SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — University of California-Santa Barbara Women’s Water Polo Head Coach Emma Myall announced the hiring of the program’s first-ever Director of Analytics welcoming Vladimir Mickic to the Gauchos’ staff in both that role and as an assistant coach.
“I am extremely excited to announce Vladimir as our assistant coach,” said Myall. “He is going to bring a new aspect to the program that we have not had before at UCSB Women’s Water Polo. I was trying to find someone who had collegiate experience playing and coaching and who also was willing to build a program with me, and Vladimir is up for the challenge and I am really excited to have him join the team.”
Mickic comes to Santa Barbara from Mercyhurst University, where he has been an assistant coach for the Lakers’ Men’s Water Polo team since 2024, using a data-driven approach to player development. In his first season at Mercyhurst, the team won more games than in their previous two seasons combined as Mickic contributed his experience and ideas to the team’s practice and game-day plans. A native of Serbia, Mickic also used his intercultural connections to help recruit multiple international student-athletes to the Lakers. While coaching the team, Mickic was also earning his Master’s in Data Science from Mercyhurst.
A former student-athlete at St. Francis College Brooklyn and Gannon University, Mickic has five years of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Water Polo experience as a player to lean on, as well as an accomplished youth career in Serbia and Hungary, during which he was called up to both countries’ youth national teams. Mickic also trained and competed alongside some of the top players in Europe, winning multiple cup competitions across multiple club teams in Hungary.
A native of Subotica, Serbia, and a graduate of Nikola Tesla High School, he began his intercollegiate career in New York.
A 2019 All-Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) at St. Francis Brooklyn for tallying 52 goals and drawing 69 exclusions during a 19-14 season for the Terriers, Mickic transferred to Gannon prior to the 2020 season following the elimination of varsity athletics at SFC.
In 2021 during a COVID-19 shortened winter season, he scored 20 goals to accompany two assists, three steals and 18 drawn exclusions during a 7-2 campaign which saw him earn All-Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC)-West Region First Team recognition. Later that same year during the Fall 2020 season, he notched 34 goals, dished out three assists and grabbed six steals to garner All-MAWPC-West Region Second Team honors in helping the Golden Knights post a 14-10 mark.
During the 2022 season, he tacked on 48 goals, three assists, four steals and 55 drawn exclusions as Gannon finished 9-17.
He concluded his tenure as an athlete in 2023 as part of the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) as he racked up 28 goals, six assists, 14 steals and 50 drawn exclusions during a 12-10 season to post WWPA All-Conference Honorable Mention notice.
Information courtesy University of California-Santa Barbara Athletics Communications
