Nikola Bjelica joined the Gauchos’ coaching staff in February 2024, coming to Santa Barbara after a successful career at the club level in Houston, Texas.
A native of Budva, Montenegro, Bjelica grew up playing water polo, first in the Adriatic Sea, then in club competition at the youth level. He emigrated to the United States in 2010, earning both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in geology at the University of Houston. While working in the oil and gas industry, Bjelica maintained his passion for water polo, helping to found a recreational club, Balkan United, in 2017 and beginning to coach at the club level as his sons picked up the sport.
Coaching alongside two-time Olympic Gold Medalist Goran Radenovic at Houston’s Viper Pigeon Water Polo Club, Bjelica led the club’s 12u boys’ squad to Session 1 of the 2023 USA Water Polo Junior Olympics in Irvine. There, the team achieved the best-ever finish by a Houston-based club at the Junior Olympics, and Bjelica was inspired to pursue coaching at the next level.
With guidance from both Radenovic and USA Water Polo Head Coach Dejan Udovicic, Bjelica earned his first collegiate coaching role at UC Santa Barbara.
Nikola and his wife, Nicole, have two sons, Aleksandar “Sasha” and Maksim, both of whom play water polo.
