About — Capital Water Polo

Capital Water Polo Club is a year-round training program for boys and girls ages 8-18.
Established in 2011, the organization started with 18 players and today has over 120 participants and five division teams. In 2021 a dedicated girls team was started. All other teams are co-ed and include all levels of players.
Capital strives to help each player reach his or her athletic potential, while participating in one of the most dynamic and demanding sports. The program builds important life skills as well, including teamwork, respect, resiliency and leadership. Most important of all, Capital ensures that every player has fun.

Capital Water Polo Alumni Playing in College

Luke Baird - Santa Clara University
Addison Collins - Iona University
Campbell Collins - Bucknell University
Francis Hendrickson - United States Naval Academy
Joey Madigan - University of the Redlands
Leo Galocha Nikolic - Pennsylvania State University
Petar Stjepanovic - University of the Pacific
Sydney Smith - VMI

Coaches

Miras Jelic - Head Coach / Club Director

Miras has been the head coach of Capital Water Polo since 2017. You can read more about him here and here.

Ben Hoffschneider - Club Assistant Director

Ben Hoffschneider is Capital’s Assistant Director and Team Administrator. Trained as a goalie, Ben’s water polo career began at Gonzaga College High School in DC, where he played three years of Varsity water polo and participated in training trips to Croatia and Montenegro. A graduate of the University of the District of Columbia, he started coaching at Gonzaga in August 2019 and joined the coaching staff at Capital in December 2019.

Ben has been involved with the Olympic Development Program since 2022, and has been Head Coach for the NEZ’s Development age group from 2023-present. He has coached multiple USAWP camps, including two NTSCs and ODP Holiday Camp. He served as an assistant coach for the Youth Academy team at the April 2025 Brown Invitational Tournament, and served as Youth Assistant on the 2025 Regional Futures trip to Belgrade, Serbia. During the day, Ben works as a non-profit fundraiser and professional communications coach.

José Magro - 16U Coach

José has been playing water polo since age 12 and played in the First and Honor divisions of the Spanish leave from ages 16 - 26. He’s also currently a professor of Sociolinguistics and Spanish at the University of Maryland.

Kristóf Kovács - 18U Coach

Kristóf has been playing water polo for more than twenty years, growing up in the “golden years” of Hungary (Sydney, Athens and Beijing Olympic Gold 2000-2008).

After his first year in the sport, he found his place as a goalie. Being a goalie means that he fully understands the fundamentals of a successful waterpolo game: building a team’s performance on different strong defensive tactics while taking advantage of the opponent’s flaws to win.

He played ten years in the Hungarian National 2nd league with his hometown club Pápai SE, and attended several regional, national and international tournaments while he also coached 16u and 18u teams.

From 2015 to 2017, Kristóf has been the managing director of his hometown club and successfully led it out of bankruptcy, by securing funds from municipality, government, and businesses.

Having lived in the Netherlands from 2017 to 2022 he had the opportunity to become a champion in the South-Netherlands regional 2nd league where he’s also coached 15u and 17u teams.

He is a communications professional and lives in DC with his wife Vanessa.