The Morning Swim Show, Sept. 8, 2011: Peter Kurzeka Looking to Make History with USC Water Polo

PHOENIX, Arizona, September 8. PETER Kurzeka and the water polo team at the University of Southern California are looking to make history this season, and on today's edition of The Morning Swim Show, he discusses the challenges ahead in pursuing an unprecedented fourth consecutive national title.

A relatively young team and plenty of teams hungry for the title are just two of the challenges Kurzeka mentions. He also talks about his goals beyond the season, which are not at the forefront of his mind, until after the end of the season. Watch the full show in the video player below and visit SwimmingWorld.TV for more video interviews.

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Show Transcript: (Note: This is an automated service where some typos and grammatical errors may occur.)

Peter Busch: This is the Morning Swim Show for Thursday, September 8th, 2011. I'm your host Peter Bush. In the FINIS Monitor today we'll talk to Peter Kurzeka, the senior at the University of Southern Cal, was the MVP of the NCAA Water Polo Tournament last year, helping the Trojans to their third straight national title. Peter joins us right now in the FINIS Monitor from Los Angeles. Say, Peter, welcome to the show. How are you?

Peter Kurzeka: I'm doing good. Thanks for having me.

Peter Busch: Yeah, so four straight, that's pretty impressive.

Peter Kurzeka: Well, that's the goal, yeah. One more year and three has been amazing, but nothing will really compare to four and nothing would compare to four, and no one has done it before, so we'll see.

Peter Busch: Is this something you guys don't like to talk about or has it come up often as a motivator?

Peter Kurzeka: I think it's a huge motivator. No one in the water polo world has ever accomplished it. I think it's extremely hard. I think winning three itself was one of the hardest things we've ever had to work for and I think this year is gonna be the hardest of all for — or of all three championships so far to win. I think if you look at the competition out there this year, especially we've got teams breaking into that normal top four with Cal, UCLA, Stanford, now you got Pacific or teams like Santa Barbara there. They're really gonna be pushing us.

Peter Busch: Do you think your team — how does your team compare to last three this year?

Peter Kurzeka: I think we're very young. I think we still have that niche where we're really close and we are all buying into the system. We all want to become better players individually as well as a team. I think we have a great group of guys as far as work ethic and we're all very motivated still, you know, although it's been a long three years, always is with Jovan, but we're finding ways to keep ourselves motivated and take each day as it is and not look too far ahead.

Peter Busch: Who seems to be the biggest challenge to you this year? Is it still Cal like it was last year?

Peter Kurzeka: I would say yes, especially being that NCAAs are at Cal again and obviously they were there last year when we played them and, you know, there gonna be extremely motivated to come back and revenge last year. And, you know, you look at their team and how much talent they have and they have a bunch of guys who are gonna be there now, for them their fifth year, you know, they're coming back after using their redshirt year and they're gonna be hungry and they are very talented team, very good group of guys, so we'll see, you know. You know what, there's always gonna be good teams. I think Cal, UCLA, Stanford is always gonna be a battle. You can't take any game lightly and we're gonna have a really tough year because we get to play all these teams three, four times a year.

Peter Busch: Your bio describes you as a full-fledged offensive threat and defensive lock. Does that just mean you don't cherry pick? What does that mean exactly?

Peter Kurzeka: I think it means I play within our system. I think Jovan has it set up that, you know, if we're gonna go up against a team, we're gonna run the same system and that's our team's philosophy. If it's my turn to shoot and that's what the defense is giving, then I'm gonna shoot it. If it's my turn to pass, them I'm gonna be the guy who's giving the passes. I think that's kind of a testament to how we've been successful is we play within Jovan's system and the program itself is what has us winning. It's not any individual stepping up or taking over. It's everyone playing within the same system that runs on the same page and that usually turns out to be successful for us.

Peter Busch: But they don't just count on you to score it sounds like. They want you to man up, too, when they're on the attack.

Peter Kurzeka: Definitely. I think defense wins championships. And if were gonna be successful this year, it's gonna be the same case. We're gonna have to defend teams like Cal who's got a ton of good shooters and amazing offense. So I think defense is gonna win us this championships as well and, you know, on the offensive end we're worry about that second.

Peter Busch: Now, what would be the scouting report on you? Why are you so successful at scoring goals?

Peter Kurzeka: I think I understand the game. I think over the past three years I really developed my water polo IQ and understand when it's good time to attack, when not to, and I finally feel like I'm getting back to being very healthy where I've kind of got my leg strength back, and, you know, I'm just going to be a little more aggressive now.

Peter Busch: So aggression and better shot selection and some other drivers?

Peter Kurzeka: Yeah, I think just taking what comes to me and, yeah, being aggressive, that's what I would say.

Peter Busch: How will it work in terms of next year with the Olympic team? You're one of the best players in college water polo, you would think you got a good shot, but you're not technically on the national team now, correct?

Peter Kurzeka: That's correct. I've trained with them. I've trained with them for a few years now. You got a lot of the older guys who have been playing forever and they are, you know, working to win a gold medal and anytime you have guys that have been playing together for that long, you know, they have that extra niche on you, you know, they know each other better. And, you know, it's good to train with them, you learn a lot, and I think, you know, if they got to train, they're gonna do really well. Hopefully, I'll be able to, you know, be lucky to have the opportunity to train with them before going to London and, you know, if I do have that opportunity, I'll obviously give it all I have, and, you know, whatever comes out of it, make the team or not, you know, I'm still gonna gain from it so. But I'm more setting my priorities right now until December and then kind of reevaluate what's gonna happen after that.

Peter Busch: All right, let's say you don't make the Olympic team, what do you plan to do a year from now?

Peter Kurzeka: Well, I do have another semester at school. I will have until fall of 2012 to earn my major degree. And then after that, we'll see. I'm not completely sure. I ask myself that a lot, but as well a lot of other people ask me, but I think for now it's important to really just work every day to achieving fourth national championship. I think this is a special opportunity and I don't wanna, you know, be worrying about my career after when I have this great chance right in front of me. I'm trying to focus on the goal at hand.

Peter Busch: You brought up school. I noticed you're a human performance major. I mean, some could argue you do that every day in playing water polo, but what does that mean in the classroom?

Peter Kurzeka: That's funny. Actually, I just switched back to what I originally started majoring at USC which is policy planning and development with real estate development track. But I was taking classes for two years. I'm thinking I wanna be human performance major, but that was more — it's part of our Kinesiology Department here at USC, a lot of classes that were — revolved around dieting, nutrition. There's some sport psychology classes, some sport sociology classes, you know, you had to take the Bios with the premed students, so you're learning a lot of science and, yeah, especially what it is, human performance and it's the science behind it.

Peter Busch: Got you, but now it's more like real estate.

Peter Kurzeka: Now, it's more real estate, yeah. The two don't really click but I decided to switch back.

Peter Busch: You're a man of many talents, Peter.

Peter Kurzeka: Thank you.

Peter Busch: Well, it's gonna be fun watching you guys this year. Congratulations on the three years you have had of success. Good luck with the four straight.

Peter Kurzeka: Thank you very much.

Peter Busch: All right, that's Peter Kurzeka joining us from USC. That's it for today's show. I'm Peter Busch reminding you to keep your head down at the finish.
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