The school’s first-ever coed varsity team wins third place at the Private School State Tournament.

Did you know St. Stephen’s has a Varsity Water Polo team, led by acclaimed Longhorn Aquatics and The University of Texas Water Polo Coach Tom Andrew — AND the team qualified for a state tournament?

If this news showers you with surprise, it’s not new to Athletic Director Jon McCain who explains the sport was first introduced on The Hill in the Middle School. Now, some of those same Spartans, who’ve moved on to the Upper School are on the team. They are joined by other water polo athletes new to campus this year. Together, they are helping to establish, grow and flourish the new varsity program thanks to the new St. Stephen’s Aquatic Center.

“We spent a couple years doing just Middle School water polo as a PE class at the same time that we were doing the construction of the pool and making the financial investments for the shot clocks, the goals, the lane lines and all the equipment we would need to be able to actually do it,” said McCain. 

Prior to the construction of the aquatic center, McCain says the team practiced on Sundays in Round Rock and would scrimmage against other clubs and school teams like Austin ISD’s Austin High, the Liberal Arts and Science Academy (LASA) and Westlake.

Now that the sport has expanded to Upper School, the 15-member coed varsity team is a mix of dedicated freshmen through seniors, with varying experience levels both from club and school teams. An added bonus of having a coed team is strong interest from several girls, who are up for the challenge as well.

“It is a grueling sport in terms of fitness,” said McCain. “The good news for us as we have a core group of kids who swim year-round, who are in the pool sometimes five hours a day and the challenge for them hasn't been the physical, it's been the technical.”

So far, the team’s recent performance against St. Mark’s School in Dallas and John Paul II Catholic School in Dallas qualified the team for the Private School State Tournament where they defeated Dallas Consolidated in a close match, 16-13 and landed a third place position.

Adding water polo to the school’s portfolio of programs not only creates more opportunities for students and their families but also extends St. Stephen’s global reach to spark interest and attract students. In fact, McCain says the University Interscholastic League (UIL), which is the governing body for Texas Public Schools for sports and arts, sanctioned water polo as a sport about a year ago making it an official sport in Texas public schools.

“St. Stephen's should be a place where kids who are serious about water polo see us as a really good option to come to school because of our facility, and our coach is the top water polo coach in Austin,” said McCain.

Speaking of a top tier coach, Tom Andrew adds his University of Texas talents to the team and says he’s excited for players to practice and compete in a top tier facility that’s able to host other teams and create more competitive opportunities.

“It's just a complete game changer,” says Andrew. “Westlake has a comparable facility, but aside from them, nobody else in Austin, for sure, or barely even in Texas, has something like this on their campus. We always have the opportunity to pick and choose whichever opponent we want to play in any given week. So that's just an amazing way to enhance your team.”

With the fall season coming to an end, McCain and Andrew are now looking for more Spartans who love to swim to join the team next year.  The future plan is to establish both a boys and girls varsity team.

“You don't need to have existing water polo skills to play. We're very much in the recruiting mode and just trying to get more kids playing — boys and girls. We're hoping for a complete girls team next year,” said Andrew. “The main skill is just to be comfortable swimming in all deep water because the new facility is all deep. They won't have to tread water for the whole hour, hour and a half of practice, but being comfortable in all deep water is kind of the main requirement, then after that, we'll teach you everything else.”

If you’re interested in joining the team or have questions, reach out to St. Stephen’s Athletic Director Jon McCain at jmccain@sstx.org. 

Learn more about Spartan Athletics.