The Austin College Athletics Department has set in motion a plan that will allow the College to offer men’s and women’s water polo as varsity sports in 2018-2019—the first varsity programs offered in Texas since 1976. The teams will play on the club level in the upcoming academic year and transition to varsity sports in 2018-2019, competing in the Collegiate Water Polo Association. Mark Lawrence, hired in May, will coach the teams. He most recently served as an assistant coach at the U.S. Naval Academy and previously was head coach at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.