Coach Clare Lawlor began playing water polo during her freshman year of high school. Coach Clare quickly caught on to the game and worked her way up to become a varsity team captain as a freshman and held that all 4 years of high school. During her sophomore year, she began coaching swim lessons at Ellis Aquatics and she continued this until the summer after her senior year. 

Coach Clare then continued playing water polo for San Joaquin Delta College under Nate Varosh. Unfortunately, Coach Clare got her seventh concussion during her sophomore year and made the tough decision to stop playing water polo. Fortunately, Nate Varosh allowed Coach Clare to become the “team manager” where he taught her so many skills for both life and water polo. 

After Lawlor’s time at Delta, she transferred to Sonoma State University where she was able to get her Bachelor’s degree in psychology in 3 semesters. 

Coach Clare is now a BCAT certified Behavioral Interventionist through a private company. She works with autistic children both in schools and in homes in the Orange County area. She hopes to return to school very soon to receive her master's in education and eventually become either a school counselor or a school psychologist.