BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — University of Florida women’s club head coach/former University of Massachusetts women’s varsity athlete Katie Larson is the guest on Episode 016 of the PoloCAST Podcast with George Gross, Jr.
A biweekly series highlighting some of water polo’s best minds and athletes over the past 50+ years, PoloCAST is available on Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Anchor and Spotify.
Hosted by CWPA Hall of Fame inductee and former Team Canada Olympian George Gross, Jr., the podcast provides listeners with more than just an X’s and O’s conversation about water polo – but a dialogue about what helped good players, coaches and administrators reach the top of the game.
New episodes typically release on the first and third Tuesday of every month.
Follow the entire series by CLICKING HERE.
About Katie Larson: Katie Larson has achieved success in the water as an athlete at the University of Massachusetts and on the deck as head coach of the University of Florida women’s collegiate club team.
A native of Atlanta, Georgia, she started playing water polo in 9th grade at Pace Academy in Atlanta and immediately fell in love with the sport and played all four years, both at Pace and at the Dynamo Water Polo club team of Atlanta, and made the Honorable Mention All-America team her senior year. Larson (then known as Katie Goodrich) enrolled at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she walked on to UMass’ National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I varsity women’s water polo team. She competed with UMass for three and a half years, during which time the team placed as high as Fifth in the nation, before returning to Atlanta to enroll in graduate school and resume playing with the Dynamo team. Katie moved to Gainesville, FL, in 2004, and she began playing with the UF women’s club team the next year. In 2007, she served as the volunteer assistant coach for UF and in 2008 was named head coach.
The 2018 and 2019 Women’s National Championship Coach of the Tournament, Larson has led Florida to become a dominant force in the ranks of club teams around the country.
The 2018 Coach of the Tournament award for leading Florida to a Third Place finish Mt. Hood Community College, her best performance came during the 2019 season.
She led the Gators to the 2019 Women’s National Collegiate Club Championship by defeating the University of California-Davis by a 4-3 score at the University of Notre Dame. The finish is noteworthy as Florida became the inaugural East Coast club team to win a National Championship in the sport of water polo.
