Robert Bullion is entering his 15th season at Salem University, currently serving as head men’s water polo coach, assistant women's water polo coach and Salem aquatics director. In his tenure he also served as the Tigers’ head women’s water polo coach and head men’s and women’s swimming coach at Salem. Bullion has the most wins for a Men's Water Polo Coach in Salem history with 123 wins. He recently passed his father, Dr. Keith Bullion, who was inducted into the Salem Athletic Hall of Fame in 2020. He also coached Djordje Stavrevski, who was inducted into the Salem Athletic Hall of Fame in 2023. Bullion was the 2022 and 2024 Association of College Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) Division II Coach of the Year; 2024 WWPA Coach of the Year; and is also a three-time College Water Polo Association (CWPA) Division II Men’s Water Polo Coach of the Year, winning the award in 2012, 2016 and 2022.
Under Bullion, Salem won the 2024 WWPA Championship, sending the team to their first NCAA Tournament Appearance. In 2022, they won the CWPA Division II Championship and has been the CWPA Division II runner-up in each of the five years before (2021, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016). He was runner-up in the 2018 MAWPC-West Championship and received a 3rd place finish in 2017, 2019, and 2021.
In 2024, he repeated as WWPA Regular Season East Champions again with a perfect 4-0 record in conference play, finishing the season 20-4. One of the biggest wins of the year was the one over D1 Bucknell at Harvard. This was the first time in Coach Bullion’s career, and hasn’t been done since his father, Keith, did it in 2004. This season also saw them ranked #20 in the National Top 20 polls for the first time in school history.
In 2023, his team was the WWPA Regular Season East Champion with a perfect 6-0 record in conference play. They ended up finishing 3rd at WWPA Championships after a 19-4 record.
In 2022, after conference re-alignment, Salem was able to beat Division I Wagner for the first time in school history to make it to the semifinals, finishing 4th in the MAWPC. Another highlight from the 2022 season was beating the United States Naval Academy for the first time in school history. His teams have also excelled in the classroom. The Tigers have compiled the top men’s water polo team GPA in the nation in four of the last ten years. During Bullion’s tenure, he has coached 113 ACWPC All-Academic Award winners, including CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team honoree (Milos Popovic) in 2019-20. In the pool, Bullion has coached one Olympian (Michael Izdinsky of the 2016 French Men’s Water Polo National Team) and Eight All-Americans: Michael Izdinsky (2013), Djordje Stavreski (2016, 2017), Milos Popovic (2018, 2019), Nikola Krstonosic (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024), Ivan Zivojinovic (2021, 2022), Julen Alonso (2022), Marko Zivojinovic (2022, 2023, 2024), Duarte Costa (2024). Nikola Krstonosic (2022, 2023) and Marko Zivojinovic (2022) also have made the Cutino Award Watch List. Nikola was named 2024 ACWPC Division II Player of the Year along with the 2024 Elite 90 Award for best GPA at the NCAA Tournament. Bullion has coached 7 WWPA All-Conference Selections (Nikola Krstonosic (2023,2024), Marko Zivojinovic (2023, 2024), Ivan Zivojinovic (2023, 2024) ; Danko Kesic (2024); 2 MAWPC All-Conference Selection (Nikola Krstonosic and Marko Zivojinovic - 2022) and 13 MAWPC-West
All-Conference Selections, including 3 Player of the Year’s (Milos Popovic - 2019 and Nikola Krstonosic – 2023; 2024) and 4 Rookie of the Year's (Milos Popovic - 2016, Petar Leontijevic - 2017, Nikola Krstonosic – 2022, Danko Kesic - 2024). Bullion earned his master’s degree from Salem in 2014 in international business and earned his bachelor’s degree in business management from Gannon University, where he was a four-year water polo student-athlete. Gannon posted four consecutive winning seasons during Bullion’s playing career and compiled 49 of the first 100 wins of Golden Knights’ all-time career men’s water polo wins leader Don Sherman. Outside of water polo, Bullion is an avid fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Penguins. He is also insistent that "Die Hard" is a Christmas movie. Bullion is engaged to Terra Creak and has two children, Jailey and Mason. He is also a new Grandfather to Remington.
