Brock will have a men's and women's varsity bubble soccer team, starting this summer.

Brock University is getting a varsity bubble soccer team.

The move comes after the International Olympic Committee announced Wednesday that it would make bubble soccer, in which players wear a bubble on their upper bodies, a demonstration sport at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The Badgers men’s and women’s bubble soccer teams will take to the pitch as early as August for pre-season play. Team tryouts will be held later this spring.

“We saw this as our opportunity to get in on the ground level of the growth and development of a cutting edge, finesse sport,” said Robert Cargnelli, Brock’s interim athletics director. “We really see Brock as having a role in the nurturing of top level bubble soccer athletes, much the way it has with wrestling and rowing. Mark my words, there will be a Tonya Verbeek of bubble soccer.”

The addition of the new teams means the University will forgo pursuing the development of a varsity football team, he noted.

Student April Eins applauded the University’s decision. She looks forward to donning her cleats and a bubble when she tries out for a midfielder spot on the team.

“Football is so 2014,” Eins said. “Bubble soccer is the future of athletics at Brock. I’m thrilled my university will have a team and I hope to be part of a crew that will bring a national championship banner to Brock.”

FIFA, the global body governing international soccer tournaments, endorsed the IOC’s decision Wednesday, further solidifying Brock’s move to add its own team to the Badgers’ roster.

“Ultimately, we see World Cup competition moving away from football as we know it and toward this new style of play,” said FIFA President Ebrill Narr. “The world’s premier footballers, from Mezut Özil to Lionel Messi, look forward to wearing a bubble on the pitch as early as the 2018 tournament.”

– with files from the BBC (Bunk Broadcasting Corporation)

Happy April Fools’ Day, Brock. Sorry to burst your bubble, Bubble Soccer fans.