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.

It’s terrible.

First off, I flew into Dulles (in Washington, D.C., which is mostly my fault), and it took about an hour to get into College Park. A big shout-out to Tim from Redwood City, Calif., for giving me a ride and to some local Comcast camera guy for not.

By the time I got to the hotel, it was around 11:30 p.m., and I was clearly not acclimated to local conditions by the following morning. If you thought the Cal football team looked sluggish out there, you should’ve seen me in the press box, disgruntled mostly by the poor selection and availability of food therein. Paltry six-inch Subway sandwiches … that ran out!? The ACC still has a long way to go.

I got there around 10 a.m., ate my bundle of turkey and got hungry again by the second quarter.

Leaving College Park was the worst part, however. Two hours past the final whistle, the campus was empty and I was left trying to figure out how to get to the local metro. Luckily, one of the local shuttle drivers was nice enough to go of his way to drop me off. Then I sat on the train for two and a half hours to Springfield, Va. Tortuous.

Senior Frank Reynolds and I sat down for a small chat today to bring me up to speed on the upcoming NorCal tournament, as well as some random tidbits from this past week.

Last weekend Reynolds’ stellar performance of 11 goals, four assists, three steals, three ejections earned and two field blocks at the Navy Open earned him Co-MPSF Player of the Week honors. Even though the Bears are not in action this weekend, don’t be surprised if he retains the honor due to his outstanding play in practice (yes, that was a joke).

In a little more than a week, the Bears will head out to the NorCal tournament in Stockton, CA. The competition is always highly anticipated and features the best water polo schools in the nation including USC, Stanford, UCLA and of course, Cal.

Reynolds related that since the conclusion of the Navy Open, the Bears’ first real test of the season has been preoccupying his mind and those of his teammates.

But more importantly than any sort of upcoming tournament that could set the course for Cal’s season is what happened to Frank Reynolds’ facial hair? The question left me perplexed and I had to find out the answer to the mystery immediately.

Here’s an update following Wednesday’s practice at Witter Field: Defensive tackle Kevin Bemoll will make the 64-man travel roster.

Rejoice! How can you not root for the guy? He’s been through a rough couple years, grumbling his way through drills as an offensive guard. Now he says football is fun again, and he provides comic relief for the D-line unit as well.

However, true freshman Kendrick Payne is sidelined two weeks with a knee. He’ll undergo minor surgery tomorrow, but coach Jeff Tedford expects him to return full-strength. No, Payne will not receive a redshirt.

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.

The Cal football team is back in the national rankings today after putting up a 66-spot on Saturday.

The Bears are No. 23 in the AP rankings and No. 25 in the USA Today poll. I’d venture a guess that everybody associated with the team will stress just how much unimportant the rankings really are. Coach Tedford is going to say that he hasn’t seen them (which is probably true.) But that little number goes a long way in the eye of the national viewer.

Here’s the rest of what I got after prying defensive coordinator Bob Gregory from his kids post-practice. I felt like an a-hole, but in my line of work (college version), nobody’s cutting you a break but yourself. And it’s very much the same for full-time folks, except worse.

Anyway, without further ado …

On cornerback Darian Hagan’s first start:

“You know, I think he played well. I think he’s going to get better and has some technique things he can improve at, but he had a solid game. I think he can be a very good corner for us.”

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