USC Men's Water Polo Outlook
June 21, 1999 | Men's Water Polo
September 8, 1998
The 1998 college water polo season could be wide open, with as many as six or seven different schools having a say in the battle for the national championship. According to the coaches, however, one thing is for sure: USC will be one of those teams and will have its say in the end.
"This will be an exciting year," said USC Coach John Williams, who enters his 26th season at Troy with a record of 424-250-7. "It's going to be very difficult to predict who will come out on top. We could be the best team. We have an opportunity to be at least as good or maybe better than last year."
If that's the case, then the Trojans will be in very good shape. In 1997, they finished second nationally for the second year in a row, won the MPSF Tournament for the second straight year and had an overall record of 21-7.
The Trojans will have to make up for several losses, however. Croatians Simun Cimerman (All-American first team, 42 points) and Mateo Juric (All-American second team, 38 points) graduated, Sean Hylton (25 points) transferred to Pepperdine and sophomore 2-meter player Sean Stuart (16 points) suffered a season-ending shoulder injury.
That said, there's still a tremendous amount of talent returning in 1998, as well as a group of newcomers that could make a difference.
"We've lost some good players and now we need some other players to fill their spots," Williams said. "It's tough to replace players as talented as Simun and Mateo, but I think that several of our new and returning players can move into roles and compensate for them. We definitely have more depth this year."
Williams and Jovan Vavic, Troy's co-head coaches, are in agreement on one of Troy's shortcomings.
"One drawback is that we're not a very big team," said Vavic, who is in his seventh year at USC. "But that's not necessarily a disadvantage if we use our speed correctly. We have a tremendous amount of quickness. This might also be one of the most mature and intelligent teams that we've ever had."
One of USC's strengths, Williams says, is comparable to another sport.
"Thinking in terms of baseball, we're strong up the middle, with goalie Richard McEvoy, 2-meter player James Castle and shooters like Allen Basso, Marko Pintaric and George Csaszar," he said.
Pintaric, a senior driver from Croatia, was Troy's top scorer in 1998 with 63 points. It was his first season at USC and the coaches are hoping that some of the other foreign newcomers have transitions just as successful. Among those players are Csaszar, a sophomore driver from Hungary; Ivan Babic, a freshman 2-meter man from Yugoslavia; and Peter Janov, a junior 2- meter man from Slovakia who starred at Golden West College last season.
In addition to Pintaric, top returnees include junior 2-meter man Castle, who scored 40 points, and junior goalie McEvoy, who made 173 saves in 23 games. Both made the All- American third team.
"Pintaric, Castle and McEvoy all have the potential to be the best players in the country at their positions," Vavic said. "In some ways, Marko was the emotional leader of last year's team and should be outstanding again. Without Castle, this team would go nowhere. He plays a crucial role for us. The best thing for Rich is that he has been healthy, because if he's in good shape, he could be the best goalie in the nation."
Other returners include junior driver Basso (22 points), junior driver Luke Daniels (seven points), senior driver Erik Larson (five points), junior driver Johnathon Hewko (five points), sophomore driver Jim Farley (one point) and junior driver John Jones.
Backing up McEvoy in goal are junior Darin Smith (58 saves in 14 games), junior Ian Laughlin (two saves in one game) and sophomore Ryan McClellan.
"We have a lot of depth," Vavic said. "It's very important that the players who are returning can contribute and be successful. We also need them to provide leadership to the younger guys who haven't seen playing time at this level yet."
Stever O'Rourke is a sophomore driver who redshirted in 1996 and then missed the 1997 season after breaking his arm when he was hit by a car last fall. When he gets back to 100 percent, he's expected to be a big factor for the Trojans.
A group of redshirt freshmen who have spent a year learning USC's system also are now ready to help out: drivers Adam Guerrero, Brian Mericle and D.J. Nurre and 2-meter men Chris Hamme and Adam Moore.
Then, there's sophomore driver Torey Carrick, a transfer from Santa Monica College.
Two veterans will miss the season: sophomore driver J.J. Arden is spending a semester studying in Italy and sophomore 2-meter player Bjorn Nordstrom, who is in the second year of a two-year Mormon mission. Redshirt freshman Jason Korengold, a driver, could also miss the season with an elbow injury.
As usual, USC's main competition will likely be MPSF competitors Stanford, California, UCLA, Pepperdine and UC Irvine.
"Any one of these teams has the potential to beat any of the others," Williams said. "But with our depth and speed, we could be the team that comes out on top."
