Husson College’s Eagles are becoming amphibious.

Husson officials announced Friday they have established a varsity women’s swimming program with hopes of starting competition next fall.

A little more than six months after being hired as Husson’s Swan Fitness Center director and almost three months after becoming head coach of Old Town High School’s varsity girls swim team, Krystal Fogler has another new job and a couple of new titles.

The former University of Maine standout swimmer and two-time America East Most Outstanding Performer was named head coach of Husson’s fledgling program.

“The past couple of weeks have been really exciting because being a college coach is always something I’ve wanted to do,” said Fogler, who is also Husson College’s pool director.

Julie Green, Husson’s director of public affairs, said the timing was right for Husson to take the plunge.

“It’s part of an ongoing discussion we’ve had here at Husson when it comes to adding sports,” Green explained. “We found the right person to lead the program. That was the big thing. We’re constantly looking at ways to add new programs and add to the offerings our college has now.”

Husson will not field a diving team as well, and Fogler will likely have no coaching staff other than volunteer assistants.

With such a strong UMaine tradition in her family, which has sent a lot of members to UMaine, including great-grandfather Raymond H. Fogler (who the UMaine library is named after), it’s safe to say coaching at Husson is a surprising development for Fogler, who graduated from UMaine with a B.S. in kinesiology and physical education.

“I never would have thought that, but it’s been a blessing and it’s worked out quite well,” she said. “I got hired there in August to work at the fitness center, kind of with the intent that they’d want to start a swim team. So for the last semester, I was checking to see how much interest there was in varsity swimming.”

Fogler, who says she already has six commitments from current students, hopes to have 15-20 team members in the fall for a season that will run from Oct. 1 through the New England championships in late February.

“With Bangor being such a good feeder program, it’s an untapped area for Division III talent,” Fogler said. “I think this program can be extremely successful.”

Although no conference affiliation has been announced, Husson officials are hopeful they can join the Greater North Atlantic Conference, which has a conference championship meet.

Fogler, who was the Most Outstanding Performer at the AE championship meets in 2000 and 2001, held AE records in the 100- and 200-yard backstrokes and has the best times in UMaine history in the 100 and 200 freestyles. She has no time to rest on her laurels, however.

“My first order of business is recruiting,” said Fogler. “I’ll start March first, going to USA and ‘Y’ championship swim meets. Then we’ll be having renovations made to the locker rooms and offices around the pool.”