Head Coach & Club Director Pavle Filipovic

Head Coach for Boys’ Water Polo & Boys’ & Girls’ Swim Programs and Aquatics Coordinator at Sage Hill School.

Pavle Filipovic was born in Belgrade, Serbia and grew up playing water polo for the well-known professional Serbian water polo club, Partizan WPC. Pavle has played through Partizan’s all age group water polo teams, where he won numerous National and Regional Championships, making it all the way to the Partizan’s Senior Team. With Partizan, he traveled and played in international tournaments in Hungary, Turkey, Italy, and Greece.

After moving to the US, Pavle played 2 years at Long Beach City College (LBCC), where he helped win 2 CA State Championship Titles in 2005 & 2006 and also competed on the swim team. At LBCC, he was a water polo All-American (2005 & 2006), SoCal & South Coast Conference Player of the Year (2006), and All-State Tournament First-Team (2006), and a Team Captain. Upon the transfer in 2007, Pavle also played water polo for 2 years at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) competing at the NCAA Division 1 level in 2007 & 2008.

Pavle has coached for Viking Aquatics, Shore Aquatics, LA Water Polo Club, Harvard-Westlake School, Newport Harbor HS, Newport Beach Water Polo Club, Vanguard Aquatics in the past 10 years. He also served as an Assistant coach for the Men’s and Women’s Water Polo and Swim teams at Long Beach City College from 2015 to 2017 and as an Assistant coach for USA Water Polo Men’s Junior and Youth National Teams. With the USA Water Polo Men’s Youth Nat’l Team, Pavle has traveled to Podgorica, Montenegro to Youth World Championships in 2016 serving as an Assistant Coach. He is currently a member of the USA Water Polo Men’s Nat’l Team Coaching Staff and is the Head Coach and Aquatics Coordinator of Sage Hill School Boys’ Water Polo and Boys’/Girls’ Swim Programs.

Pavle obtained his Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in Political Science from CSU Long Beach in 2009 and his Master’s Degree in Teaching & Education from National University in 2013. Pavle resides in Costa Mesa, CA.

Board of Directors

President Dragan Jovanovic

Current TeamImperial Water Polo Club

Dragan is an international leader in the development of the sport of water polo. He has gained extensive expertise in the game as both a National team athlete and Olympic coach.

Born in the former Yugoslavia (Serbia), Dragan grew up living water polo. He has been successful in the sport for almost four decades and in high performance sport for over 30 years as an athlete, club coach, nation team coach, high performance director, president and CEO.

He has participated in elite competition including the Olympic Games, FINA World Championships, European Championships, Champions League, Pan American Games, FISU Games, and the Commonwealth Games. He is a multiple medal winner in the pool, and the creator of innovative, fundamental programs within a National Sport Organization.

Coach Chanel Schilling

Coach Chanel was a standout center player at Newport Harbor HS and UC San Diego. At the HS level, she was coached by famous water polo coach Bill Barnett and won CIF Div 1 title and was a CIF Div 1 runner up twice. At the UCSD, she an All-American all four years, a NCAA Div 2 Newcomer of the Year as a Freshman, and NCAA Div 2 Co-Player of the Year as a Senior. As a coach, she worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor for the City of Newport Beach (2014-2018) and was a volunteer assistant coach with the Newport Harbor HS teams for 3 seasons (2016-2019). She has done water polo camps with US Water Polo Olympian – Genai Kerr. Coach Chanel will be coaching the 10U/12U Girls Teams and also helping with the specific center work.