Slated this Saturday for the Cal men’s water polo team is the annual alumni match, which follows a more serious game against the Pacific Tigers. For anyone hoping to see a fun ol’ water polo match with absolutely nothing but bragging rights riding on the line, it will be an event worth watching.

The game is always a highly-anticipated affair for both sides: the young’uns have a chance to push around some out-of-shape alums while the older fellas get to relive their glory days.

As has been tradition, coach Kirk Everist will don a Speedo and head back into the pool, but don’t expect the two-time Olympian to be treated with any respect from his players. In a quick sit-down, senior co-captains Trent Calder and Frank Reynolds unveiled their game plan for keeping Everist in check; expect a few cheap shots from the pair as well as some entertaining trash-talk (fyi in the video Calder’s description of Everist is PG-13).

Only a week after he landed in California, I managed to get freshman Ivan Rackov in front of a camera. Rackov, along with Luka Saponjic, is fresh off of playing for Serbia at the 2008 European Junior Water Polo Championships. The pair helped Serbia to a bronze medal finish, which comes as a slight disappointment considering that they took home the under-18 championship title in 2007.

At the NorCal Tournament Rackov turned some heads with his eight goal outburst. The fact that he even played was startling as a long drawn-out process with the NCAA Clearinghouse only came to a resolution the afternoon before the opening match.

During our conversation, Rackov discussed some of the differences between the European and collegiate games. The distinctions have caused him to change his offensive repertoire, which was on full display at practice.

What he now considers his favorite shot—a dangerously accurate near-post shot from the left side of the goal—seems to be quite effective; during one drill at Tuesday’s practice it caught Zachary White by surprise several times.

The language difference is also another barrier that Rackov will have to work with; last weekend it was one of the contributing factors to the Bears losing two consecutive games. Coach Kirk Everist isn’t too worried about this being a problem and expects everything to be worked out over the next month.

I, for one, would like to see the entire team pick up some basic Serbian to throw off USC, Stanford and UCLA. And by basic Serbian I mean more than just your ole’ doodly ga.

On Monday, I caught up with sophomore Zachary White after the men’s water polo team finished their intra-squad scrimmage. White filled me in on Cal’s strong start to the season and how he is adjusting to his increased role on the team.

During last weekend’s Navy Open, he scored four goals, earned three ejections and had two steals for the Bears. As he did last year, White returns to his position as a center for the Bears, where he will be splitting time with junior Thomas Pearson.

White was the only true freshman during the 2007 campaign who did not redshirt.