Men's water polo

Pintaric caps Croatian trio

By Jeff Kothe
Staff Writer

Once again, the image of fun and sun that is southern California has grabbed another top-notch water polo player from the country of Croatia.
But it's probably more the influence of Jovan Vavic, the Yugoslavian USC co-head coach, that continues to produce a steady influx of quality Eastern-European water polo players to USC. This year's newcomer is junior transfer Marko Pintaric.
Pintaric, who comes to USC from Zagreb, Croatia, is the latest talent in a long line of Croatian expatriates who have come to the United States to play for the Trojans.
"This is my first time (in the) USA," Pintaric said. "I've enjoyed it a lot because it's a new experience for me. School is good, it's really good because it's different."
Although it seems odd that a country like Croatia could produce a lot of great water polo players, it's in a part of the world that considers the sport a pastime.
Last season, the Trojans missed a national championship by one goal with a team that boasted four Croatians: Marko Zagar, who is now a volunteer assistant coach with the team, Hrvoje Cizmic, who graduated, and Simun Cimerman and Mateo Juric, who are still with the team.
These players come to the United States under the guidance of Vavic, but they understand that they are here to do much more than play water polo.
"(Croatian) students have to be, first of all, interested to study here," Vavic said. "They don't come here to play sports, they come here to study. That's the first question I ask is, `Do you want to come here and be a student?' The number one thing is that they want to come here to continue their education. I usually recruit good students and guys who are gonna do well, and, in general, our international students have done great here."
Along with Cimerman and Juric, who is still out with a hand injury, Pintaric provides much of the offense and scoring opportunities for USC. Although he is one of the Trojans' best players, he refuses to act like it.
"I'm the new guy here," he said. "I don't want to (have a large leadership role). I'm brought here, I want to study here, I just play. This team is a young team and we don't function like stars. I am not a star. We prefer the team game."
Although he claims not to have a bigger role than any of his teammates, Pintaric does fulfill his responsibility of helping the younger, inexperienced players.
"He's a team player. He's not selfish," Vavic said. "He's very easy to coach, and the guys like him. They really enjoy playing with him. He's not going to criticize you when you make a bad play, even though he has more experience. If he's gonna criticize somebody, it's gonna be constructive criticism and the guys really appreciate that."
Pintaric's savvy comes from his extensive water polo experience in Croatia. He's been a veritable water dog since early childhood, learning to swim when he was six, before he began playing water polo exclusively at age nine.
"(Pintaric) has a great sense of what's going on in the game. He understands the game," Vavic said. "It's something that you learn by playing water polo longer. He has experience, and that's what really sets him apart.
"He has incredible acceleration, he's a very good passer, he has a great arm, so he really is a whole package."
Not only has Pintaric been playing for a long time, he's been playing at a very high level. He was a part of the Croatian Junior National Team for 10 years before coming to America, and it was that experience that helped him become the player he is today.
"I met people from all over Europe, and I played in Israel too," Pintaric said. "And every country has (different styles) of water polo, and you can learn a lot from other countries."
His international skills have resulted in 22 goals and 23 points in the Trojans' first eight games to become the team's leading scorer. He scored five goals against UC Davis last weekend and led the team in scoring with nine goals during the Southern California Water Polo tournament. He was named to the All-Tournament first team at the event.
Not only have his first weeks in the pool been successful, but his first two months in Los Angeles have also been exciting.
"I came from a small country of only 4 million people," Pintaric said. "Los Angeles is (over 10) million, this city is big. So far I like it. I like America and I like meeting other people. Everybody is (nice) to me. I have no complaints."