Jovan Vavic

Vavic was born in Yugoslavia.[3] He grew up in Herceg Novi, SR Montenegro, and emigrated to the United States in 1984.[2][4] Vavic graduated from UCLA (bachelor's degree in history, 1992).[3] He and his wife, whom he married in 1990, have four children.[3][5] He is a resident of Palos Verdes Estates, California.[6][5]

From 1987 to 1990, Vavic coached water polo at Palos Verdes High School.[6]

Vavic was the head coach of the U.S. water polo team at the 1995 World University Games in 2003.[3] In 2012, he was interim head coach of the United States men's national water polo team.[3]

He became a coach at University of Southern California (USC) in 1992, and was the head coach of the USC Trojans men's and women's water polo teams.[6][3] Vavic led both teams to national championships three times in the same school year.[3] He won the National Coach of the Year award 15 times, and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Coach of the Year award 13 times.[3] In 2015 he was named Pac-12 Coach of the Century.[7] His teams won 16 national titles, including 1998, 2003, 2005, and 2008 with the USC men's water polo teams.[3] Vavic coached 14 Peter J. Cutino Award winners.[3] Among the Olympians he coached were J. W. Krumpholz, Flora Bolonyai, Anni Espar, McQuin Baron, and Thomas Dunstan.[8][9][10]

Vavic was arrested and indicted in March 2019 in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal.[11][12] He was accused of signing two "recruits" who had never actually played competitive water polo, to help the students gain admission to USC, in exchange for $250,000 in bribes from the students' parents.[13][14][11] He was charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering.[15][14] The charge carries penalties of a prison term of up to 20 years, and up to $250,000 in fines.[16][1]

Vavic was fired by USC in the immediate wake of his indictment.[2]