The Great Plava School

Nikola Stamenic was not just a coach. He was a philosopher of water polo, a teacher who transformed the raw water energy into mathematical discipline and artistic expression. For more than four decades, Stamenic has shaped generations of athletes, inspiring not only with his knowledge, but mainly with morality, simplicity and dedication to his art.

Born in Belgrade in 1949, he fought as a player of Partizan and National Yugoslavia, with whom he won the silver medal at the Munich Olympics (1972). But it was his evolution into a coach who was about to establish him as a legend. With Yugoslavia he won the gold at the Seoul Olympics (1988), turning the national team into an unstoppable machine.

In Greece, he left an indelible footprint. He took over Olympiacos in the late 1990s, transforming the Piraeus team into a protagonist in Europe (reached the final of the Cup) and laying the foundations for the absolute domination of Greek water polo in the coming years. In 2002, as a technical adviser, he saw Olympiacos reaching the top of Europe with the Champions Cup.

Nakic gave a whole school. Or his silent revolution laid the foundations of the modern Greek pole

Iron discipline

Stamenic believed in defense, hard work, discipline. He emphasized not only on the physical state, but also on the mental cultivation of athletes. He was talking about « waterproofing-directors », « meaningful movement » and « team instinct ». Many of the leading Greek coaches – such as Thodoris Vlachos, Nikos Deligiannis, Kostas Loudis – were his students, directly or indirectly.

After his departure from the benches, Stamenic never left the soul of the sport. He continued to advise, write, speak passionately about the sport he loved. He died in 2024, leaving behind not only titles and distinctions, but mainly a way of thinking, an approach that made water polo more art and less war.

Nikola Stamenic was the one who was not shouting, but inspired. It was not imposed, but it guided you. And this is the measure of the true leader.

Vlach Orlic, High Priest of the Yugoslav pole, said that Stamenic « made his team pieces as a civil engineer ». Stamenic had a completely own logic for the pole, pioneering, radical and at the same time timeless. His morality was even indirectly honored, when the new regulations of the sport promoted the honest game.

Mile Nakic: The foundation stone of the 90s Olympic. With discipline, principles and dedication, he changed the course of the Greek pole

« Mile » Nacic

Before Stamenic, however, was « Mile » Nakic. There was not only a great pole technician, but a quiet pioneer, a coach who worked with morality, discipline and love for the sport and was the cornerstone of the evolution of Olympiacos on the European map.

Born in 1942 in Sibenik, he began his career as a player for VK šibenik, which he served for ten years. As a coach he started in the same team, where he stayed for eleven years, until he started his big trip to the international scene.

In 1978 he took over Olympiacos for the first time, with a brief but decisive term. He returns the 1985-86 season for the second time and in the mid-1990s returns for his most successful and historical presence in the Piraeus team. In the period 1995-96, he leads Olympiacos to the conquest of two consecutive Greek championships and establishes him as a force in the Greek pole. The bases it laid at that time constituted the background for the subsequent European recognition of the club.

With perseverance in physical condition, obsessed with regular balances and impeccable psychological approach to his athletes, Nakic was considered an absolute knowledge of the sport. He was never noisy, but his teams were talking in the water. He used the Greek School as a springboard to develop the sport to new heights, while working with leading athletes and broadcast the principles of the modern pole to future technicians in the country.

In addition to Olympiacos, he was a coach of National Greece (1992-1995), as well as the National Yugoslavia (1982-1983), leaving his post just two months before the Los Angeles Olympics 1984, where Yugoslavia won the gold medal. He also passed from Chalkida, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Slovakia, leaving everywhere work, and stood out in Glyfada, with four championships and three Greek cups.

Multiplexed, trained and always humble, Mile Nakic was not just a coach. He was a visionary. A man who passed from Olympiacos to critical moments and with his disarming professionalism changed the course of the history of the Polo Department. It is the foundation stone of a large group that was supposed to dominate Greece and conquer the top of Europe.

In 2010, of the 12 clubs of the first division of the Greek Championship, 7 had the coaches who had been Nakic’s players! Names that remain emblematic: today’s federal technician Theodoris Vlachos, Voltyrakis, Hadjitheodorou, Loudis … His training footprint is multifaceted and continues to feed the Greek scene to this day.

In addition, it was Nakic himself who « paved the way » for many Croatian coaches and players in Greece, creating a tradition that is preserved to this day. It is no coincidence that ANTI « Mille » Nacic lived and worked in Greece for 18 years.

Stamenic not only taught tactics, but a way of life in the pool. His vision exceeded the lines of the stadium

Attachment

Nakic, also the father of also red -white Franco Nacic – European champion in 1997 with the Piraeus -, a sign that the sporting spirit and dedication to detail were recorded in his DNA.

Olympiacos and his Greek pole owe a lot. Ante Nakic’s offer is not measured in medals. It is measured in principles, in morals, in course. And this course leaves an indelible imprint on the wet track of Greek sport.

For the two Yugoslavs, in the bloodthirsty red of Olympiacos, their names were indelibly engraved with letters of Serbian intelligence and Balkan honesty. Nikola Stamenic and Ante « Mille » Nakic. The first, architect of integrity, gave birth to a school. He didn’t just train players. He created men, characters who learned to fight fairly in the water, to win without voices and to lose with dignity. As a chlorine poet, he taught the pole as an art, not as a trick.

The second, with a steady gait and a deep look as an Adriatic, built the 90s Olympics. He gave titles, but more gave discipline, structure, recognition. With mathematical precision and calm power, he laid the foundations that still support the greatness of the club. Both from different paths were united in the same mission: to teach morality, passion and perspective.

Stamenic and Nakic were not just Olympiacos coaches. They were carriers of another era, another ethics. And if they once leave the memory of many, they will remain alive in the souls of those who loved Olympiacos with a heart in the coiled water of the relentless pool.