By One Serbian and one Italian, both candidates for the USA men’s senior national team head coaching position, share deep roots in European teaching styles derived from years of experience with two of the great Mediterranean professional clubs. Dejan Udovicic (Oo-DOH-vich-ich) and Carlo Silipo are both sticklers for teaching fundamental skills, regardless of age or experience, and have visions for creating sustainable programs from their roots, attributes that would serve USA Water Polo extremely well.
So say two colleagues with unique understanding of both the highly successful men and methods of Europe, and the mercurial ways of water polo in the States. Either man would be a good choice for the USA according to Giovanni Napolitano and Igor Samardzija, American-based coaches familiar with the two finalists.
“I’m biased because I’m Italian,” said the adopted Californian Napolitano, favoring former Posillipo head coach Silipo.
Napolitano now serves as head coach of the boys’ team at Menlo-Atherton High School and founded Zumo USA, a water polo apparel maker (Zumo is a sponsor of Total Waterpolo). He met Silipo often during Napolitano’s 11-year professional playing career.
“He’s a really nice guy in the water. A fair player, and one of the best in the world,” he recalled.
With his playing career done Silipo emerged as a serious coach, accumulating management skills and coaching methods at Posillipo that could address the current state of the US national team, according to Napolitano.
“He built a pretty good team from young players. Posillipo didn’t have a lot of money or resources when he started coaching. He had to get young players and they were able to compete. He built them the way he wanted them to play, gave them strong instruction,” he said, enough so to produce top-four results in Italy’s highly competitive Serie A water polo league.
All of which sounds very familiar when speaking to Samardzija about Udovicic.
“He is capable of creating players, which is what the US team needs,” he said in a phone interview from upstate New York, where his family recently welcomed home his newborn son awaits a new baby.
“He teaches from the European school, which is lacking in the US.”
Samardzija would know. The former St. Francis College (Brooklyn) head coach completed the rigorous coaching curriculum of the Italian Olympic Committee and remains on staff at Red Star Belgrade, a legendary European club. From that position he witnessed Udovicic ascent at Partizan, the well-known rival club.
“He saved Partizan in the nineties by not allowing players to sign ridiculous contracts. He focused on young players, not crazy contracts for big stars. He should take credit for current Serbian players, like Filipović,” he said, referring to Filip, 2009 European Player of the Year and stalwart on the Serbian national team.
A return to fundamentals and teaching youth are themes both Napolitano and Samardzija emphasized when speaking about the US mens’ team. The squad, which finished a disappointing eighth at the London Olympics, is regrouping and has lost several key veterans to retirement. That inexperience was on display during February’s UANA Qualifying Tournament in Calgary, where the team lost twice to lower-ranked Canada. It was enough to earn a spot in this summer’s FINA World Championships in Barcelona, but raised concerns among fans and observers.
The team must now rely more on younger players, ones who often have no European training at all, a state similar to that which met Ratko Rudic when the legendary Croatian coach was selected to head the program in 2001.
Both men believe the European candidates are well suited to replicate the successes that were credited to Rudic during his tenure: drilling the basics, making players tougher physically and mentally, finding and nurturing new talent, working jointly with program managers to get it all done.
The last skill is a vital one since USA Water Polo hired Marty Samuels as Chief Operating Officer in February. The former Hybrid Apparel CEO is tasked with improving the overall performance of the national teams and has been central in recruiting and interviewing coaching candidates. His is the position that best mimics the director of sports posts (akin to a basketball general manager) at European clubs, like Partizan and Posillipo.
Udovicic stood out in that regard, working closely with his brother, the Director at Partizan at the time, to revamp an aging, overpaid roster, according to Samardzija.
And both are familiar with the quirks of the US system.
“[Silipo] has a lot of international experience. And he did play with [former US national Chris] Humbert, and coached Tim Hutten,” said Napolitano, referring to current US national team member.
Samardzija was less certain about Udovicic’s specific knowledge of the American system, but was confident in his ability to learn it. “He is in the US often and speaks English well,” Samardzija remarked. “He’s one of those guys like Jovan: crazy about water polo,” he said, referring to USC coach Vavic. “He will watch hundreds of hours of games and tapes, bring a scientific perspective” to the game.
Either man, if selected, is faced with the challenge of living up to the silver medal performance of the 2008 Olympic team and facing international squads with an unusual number of new coaches and talented young rosters. The final selection is expected this week, after which the new coach will have only six weeks to select and prepare a team for the Barcelona world championships. And if one of the two Europeans is the final choice, Giovanni Napolitano and Igor Samardzija are confident he will meet the challenge, whether Serbian or Italian.
Udovicic was trashing USA water polo last year and now he wants to be the coach?