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.