Meet the Coaches & Staff
Lou Lopez
General Manager & Head Coach
Lou has been playing polo for over forty years, ever since he attended a clinic as a sophomore in high school. He attended Colorado State University, where he helped to start their polo club. After graduation, he went on to teach high school in Connecticut. He leased horses from Yale to play polo with Farmington Polo Club. Lou left teaching to become coach and general manager of the Yale Polo and Equestrian Center. After winning a national championship against UVA in 1986, Lou spent the next twenty years earning his living managing clubs, training and selling polo ponies, and competing in the arena as well as outdoors. Under his leadership, Virginia has won six Women’s and four Men’s national titles.
Elka Sterling Barn Manager & Assistant Coach
Elka was introduced to polo at Cornell as a sophomore and was hooked! She played polo throughout her college years and returned to Cornell Polo in 2020 as Assistant Coach. She then unexpectedly took the reins as interim head coach in January 2022 where she embraced the responsibility and duties of running the program. Her favorite aspects of intercollegiate polo programs are providing top quality horse care and helping new players learn the game from the first time they swing a mallet. Elka joined the Virginia Polo staff in August of 2022.
Jenny Germroth
Development Coordinator
Though a passionate rider growing up, Jenny was first introduced to polo at Virginia Polo while attending UVA. The program played a pivotal role in her life, and led to many great adventures in the ensuing years as she lived in Hawaii, South Carolina, and Florida working in polo. After returning to Albemarle County and managing a private horse and hunting dog program on a farm in Va and ranch in Wyoming, Jenny found her way back to Virginia Polo. She is now delighted to help current students benefit from the wonderful program she enjoyed so much and reconnect alumni with the program they love while running the club’s communications and fundraising efforts.