An Olympian in the making has CSL connections

Dragan Bakoč, president of the Canadian Soccer League and head of member club Serbian White Eagles, has always considered soccer to be the best sport in the world. It’s a safe sport and relatively inexpensive, he will reason. Bakoc is aware also that no other game has satisfied the spirit of competition more than soccer and more than any other sport soccer has helped to bring together countries kept apart for political reasons. In Canada, he knows soccer has more registered players than any other team sport, including ice hockey.

But Bakoč, and his family, have also become engrossed in water polo in recent years while daughter Verica Bakoc has been swimming her way to be one of Canada’s top players and a member of the national team in the Pan Am games just ended at Santiago, Chile. She is just one step away from becoming an Olympian and if Canada’s Women can qualify at an event taking place in February the next Olympic Games opportunity will be Paris 2024. Water polo is the oldest sport at the Olympic Games.

Verica was first recognized for her scoring ability in the sport while attending high school at Silverthorn Collegiate Institute in Toronto and was named the Provincial Championships MVP in 2013. She is presently a member of the Mavericks team which plays out of the Etobicoke Olympium pool in Toronto’s west-end and she also plays for Mediterrani of Barcelona, Spain. She earlier played for USC Trojans while attending the University of California and was a member of the 2018 and 2021 University National Championship winning teams scoring four goals while defeating the highly regarded UCLA in the 2021 final. Verica Bakoc has also competed for Canada in the 2019 World University games.