There are moments when words feel painfully inadequate, and this is one of them.
South Kent School mourns the tragic passing of Andrey Uryadov ’04, a true force of nature on the Hillside. Andrey was a devoted husband to Elena, an unabashedly proud and loving father, a fierce competitor, a gifted coach, and a deeply beloved member of our South Kent family.
Andrey first came to South Kent as a young man finding his way far from home. He spoke candidly about arriving on the Hillside with little English and no idea what to expect. Andrey spent four years as a South Kent student, graduated in 2004, and then remained for a postgraduate year in 2005. Reflecting on his experience in his 2004 yearbook, he wrote, “This school made me realize that I have to work very hard in everything I do, only then I will have success.”
Those words reveal the young man Andrey was and the man he would become. He believed in effort, discipline, loyalty, and meeting life directly. Elsewhere in his yearbook, he offered advice that could easily stand as a summary of his own approach to life: “Don’t listen to people who tell you that you can’t make it somewhere, just try your best and prove them wrong.”
As a student, Andrey found his purpose at South Kent. He was a captain of the 2004 varsity hockey team that captured the New England Championship, helping establish the competitive tradition he would later return to lead. To his classmates at the time, he wrote, “I will miss this place a lot, but most of all I will miss the people here and things we did.”
The feeling was mutual. The Hillside remembered Andrey, and Andrey never stopped carrying the Hillside with him.
In 2015, he returned to South Kent and made it his home for the next decade. During those 10 years, Andrey and Elena raised their young family here while he served the School as Head Hockey Coach, Admissions Associate, and Director of Hockey. He poured his energy and passion into the program. However, his influence is not to be measured solely by his many victories in the rink. His true legacy lives on in the hundreds of young men he prepared for the challenges of the world ahead.
Andrey demanded effort because he understood what effort had made possible in his own life. He was focused and, at times, formidable. He could be an unyielding competitor, but beneath that intensity was a man who cared deeply about his players and wanted them to discover how much they were capable of becoming. He taught them that hockey required discipline, accountability, courage, and loyalty, and that those qualities mattered even more once they stepped away from the ice.
He embodied South Kent’s Trinity of Values, Simplicity of Life, Self-Reliance, and Directness of Purpose. He also sought to live by the words of Epictetus: “Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.” Andrey did. His philosophy was visible in how he worked, competed, loved his family, supported his friends, and invested himself completely in the lives of his players.
William Margel ’19 experienced Andrey’s influence first as a student-athlete and later as a colleague, when Andrey gave him his first opportunity to coach:
“There aren’t enough words to express the sadness of this tragic news. I’m heartbroken over the passing of someone who meant so much to me. He was not only an incredible hockey coach who helped shape me as a player and a person, but he was also the one who gave me my first job and believed in me when I was just getting started. I’ll always be grateful for the lessons, opportunities, memories, and impact he had on my life. His influence will stay with me both on and off the ice.Thank you for everything. You will be deeply missed and never forgotten. Rest in peace, Coach.”
For Dillon Duncan ’04, Andrey was more than a teammate and colleague. He was a lifelong friend. They arrived at South Kent together as third formers, captained a championship team, shared the experiences of growing up, and later watched their own sons take to the ice where their friendship had begun:
“Andrey and I arrived at South Kent as kids, freshmen together, with no idea where life would take us. Over the years, we shared countless memories, vacations, laughs, some tears, and plenty of highs and lows. Through it all, I was lucky to call him my friend. Our boys are now the same age, and just a few weeks ago, Andrey and I were standing together watching our kids skate and play in the same place where we had spent so much time playing together as kids. I never could have imagined that would be one of our last times together. Andrey was a fierce competitor, but more importantly, he was a loyal friend and a devoted family man who loved Elena and his boys deeply. I am incredibly grateful to have known him and to have shared so much of my life with him. He impacted so many people for the better. He will live on through his children, through his family, and through all of us who were fortunate enough to know him. Thank you for the laughs, the tears, and all the memories, my friend. I love you.”
Head of School Brian Sullivan reflected on the breadth of Andrey’s influence and the responsibility the South Kent community now carries:
“Andrey’s legacy is present in the countless young men who became stronger players and better people because he believed in them. For a decade, he gave his energy, knowledge, and heart to South Kent. But before every title he held and every team he led, Andrey was a father. He loved Elena and his boys with his whole heart. Our deepest responsibility now is to surround them with the love of this community and to ensure that his boys will always know how profoundly their father mattered. We are all family on the Hillside.”
Andrey’s sudden passing leaves an immeasurable void. Stockdale Arena will feel different. The Hillside will feel different. There will be many of us who instinctively look for him in the places where his presence once seemed permanent.
In the difficult days ahead, we will do everything we can to support Elena and the boys. We ask our community to hold them close in thought and prayer, to care gently for one another, and to respect the family’s wishes and privacy as they face a grief no family should have to bear.
Patrick Bonis, a longtime colleague and friend of Andrey and his family, offered a deeply powerful reminder for each of us when he shared:
“Please keep them in your heart and hug your loved ones as tight as you can today.”
In the Episcopal tradition of our School, grief is not something we are asked to hurry through or explain away. We mourn because we have loved, and the depth of our sorrow reflects the depth of that love. We gather, we pray, and when words fail, we carry one another. We place our trust in the promise that death does not erase a life faithfully lived, nor can it sever the bonds of love that remain.
Andrey gave so much of himself to South Kent. He will live on in Elena and his sons; in the players and colleagues whose lives he changed; in the program he helped build; and in the memories of all who were fortunate enough to know and love him.
He will forever remain part of the Hillside.
Servant, well done.