Yoshitaka Ando

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.

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 served students for the past 33 years.

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

Like all great educators, Ando loved kids. Furthermore, he 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, earned him numerous accolades, including his 2016 induction to the Eastern Massachusetts Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Most importantly, he won the hearts of thousands of students, coaches, officials and families with his inimitable joyous candor and his unmatched devotion to young athletes.

Ando spent his life 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 was cared for got back in the game,` Ando changed deeply the lives of the thousands who were fortunate to know him.

A memorial service and gathering will take place on Saturday, December 14 at 9:45 AM, at the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, 390 Lincoln Road, Sudbury.