Jacob Mercep

Jacob Mercep grew up loving the sport of water polo but also wanted a chance to get a valuable education while continuing to play his sport. Here, he tells Rooted in Sport about his experience at two different universities and his success with one of the best programs in the country, the University of Southern California.

Please tell us which part of Croatia you hail from, which sport you play, and how you began your college recruitment process?

I am from Dubrovnik and started playing water polo with the youth teams in my area. That led to opportunities for me to play with various teams around Croatia and for the national team. I was a European champion multiple times, won the champions league when I was eighteen years old, and won the junior world championships. At one point in high school I could not play for a couple of months because I fell ill with mononucleosis and for this reason I found that my sports career was not in a secure place. I wasn’t sure of what else to do so I decided I wanted to go to the United States. But, my timing was off and by that time everyone else who was planning on playing for colleges had already locked in their scholarships. Financials were a problem for me so I needed to go to a school that offered me a scholarship. That is how I ended up going to San Jose State University my first year in 2017, because it was the only school that had an open scholarship available.

You ended up transferring after your first year, what was that experience like for you and why did you decide to do it?

I had a successful season and first academic year at San Jose State but I entered the transfer portal because I didn’t think the school was the best fit for me. I arrived in San Jose and our pool was under construction so we had to travel forty minutes everyday for practice. Every year there were players that had come through the program without finishing and it became very clear to me that people did not want to stay there for the full four years. I did not find it to be a hard-working, championship mindset and I figured if we are going to play water polo for twenty hours a week we might as well be the best we can be. I also did not like the city of San Jose, in Northern California, it was very different from what I had expected. I took a trip to Southern California to visit a friend and when I got back to Northern California I said to myself, SoCal is going to be my next destination and I will stay for a longer period of time. When I thought I would never get the chance to move out I received a call from the head coach of the University of Southern California at the time, Jovan Vavic, with an opportunity to go to USC. I jumped at it with open arms because that was the best opportunity I had received thus far. Jovan, one of the most decorated NCAA water polo coaches, is Montenegrin and his assistant coach at the time, Marko Pintaric is Croatian so they had known about me earlier. They picked me up and now I am living the dream. When I transferred to USC I luckily did not need to redshirt a season because I was given a release form and allowed to start playing immediately.

How did you decide that college in the U.S. was the best option for you?

I decided to come to America because it is the best place in the world to combine both academics and high level sports; you can get the best of both worlds. Academics and playing sports simultaneously is not really encouraged in Croatia. There is really no other opportunity like this in Europe. Also, in my opinion, the U.S. offers many more long term possibilities outside of sports than where I am from in Europe and since I know I will not be a professional water polo player that is very important to me. Water polo in Croatia is a very popular team sport but most of those players stay to play within Croatia and don’t necessarily use it to leverage bigger opportunities. I don’t think that it is very lucrative nor does it offer any other great opportunities after a water polo player’s career ends. For these reasons I thought the U.S. was the best option for me.

What was it like going from Croatia to the U.S.; a totally new country and culture? What was the transition like?

I completely winged it when coming to America. I had never even visited the country before arriving for my first day of college. All I knew is that I had this great opportunity to come to America and so I did not think too much about it, I just did it. I didn’t know anyone here, but in time I got to know a lot of great people. Culturally, the U.S. is extremely different from Croatia and everything I was used to up to that point. San Jose is an extremely liberal city and I came from Croatia, a conservative country. Pretty much the entirety of California is liberal, but the bay area specifically. It was a shock to me at first. To be honest, I did not enjoy it at first, but in time I grew to like it and now I like it here even more than home. For now I do not have any immediate plans to go back to Croatia. From a language perspective, I knew English because in school I studied it so reading and writing in English was not a very difficult adjustment, but I do have a really thick accent so it was hard for people to understand me at first. Eventually that got better.

How did the strong Croatian community help you during your time at USC?

My current coach is Croatian, we had two Croatians who graduated from the team last year, and we have two incoming Croatians, so there is a fairly large community of us on our team that get to experience all this together. We actually have a house on campus where all of the Croatians and internationals stay together which is nice and we all stick together. Outside of the college campus the Croatian community is very strong in Los Angeles and we even have a Croatian church downtown.

USC has a very successful water polo program, how did you feel coming into an environment like this?

Yes, USC is a very successful water polo school in the NCAA and in 2018 we won a national championship. I had no idea what the NCAA championship was before coming to the U.S. but I started to understand very quickly because of how coaches were presenting it in such a big way. Especially at USC, everyone - coaches and players included - are strongly motivated to win the tournament every year.

What are your plans after college?

I graduated this past year with a degree in economics and now I am completing a masters degree at USC. Due to COVID-19 I received an extra year of eligibility to play and because of that I applied to a masters program, so I will absolutely be playing another season at USC as a graduate student. I think I will be done with my water polo career after next season. I have always been crazy about water polo, especially growing up and never thought I would do anything besides play the sport, but as I have tried other things, created chances for myself, and was presented with other opportunities in college, I realized that water polo is not the only path that I can take. For me, USC is the best place in the world and whoever gets a chance to go there, should. I have nothing negative to say about my time here, and I consider it home. It is part of the best college system the world has to offer for people who are good at sports and also love to study. I am going to stay in Los Angeles for sure once I graduate. I will have a visa for three years after receiving my masters degree and during that time I need to find a job. I am positive that I will not leave Los Angeles, at least for now. I got very lucky because USC is one of the best connected schools on the west coast and very exclusive, but somehow I still got in.

Do you have any tips for young athletes from Croatia looking to go to college in the U.S. to continue in their sport?

I would tell them that going somewhere outside of your home is the best decision you can make in your life. Attending college somewhere else expands your perspective on so many different levels and also creates many more long term opportunities. You will do things you never imagined you would ever be doing and will meet people you never imagined you would meet. A whole other universe opens up for you in the U.S. I would encourage everyone to try and go somewhere outside of Croatia and if they don’t like it they can always come back to Croatia. I can guarantee that not much will change in Croatia by the time you come back.

Thank you Jacob, for speaking with us and sharing your experience playing water polo in California. We wish you all the best with the University of Southern California next season and look forward to following your career outside of sports.