Former Salem standouts move into coaching ranks

Three former Salem men's water polo players will begin their collegiate coaching careers when the 2025-26 competitive season commences.

Ivan Zivojinovic, Nikola Krstonosic and Duarte Costa, who played critical roles in the Tigers' first-ever Western Water Polo Association championship run in 2025, are all trading their speedos and caps for clipboards and markers.

"All three of these young men were major reasons for the success of our program," said Salem head coach Rob Bullion. "Their leadership and motivational skills will help make the next generation of collegiate water polo players just as successful."

Zivojinovic joins head coach Justin Vink's staff at NCAA Division I Mount St. Mary's for the 2025-26 academic year. The Belgrade, Serbia native graduated with a Data Science B.A. (2024) and completed a Masters degree in Data Analytics (2025) while competing for the Tigers.

The former Salem utitlity is a two-time ACWPC Division II All-American and claimed All-WWPA recognition in 2023 and 2024. He claimed ACWPC All-Academic status all five years of his intercollegiate competition. He ranks among Salem's all-time leaders in goals (320, 2nd), steals (69, 17th), assists (115, 7th), earned ejections (152, 4th) and field blocks (36, 3rd). 

Krstonosic and Costa are sticking around the hills of West Virginia and will join coach Bullion's staff on the men's and women's side, respectively, as graduate assistants.

A southpaw from Becej, Serbia, Krstonosic is one of Salem's most prolific players in program history. He became Salem's first NCAA Division II Player of the Year (2024) and was dubbed WWPA Player of the Year twice (2023, 2024). He became the first Tiger to reach the 400-career goal mark.

Ahead of the 2024 NCAA national championship, Krstonosic was honored with the NCAA's Elite 90 award, which recognizes the essence of the student-athlete by honoring the individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level while achieving the highest academic standard among their peers. Annually presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA at the finals site, Krstonosic won with a 4.0 GPA in Cyber Security.

He is pursuing a Masters in Project Management to go along with his Cyber Security B.A. while assisting the men's team.

Costa, a goalkeeper from Lison, Portugal, made 11 saves in the WWPA Championship match to anchor Salem to its 2024 title. He earned All-America Honorable Mention honors and was named WWPA Championship Second Team.

After graduating last year with a Business Administration B.A., Costa will pursue a Masters in Finance while on the women's staff.