Ando Family Fund

Yoshitaka Ando, longtime Athletic Trainer at Lincoln-Sudbury RHS and father of Lucas (17), Kyle (16), Marcus (14) and Olivia (9) and husband to Cheri, passed away on December 3, 2019, of complications just a few weeks after being diagnosed with Stage IV Esophageal Cancer. 

Though he had long been a trusted advisor to players and coaches at LS, Ando officially became a coach when his four children came of age.  Now those of us whose lives have been enriched by Ando are seeking to secure financial stability for his family amidst an uncertain future. Your contribution to this fund will help to ensure that his daughter and three sons will have the opportunity to pursue their academic goals and their career ambitions.  

In 1978,  a 15-year-old Yoshitaka  arrived in the United States with a single suitcase and a limited grasp of the English language, leaving his father, mother, brother and sister behind in Japan to move in with an aunt and uncle who lived in Franklin, Massachusetts.  After graduating from Franklin High, he then graduated from Bridgewater State College, where he was a defensive back for the BSC Bears football team. In 1987 he was hired as the Athletic Trainer at Lincoln-Sudbury, where he has served students for the past 33 years.  

Over the past 3 decades, Ando has become one of the most committed and most beloved educators at the school and an iconic figure in Massachusetts High School athletics.  More than just an athletic trainer, Ando is a trusted coach, a strength and conditioning expert, a guidance counselor, a sports psychologist and, to the thousands of students he has healed, a powerful mentor and loyal friend.  

Like all great educators, Ando loves kids.  Furthermore, he has spent his career in constant pursuit of finding new and better ways to treat the student-athletes in his charge.  His enthusiasm, his love of sport, and his commitment to athletes, both from LS and from visiting schools, have earned him numerous accolades, including his 2016 induction to the Eastern Massachusetts Lacrosse Hall of Fame.  A great supporter of women’s sports, his office and doorway are covered with posters of female LS alums who became featured athletes at the collegiate level.  Most importantly, he has won the hearts of thousands of students, coaches, officials and families with his inimitable joyous candor and his unmatched devotion to young athletes.  

Ando has given his life to helping student-athletes pursue athletic excellence while becoming people of character.  From his days of leading lifting sessions on mornings before school with his 7am club, to shipping custom strung lacrosse sticks to LS alums at colleges across the country, to motivating and instructing players during games and practices in a myriad of different sports and levels- Varsity, JV, 9th grade, girls and boys, to making sure that every kid is cared for and back in the game, Ando has, without exaggeration, helped thousands.  Now it is time for those whom he helped to give back and make sure that Ando’s beloved children- Lucas, Kyle, Marcus, and Olivia, and his wife Cheri, can be free of financial worry and achieve the educational future their beloved father worked to build for them. 

Thanks in advance for your contribution and for passing Ando's story along.  We love you, Ando!