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-American team her senior year. She then enrolled at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she walked on to the 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 given the honor of head coach.
Larson, who led the Gators to the 2019 Women’s National Collegiate Club Championship as Florida became the inaugural East Coast club team to win a National Championship in the sport of water polo, the 2018 and 2019 National Championship Coach of the Tournament 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 prior to earning the 2019 honor for guiding the Gators to a 4-3 defeat of the University of California-Davis for the National Championship at the University of Notre Dame, has led the rise of Florida with fellow coach/husband Tim Larson.
