California Golden Bears Athletics
Men's Water Polo
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
- Email:
- jbelamaric@berkeley.edu
Jakov Belamaric enters his fifth season as an assistant coach with the California men’s water polo program in 2026. Since joining the Golden Bears in 2022, Belamaric helped Cal capture back-to-back NCAA championships in his first two seasons, completing the program’s three-year national championship run.
Belamaric has coached since 2011, with experience at the collegiate, high school and club levels. Prior to joining Cal, he spent five years at Del Mar Water Polo Club in San Diego as Technical Director and head coach.
At Del Mar, Belamaric led the 12U boys to the 2021 Junior Olympics Platinum Division championship, the first Junior Olympics title in club history. That same year, he guided the 14U boys to the USA Water Polo Champions Cup championship. In 2022, he led the 14U boys to another Junior Olympics championship. Belamaric received USA Water Polo’s 2021 Ted Newland Distinguished Coaching Award for the Pacific Southwest Zone.
Belamaric also spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Cathedral Catholic High School, helping the Dons capture a CIF championship in 2021.
A native of Šibenik, Croatia, Belamaric began playing senior professional water polo at age 15 for his hometown club, VK Solaris. He spent four seasons with the senior team and represented Croatia at the youth national-team level before moving to the United States to pursue his education and continue his water polo career at Concordia University Irvine.
Belamaric earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management from Concordia in 2015.
