Big expansion to UC Merced team sports announced. Here’s what students, fans can expect
UC Merced officials announced the university is expanding it’s athletics program by adding men’s and women’s water polo and men’s and women’s outdoor track as varsity intercollegiate sports for the 2022-23 academic year.
“We are excited to be able grow our programs as our campus continues to grow,” said David Dunham, who is the UC Merced Executive Director of Recreation & Athletics.
The new additions gives UC Merced Athletics 12 sponsored varsity sports, six men’s teams and six women’s teams.
The track and water polo teams join the Bobcats men’s and women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country and the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
Men’s soccer and men’s volleyball were the more recent additions when they joined the Bobcat family in 2013-14.
Water polo, which will be elevated from a UC Merced sports club, will call the Aquatics Center home and compete as a member of the Collegiate Water Polo Association.
Men’s water polo will compete in the fall and the women’s water polo team will compete in the spring.
A national search for the Bobcats’ first men’s and women’s water polo head coach will begin immediately.
“Water polo has a rich history in the Central Valley and will be great addition to our campus,” Dunham said.
Current UC Merced cross county coach Vicente Velarde will coach the outdoor track program. Velarde has led the Bobcats’ men’s and women’s cross country teams to second-place finishes in the California Pacific Conference the past two seasons.
The track program aims to focus on distance track at the start while competing as a member of the Cal Pac in the NAIA.
“We couldn’t be more excited or grateful for the addition of track,” Velarde said.
“I was pleasantly surprised we added it for this upcoming year, but it has been something the team and I have wanted for a while now.”
The inaugural Cal Pac Track & Field Championship was held this past April.
Track & field will compete during the spring season.
“I look forward to working with coach Velarde as he builds our track program,” Dunham said. “There is great synergy between cross country and track.”
