycling, eliminating plastic silverware, and taking part in beach cleanups. And that led me to get much more interested in and engaged on macro issues like climate change. Fast forward to the first semester of my master’s program at San Jose State. A professor introduced me to the world of sport ecology and a global group of academics driving research in that space, the Sport Ecology Group. The more I learned about this space, the more I knew that this is where I can add the most value professionally.”

After graduating in May, Anderson-Villela will take the next step in her sport ecology journey as a PhD student at the University of Toronto. “I’m excited and happy about this opportunity,” she stated. “I plan to focus my research and writings on athlete activism for environmental sustainability, with the main objective being to provide new insights about athletes’ experiences to sport managers.”

EcoAthletes founder and CEO Lew Blaustein cannot wait to see what Anderson-Villela’s research reveals.

“When it comes to her research at the University of Toronto, I have no doubt that Ivanna will be a quick learner, just like she’s been in water polo,” Blaustein asserted. “And just as with this weekend’s Green-Game at San Jose State, Ivanna will be a positive difference maker in the sport ecology field. She’s already exhibited these qualities in her short time as an EcoAthletes Champion. That’s why we are so excited to have a #ClimateComeback leader like Ivanna on the EcoAthletes team.”

You can follow Anderson-Villela on Instagram