Four years ago, Milos Vrzic arrived at Long Beach State and found the team in such disarray that he never would have believed that a four-game winning streak against the toughest water polo conference in the country would be possible.
“When I got here, it was a really bad situation,” he said. “At one point, we only had 13 or 14 players.
Throughout the time he has spent at The Beach, Vrzic has seen the direction of the program shift from being mediocre to being successful. This season, the senior attacker finds himself on a roster that now has 33 names, with 20 active players.
A veteran presence on the team, the blonde-haired and blue-green-eyed, Serbian-born water polo fanatic started out his 49er career in 2011. That year, LBSU finished with only one conference win, and placed last in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
The 49ers are now ranked fifth in the nation, and are going into the weekend games against No. 4 Southern California and UC San Diego with a 5-1 conference record.
In the four years Vrzic has played at LBSU, he has contributed 135 goals and a positive energy that reflects in his team’s togetherness.
Senior utility Devin Mefford has played with Vrzic since the 2011-12 season, and he said that this season is the first time since he’s been on the team that the water polo program has had a group of leaders that the underclassmen can look up to.
“All the freshmen right now are seeing this strong junior and senior class that would give their life and blood for the next player,” Mefford said. “We didn’t have that. The guys who were here did what they could, but everyone around them quit, and they were left by themselves. We have a bunch of guys that didn’t quit and stuck together.”
Before he arrived to LBSU, Vrzic played for the Banjica Water Polo Club in his native town, Belegrade, in Serbia.
His water polo background has made him an established player on this season’s roster, someone other players feel they can learn from.
“Milos is a very smart player, he sees things before they’re happening,” head coach Gavin Arroyo said. “He knows what to do with the ball, and I like the ball in his hands. He’s brought a level of IQ that other players can watch and learn from.”
At five years old, Vrzic took up Aikido, a Japanese art form of self-defense that focuses on using opponents’ weight and size against their own will. Vrzic credited the discipline and techniques of Aikido for making him the smart and savvy player he is today.
“I was really good at [Aikido], and was supposed to go to Japan and study there,” Vrzic said. “However, in like the sixth grade, the European Championships was in my country, and over there, water polo is one of the most popular sports. Serbia won, and I literally watched that game live in front of me.”
It was at that epic European championship game that Vrzic’s passion for water polo began.
“I remember going home that day and telling my dad, ‘Dad, I want to play water polo,’” he said.
Throughout his four-year career, Vrzic has scored a total of 135 goals, and earned All-MPSF Honorable Mention and All-MPSF All-Academic Honors. But, in the beginning of his 49er career, Vrzic needed to prove to his new teammates that he belonged on the depth chart.
“It was really weird for everyone when they heard I was only 5-feet-9-inches and playing water polo,” Vrzic said. “Aikido showed me how to use my brain when you cannot use your muscles.”
Vrzic’s size worked to his advantage because it forced him to show off his other talents.
He explained that one of the most critical elements of being a top competitor in water polo is being mentally aware and tough.
“The way people play and the way the referees call some things, you really have to play smart to know how to spot certain situations,” Vrzic said. “Especially in this country, because it isn’t as physical.”
Vrzic is focused on helping the 49ers beat UC San Diego on Thursday and Southern California on Saturday. His main goal for this season is to defeat at least two of the nation’s top-four teams: California, UCLA, Stanford or USC.
“I had the luck to beat Cal a couple of years ago there,” Vrzic said. “And that is a feeling I am probably never going to forget because in this country; that has been the biggest water polo success for me.”
It is specific moments like the victory against Cal in 2012 that motivate Vrzic to work harder when the schedule gets more competitive.
“I remember when I first came here, we played against USC, and they destroyed us,” Vrzic said.
“I promised myself, ‘sooner or later we are going to beat you guys.’”