Changing of The Water Polo Guard at Asphalt Green

The arrival of Pro Recco and Ferencvaros in New York City has already had a ripple effect on youth water polo in New York City. In conjunction with this week’s matches between the world’s top professional teams and college powers UCLA and Princeton, host Asphalt Green has announced the hire of Ilija Duretic, currently an assistant coach at Fordham University and a youth coach with Greenwich Aquatics (GA) in Connecticut, as the new full-time head coach of AGUA Water Polo.

This is a significant change of direction for Asphalt Green, and reflects recent comments by David Rodriguez, Senior Director of Aquatics/Head Coach Asphalt Green Unified Aquatics (AGUA).

The way that I've thought about it is, as we've been building momentum towards this event, we've also been building out the infrastructure of the water polo program. We've been building up a staff of coaches over the summer, and we most recently hired a new head coach to take over the program, springboard our program to the next level.

In a statement released Monday to the program’s water polo families, their new head coach will be expected to provide “vision, direction, and structure for athletes at every level of our program, fostering both competitive excellence and personal growth. His experience at the collegiate, club, and international levels uniquely positions him to elevate AGUA Water Polo into a premier program.”

If Duretic’s accomplishments are any indication, the Serbian native will easily make the mark and position AGUA as a Northeastern power. Perhaps Duretic greatest strength is bringing the best out of any roster he is given. While at Greenwich, which has the best developed players on the East Coast, he recently led the club’s 14U boys' team to a second place finish in the championship bracket at the 2025 USA Water Polo Junior Olympics. This is among the best team results in GA history.

But it’s his coaching with St. Francis College’s men’s and women’s teams that mark Duretic as a noteworthy coaching talent. In 2021 he inherited an underperforming SFC Terrier squad and pushed them to the finals of the Northeast Water Polo Conference, where they dropped a 9-6 decision to host Princeton.

That same year, I saw Harvard destroy SFC 20-5 in a conference match in Cambridge, MA. It was the worst loss in recent Terrier men’s water polo history, and suggested Duretic’s team was not responding to his coaching.

They were not; two weeks after that debacle they upset heavily favored Princeton on the road; SFC’s first-ever win against the Tigers at DeNunzio. 

[Not Only Fair Weather Fans Are Rewarded]

St. Francis followed that season up with another Northeast Water Polo Conference final, an almost run to the top that earned Duretic 2022 Head Coach of the Tournament honors.

In 2023 Duretic’s women’s side registered 14 wins, the most in program history.

Then there’s the stellar results at Fordham. After joining Brian Bacharach staff in 2023, the Rams immediately reaped improved results, advancing to the NCAAs quarterfinals after an undefeated run to a Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference title. 2024 saw the Rams enjoy the greatest water polo season in East Coast men’s collegiate history. They went undefeated in marching to an NCAA semifinal against USC. At various times Fordham was ranked as the country’s top team—the highest ranking ever for a non-California program. An 18-16 overtime loss to the Trojans did nothing to dampen an historic season of polo on Rose Hill.

His work is cut out for him

Despite having the best water in The Big Apple—Asphalt Green’s 50 meter pool is by far the longest and best-maintained Olympic facility in New York City—their youth water polo team has lagged local rivals in Connecticut, including Greenwich Aquatics and Connecticut Premier, which operates at Chelsea Piers’ Stamford location.

In bringing in Duretic, who knows the Greenwich way well, Asphalt Green has boosted their program both with a quality hire and addition by subtraction—taking an asset away from a bitter rival. He will be challenged because there is virtually no high school youth competition in New York City. NYC clubs Brooklyn Hustle and Y Pro have recently focused on younger age groups, meaning AGUA water polo will have to find its talent from within—and have to travel outside of the city for meaningful competition.

In replacing  Matt Guerrerio as Asphalt Green Water Polo’s founding coach, Duretic assumes a well-grounded program that achieved success despite the aforementioned absence of high school polo talent. Guerrerio tried mightily to bootstrap his program by absorbing all available polo talent and by partnering with Hungarian youth clubs to field competitive teams in national tournaments.

Outside help will likely not be needed by the new regime; with the full support of AGUA—whose youth swim program is considered one of the country’s best—