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by Daisy Costello Lake

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Varsity water polo is finally coming to “The Lone Star State” as Austin College located in Sherman, Texas will introduce men’s and women’s teams on the Division III level to its slate of varsity athletic programs beginning in the Fall of 2018.

The sole varsity program for either men or women in the state of Texas, the Kangaroos’ will be led by veteran head coach Mark Lawrence who is eager to bring his experience from previously held Division I and III positions domestically and internationally to the first-year team.

Lawrence comes to Austin by way of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., where he previously served as assistant coach for the Division I Midshipmen men’s team from 2014 until the Spring of 2017. During his tenure in Annapolis, Lawrence helped lead the Mids to 42 wins over three seasons as the program rated among the contenders in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Southern Division prior to the creation of the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) prior to the 2016 campaign.

A veteran of the coaching trade at highly academic institutions, Lawrence spent time as an assistant coach for men’s and women’s water polo at Division I Brown University from January 2013 until 2014 after a two-year tenure (2011-12) as head coach for the Division III men’s program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. 

During his time with the Engineers, Lawrence led MIT to 21 wins and a runner-up finish at the 2012 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Division III Championship.

Prior to coaching at one of the premier academic institutions in the world with five of his players earning All-Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Northern Division honors, Lawrence served as a graduate assistant for the Arizona State University women’s team in 2009 and was an assistant head coach for the Kazakhstan Women’s National Team in 2011 in helping the program advance to the FINA World Championships.

Now in Texas looking to build a program to equal or exceed the level of athletic and academic success achieved by Navy, Brown, MIT and Arizona State, the new coach is able to appreciate is new institution.

“Austin College is a really well known institution in Texas, and nationally, for having excellent academics.”

Academic success will likely not be an issue for the Kangaroos’, but one struggle Lawrence anticipates facing is a lack of awareness of the opportunity to play college water polo in Texas.

The culture of water polo in Texas varies slightly from that on the East Coast where Lawrence is coming from, and in terms of water polo at the collegiate level, Lawrence and Austin College are blazing their own trail. Austin College fields 18 varsity teams that compete at the Division III level, with water polo being the most recent addition to their athletic slate. As the first head coach of a new program, Lawrence sees incredible opportunity for his program.

“To be the first head coach of a brand new program is an honor, especially here in Texas where we are the first and only varsity program in over 40 years.”

Water polo in Texas, while not a known presence at the collegiate level, has a strong network of youth and club programs Lawrence sees potential in recruiting from for the inaugural Kangaroos.

During his time at Navy, Brown, and MIT, Lawrence had the benefit of East Coast clubs as a resource for recruiting, but now that he is in Texas, he has the opportunity to create a unique varsity program while tapping into a great recruiting pool that he is already somewhat familiar with.

“Over the years Texas has produced so many great collegiate players, I have been fortunate to have coached some of these athletes at Brown and Navy,” Lawrence said.

One of the key components to success in water polo is the support network from the university that allows the program to function smoothly. Even though Lawrence is new to Austin, the administrative structures at his previous jobs provide him with the confidence and tools he needs to build a new program from the ground up.

“At MIT, Brown, and Navy, I was extremely fortunate to work under outstanding athletic directors and administration staffs; these individuals gave our staffs all of the support we needed to be successful.  Through my interactions with these individuals I was able to see what type of structural support outside of the pool was crucial to success.”

Lawrence also credits the previous head coaches he served as an assistant under, in particular Felix Mercado of Brown and Todd Clapper of Arizona State, for teaching him the ways to run a successful program and is eager to apply those lessons practically as he begins his tenure at Austin College.

“At both Brown and ASU I was fortunate to work under two outstanding head coaches, Felix Mercado and Todd Clapper, who in my mind have created first class programs.  I think being able to learn from them on how they have operated their programs both in and out of the water is going to be a great learning tool as I start our programs here at Austin College.”

Now that Lawrence is at the helm for the Kangaroos, he realizes there will be some growing pains when his athletes first jump in the pool. Specifically, Austin College’s absence of a collegiate club-level water polo team to build upon means that there will be a lack of familiarity with the sport among students at first.

However, Lawrence sees this as an opportunity for growth and for building the foundation for a successful program in the future.

“We are going to be young and make inexperienced mistakes, but that is also a blessing for the growth of our program in the future.”

This growth spreads into the realm of recruiting, which will be a unique challenge for Lawrence given the lack of varsity water polo programs at the collegiate level in Texas. He is not fazed by the challenge; rather, he sees potential to recruit athletes who will succeed at Austin College athletically and academically. He hopes that the example the Kangaroos set inspires other schools in Texas to consider adding varsity water polo programs.

“We want to be a successful program in the water every year and compete with the best D-III programs in the country.  Outside of the pool, we want to have a program that is nationally respected, that is filled with individuals of high character, and hopefully inspires other schools in and around Texas to consider adding water polo as a varsity sport.”

In the short-term, he is working to build both the men’s and women’s programs to win as soon as possible and expedite his long term goals for the program.

“Our goal this year is to recruit a roster of high-character athletes along with creating a foundation for the programs that will excel the growth and development in years to come.”

Overall, Lawrence sees Austin College water polo as an opportunity to not only expand water polo at the varsity level in the state of Texas, but also as a way to encourage youth engagement in the sport and to support youth and club organizations.

“The one thing that has impressed me here in Texas is the amount of organization the youth clubs and high schools have here, along with their commitment and support to growing the sport.  Right now the level of youth water polo in Texas is great, watching it continue to grow in the future years is going to be very exciting.”

With an eye toward the future of the sport of water polo in the state of Texas, Lawrence is out on the recruiting trail excited for the opportunity to build the lone varsity college program in Texas to become a future star.

Collegiate Water Polo Association