Jovan Vavic Named MPSF Men's Coach Of The Year
December 02, 2003 | Men's Water Polo
Dec. 2, 2003
LOS ANGELES -- USC men's water polo coach Jovan Vavic was named 2003 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Coach of the Year as voted on by the MPSF coaches Tuesday. The all-conference teams were also released today with six Trojans earning honors, including three on the first team.
Sophomore two-meter defender Juraj Zatovic (Novaky, Slovakia), junior driver James Shin (Long Beach, Calif./Wilson HS) and senior goalie Bozidar Damjanovic (Belgrade, Yugoslavia/Cypress Creek HS, Houston, TX) earned All-MPSF first team honors. Zatovic leads the team in goals with 54 while Shin is second with 43 goals this season. Damjanovic has made 172 saves in 24 matches this season for the Trojans.
Senior two-meter Predrag Damjanov (Belgrade, Yugoslavia/11th Belgrade HS) earned All-MPSF second team honors while senior driver Gadi Hadar (Kibutz-Givat-Haim-Icud, Israel) earned All-MPSF third team honors. Junior two-meter defender Nick Andrejic (Pasadena, Calif./Loyola HS) earned All-MPSF honorable mention honors.
Vavic guided the Trojans this season to a 22-3 record and the MPSF Tournament title, as well as the regular season tri-championship. No. 1 USC won the MPSF Tournament last Sunday with an 8-6 win against No. 2 Stanford in the championship match to earn the automatic bid to the NCAA Championship this weekend at Stanford.
This is the first time that Vavic has received the honor for the men's team. Vavic, who also coaches the USC women's water polo team, was named 1999 National Coach of the Year and MPSF Coach of the Year after leading the Women of Troy to the national championship.
USC will play No. 4 seed Navy (25-6) on Saturday (Dec. 6) at 6 p.m. with the winner playing the winner of the Stanford-Loyola Marymount semifinal for the national championship on Sunday (Dec. 7) at 5 p.m.
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