About the
Mavericks

About the
Mavericks

The Mavericks Water Polo Club has been a force in Ontario and Canadian Water Polo since 1992. We offer fun, healthy and high-level programs for athletes from about age 6 and up. 

Supported by one of the largest (and finest) coaching staffs in the country, we offer programs that take players from learn-to-swim into our competitive stream and beyond. The current Mavericks staff is made up of National Team coaches, and former National Team and NCAA athletes.

The Mavericks are proud to have many athletes each year invited to join provincial and national team programs.

For more information on programs, age groups etc., please explore the site further or contact us.

Our Coaches

The Mavericks Water Polo Club is lead by some of the most elite coaches in Canada. With a team based coaching approach, you will often see many of these faces working with our athletes.

Nikolina Mihajlovik

Head Coach

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Coach Nikolina Mihajlovik started playing water polo in 2007 for the Mavericks. She competed with both Provincial and National teams, with a variety of international competitions and was also centralized with the National Team in Montreal for a year.  Nikolina attended Hartwick College where she completed her BA in Sociology and competed in the NCAA Division I. She has been coaching with the Mavericks since 2019, most recently as the Head Coach of the Women's Program, leading the Mavericks 17U Women's Team through an undefeated Eastern Championship season and a 4th place finish at the National Finals (2022-2023) . Nikolina has been the Manager of the Men's Junior National Team (2022) and has been a Team Ontario Provincial Coach (2022 & 2023), with her role as the Head Coach of the 15U Boys in 2022 and Head Coach of the 15U Girls in 2023.
 
Player Career Highlights:
  • -2008 Ontario Games (Ottawa, Canada) - Provincial Team
  • 2011 Team Ontario (California) - Provincial Team
  • 2012 93 Junior Training Team (Thessaloniki, Greece) - National Team
  • 2012 94 Youth Worlds (Perth, Australia) - National Team
  • 2013 Youth Cup (Montreal, Canada) - Provincial Team
  • 2013 95 Youth Training Team (Dunaújváros, Hungary) - National Team
  • 2014 Commonwealth Games (Aberdeen, Scotland) - National Team
  • 2014 95 Junior Pan Ams (Riverside, California) - National Team
  • 2015-2018 Division I Waterpolo, Hartwick College
 
Coaching Career Highlights:
  • 2021-2023 Head Coach of the Women’s Program at Mavericks
  • 2022 Team Ontario Provincial Coach - 15U Boys Head Coach
  • 2022 Manager Men’s Junior National Team - Pan Ams (Indianapolis)
  • 2023 Team Ontario Provincial Coach - 15U Girls Head Coach

Bogdan Dubrovskiy

High Performance Director

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​Coach Bogdan Dubrovskiy has been a part of the herd at Mavericks Water Polo Club since 2009 where he began as a competitive athlete. He began coaching in 2012-2013 and has since held various roles within the club, starting as an assistant coach with the development groups (2012-2014), Women’s Head Coach (2014-2019) where he lead the Mavericks Women’s Program to their 1st ever Senior Women’s National Championship, Head Coach (2022-2023) and currently holds the role of High Performance Director.

His undergraduate degree lays in Kinesiology and Physical Education from the University of Toronto. He has completed an intensive 4 year graduate degree and holds the title of Doctor of Chiropractic, and currently is pursuing a Clinical Sciences Fellowship and Master’s Degree in Integrated Health Policy and Education through the University of Toronto.

He currently works within the realm of Chronic Pain with Ontario’s top specialists in Image-Guided Pain Injections and Procedures as a MSK-Specialist and works in multi-disciplinary based settings at St. Mikes, Mount Sinai and Toronto Rehab Institute as a Chiropractor through his Clinical Sciences Residency.

Bogdan is the Head Coach of the Junior Men’s Canadian National Team Program and has been a part of numerous National Team Programs in the past:
15U NT – Riverside, California
17U NT – Peru, Lima (Youth Pan Ams)
17U NT – Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago (Youth Pan Ams)
18U NT – Szombathey, Hungary (Youth World Championships)
20U NT – Kuwait, Kuwait (Junior World Championships)
Senior Men’s National Team – Numerous Training Camps

He has a tremendous passion for coaching and athlete development and is looking forward to the opportunity to lead Mavericks to continued success and growth.

Dimitrije Veizovic

Head Development Coach

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​Born and raised in Yugoslavia, Coach Dimi played for two of the most well known clubs in the world— Partizan and Red Star.

After a short stint away from the pool in his late teens, he returned to Partizan as a swim coach and assistant water polo coach.

Coach Dimi, who is also a physiotherapist, combines all his experiences as the Head Coach of our Development programs.

Danko Bjelica

Danko Bjelica

Coach

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Our longest-serving coach, Danko Bjelica has been an ardent member of the Mavericks coaching staff since 2004.
 
Danko’s passion for the game, technical and tactical experiences as a player and coach, coupled with his personable nature and ability to connect with the athletes, coaches, parents and officials make him a valuable contributor to the Mavericks. 
 
Coach Danko has lead multiple Mavericks teams to podium finishes, and has received Canadian Most Valuable Coaching accolades numerous times in his career.
 
Danko’s own water polo career started in 1975 in the former Yugoslavia with WC Jadran from Herceg-Novi. As a founding member of WC Bosna from Sarajevo, he participated in numerous domestic and international water polo tournaments, and captained the team that won six Republic Cups in a row.
Danko Bjelica

Omar Gutierrez

Coach

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​Coach Omar joins the herd for his first season with us! He played for 21 years with the Mexican National Team. During that time he participated in two junior world championships, four PanAm games, 4 Centro-American Games and won a gold medal in 2002 at the El Salvador Centro-American Games.

He played 13 years as a pro goalie in Spain.

He has coached one season with Pumas UNAM Mexico City, one season with the Club Nautique Livery Gargan senior team and U12 and four years as a Head Coach of the Mexican Men’s National Team, winning one silver medal at the Barbados qualification for the Centro-American Games.

Our Pools

The Mavericks train out of several pools. The pools are indicated in each workout on the team schedule. Please look for your destination among the following maps.

Main Pool

Etobicoke Olympium

590 Rathburn Road, Toronto

West of The 427 and South of The 401 near the intersection of Renforth and Rathburn.

TTC Access – Rathburn Bus #48 leaves from Royal York Station

SWIM AND PLAY BALL POOLS

Keele Street Public School

99 Mountview Ave, Toronto

Gus Ryder Pool

1 Faustina Drive, Toronto

Gus Ryder is located just west of Kipling and north or Birmingham on a small lane way called Faustina Drive.

TTC access – Kipling South Bus from Kipling station to Birmingham. Walk one block west and one block north on Faustina.

Other Pools

Markham Pam Am Centre

16 Main Street, Unionville

Sunnyside Pool

1755 Lakeshore Blvd. West, Toronto

Parent Volunteers

The Mavericks is a volunteer-supported organization. We collect a volunteer deposit at the beginning of each year.

Their volunteer deposit is then used to help offer compensation to get work completed. Parents (or players) who do volunteer, will be credited for their volunteer efforts and can earn back their volunteer deposit which is repaid at the end of each competitive season.