Around the World with Adit: Neza Kocijan
Athletics and higher education are two separate entities in most countries. Many lifelong athletes must make the choice to either continue their competitive sport or go to a university when they graduate high school.
"If I were to stay in Slovenia, I would have choose whether or not I want to continue swimming," Neza Kocijan said.
The United States, where athletics and academics can go hand-in-hand, is a haven for those who consider both equally important, but it takes a lot of preparation and courage to take that step. Neza Kocijan is willing to take that step and has the courage to pull through.
Born and raised in Slovenia, Neza started swimming at the age of five when her parents made her learn the sport.
"I was forced because I did not like the water. My parents didn't want me to drown on family vacations, so they made me learn how to swim," she said. "I did not like it much because I do not like getting cold, but after I completed the course, they gave me a medal to recognize my achievement. Looking at that shiny medal made me want to swim even more and here I am 17 years later."
Neza admitted that as a kid, she had too much energy. She would tag along her older brother whenever he played with his friends. To keep her out of trouble, her parents made her try various sports to dispense her access energy.
She remembers practicing gymnastics, basketball, and volleyball.
Among these sports, swimming was the one that she decided to commit to. She said her first coach always made sure practices were fun so she started enjoying swimming.
"I was with my first coach for two years before she had to move away. After that there was a year where I did not really have a coach.," she said.
At 10 years old, Neza transferred to a club team where she met who turned into her lifelong coach.
"To this day, he is still my coach and I would practice with him whenever I go home," she said. "And it was not only me; there were a couple of other kids that stayed with him from when we were kids."
Under his coaching, Neza earned the opportunity that propelled her swimming career.
In 2013, at the age of 14, Neza earned a spot to represent Slovenia at the 2013 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival at Utrecht, Netherlands.
It was the biggest event of her career, but unfortunately, it started on a sour note.
"I earned a spot in the youth national team because of my 100 meters freestyle, which I consider my main event," she said. "But during the race, I messed up."
In the race, as she was approaching the wall at the end of the first 50-meter leg, she flip-turned slightly too early—barely touching the wall with the tip of her toes thus unable to do a proper push-off for the second leg.
"It got me down, especially because it was my main event," she said. "But I had to race the 50-meter freestyle on that same meet, and I have nothing to lose since it is not my main event."
"Anyone can swim a 50, so I'm just going to go out there and have fun."
Little did she know that it would be a career-propelling event.
She blazed through the preliminaries and semifinals and before she knew it, Neza was getting ready to race in the finals of the 50 meters freestyle.
Having many swimmers seeded above her, she did not care about getting a podium finish and focused on herself.
She took her mark and dove as the beeper went off.
As she broke the surface, some water went inside her goggles, but it didn't bother her since it was just a 50 meters sprint. When she hit the wall and turned to the scoreboard, she could not see anything because of the water in her goggles.
She drained the water out of her goggles and saw that she had finished third. She immediately turned to look at the stands where she saw her mother crying.
"I saw my father there too, and though he seemed calm, I bet he's also crying."
That performance earned Neza a spot in Slovenia's senior national team. She competed at many European meets, including the 2015 European Games in Azerbaijan and the 2016 European Junior Swimming Championships in Hungary.
During that period, Neza juggled her social and school life with practice and travel meets.
"Once you get to a certain level, swimming takes a lot of your time," she said. "My friends would schedule events that I couldn't attend because I practice twice a day for two hours. That's when it hit me that I am missing 'normal' teenage activities."
Neza did not let it get to her head. She realized that she was not missing anything too important and could still have social events outside of the practice schedule.
She also admitted that having close friends in the swimming pool made it easier.
"A lot of my friends that I swam with when I was small still practiced with me until high school," she said. "Having friends there made me enjoy practices even when on hard days, and we were dying."
She implied that practices feel like her social events.
On the other end, academics was never an issue.
Neza loves studying, so she could easily focus on class.
"For things I like, it is easy to focus in class," she said. "For subjects that I'm not interested in, for example, history, it was hard."
When she graduated high school, Neza had to choose her future. Athletics or academics.
"Universities in Slovenia require their students to spend most of their days on academics," she said. "Some of them have their students sit through eight-hour classes."
Neza would not be able to practice swimming as much as she used to if she chose to enroll in a Slovenian university and her parents think it would have been a waste of all the work she has put in her whole life.
Her parents pitched the idea of studying and competing in the United States.
"At first, I did not want to go and leave my family, but my parents told me to just try and make profile to see if there are schools that are interested, and who knows, maybe I will like the school," she said. "So, I took the steps that I needed even though I was not very invested."
In the fall of 2017, a couple of head coaches contacted her, one of them was NM State's Rick Pratt.
"I was afraid to go on a Skype call with him—Zoom was not a thing yet back then—because my English was not good," she said. "But Coach Rick impressed me as a nice guy and convinced me to come to NM State."
She said NM State checks all the boxes, including locating in a place with warm climate.
"If I am to live in a foreign country for four years, it has to be somewhere warm so I can swim outdoors and get a tan," she said. "But it wasn't as warm as I thought it would be! I did not even pack my sweatpants when I first came here!"
Aside from the climate expectations, her transition to living in Las Cruces was not as challenging as Neza expected, and she credits that to the people around her.
"The coaches has been really nice to me and having other internationals around me also made it easier."
She also said knowing that many people in the area have English as their second language made her less self-aware of her accent and speaking ability.
Despite the smooth transition, Neza would still get homesick every now and then, and having close friends and coaches eases those moments.
"Checking (the high) price of flights from here to Slovenia also helped ease my homesickness," she said with a laugh.
Morre than three years has passed and now she is on her last year as an Aggie. Neza said the years of being an international student-athlete have naturally made her more independent.
She believes that now she can make better decisions and be self-sufficient while also being more outgoing in creating relationships and asking for help.
Neza is grateful that she chose to got to NM State and though she thinks that calling her teammates a family is a little cheesy, she believes the relationships she has made will last a lifetime.
"I am also really grateful for my coaches, the fact that they took their time to work with me to help me improve even though I am going to be leaving in just a few years meant a lot."
After graduating with a bachelor's degree in kinesiology this spring, Neza will go on and study physical therapy at Texas Tech.
Before that, Neza is excited to conclude her career as an Aggie at the WAC Swimming and Diving Championship, Feb. 23 to 26.
She also affirmed that even after graduating she will still be in the swimming pool from time to time.
