Valuing bluntness, motivation and the grit to overcome, decathlete Dino Dodig lives his life on the track as he does off it.

Coming to America by himself from Novi Sad, Serbia for the first time three years ago, Dodig admitted it was a rough transition. He cried. A lot.

His mom, dad and two older sisters were about a 10-hour plane flight away, meaning when Dodig arrived, he had to adjust to the American culture largely on his own as a freshman in college.

“Especially for people in my country, we’re very blunt and straightforward so when I got here, I couldn’t understand how people can be, I would call it fake, I’ll be blunt with that,” Dodig said.

For track and field, this translates to if Dodig is missing his mark for long jump, he wants to know. When Dodig is not reaching the speeds he needs to for the 60 meter dash, he wants to be told how to get faster. There is no sugar coating the information for Dodig-tell it to him straight.

“He wants it,” WSU Assistant Coach of Track & Field Angela Whyte said. “So I would be harder on Dino and he wants that. And we’ve had conversations where maybe I’ve been a little bit too passive with advice or coaching and he said ‘hey, I can’t; I can’t have that.’ And I’m like, ‘Ok!’ because not everybody’s the same but Dino wants to be at that high level and he can be.”

This also applies to the way Dodig builds his relationships.

When Dodig interacted with people, they often took his remarks as rude or condescending, but in truth, he was just being honest. However, this European style of conversation did not translate well to most friendships he tried to build upon arrival.

Adding this struggle to the brand new style of training Dodig was getting in America and he was ready to transfer out of WSU.

The director of Dodig’s school back in Serbia had worked with pairing his athletic background and potential future in physical activity to his academic schedule.

However, he had to prove himself athletically worthy first. To do this, Dodig was given one year to prepare and score over 5,000 points in his first-ever go at the octathlon. He scored 5,048 points and was given a second chance and then finally a third chance at the Junior National Championships.

“I qualified for World Championship Juniors,” Dodig said. “That’s when they realized that for how weak I am and how much I was able to accomplish just by willing and having a passion for that they were like, ‘okay, this guy is going to do big things later on in career.”

After Dodig proved that he was ready for this chance, the principal of Jovan Jovanović Zmaj High School, Radivoje Stojković built a school schedule that Dodig could work with while continuing his training.

Similarly, last year WSU Director of Cross Country/Track & Field Wayne Phipps worked to build a training program that would help Dodig smoothly move from the higher demands of the sport society of Novi Sad to what was needed in the collegiate field of Pac-12.

“Then this year, we were like, ‘Let’s try to try Wayne’s program now’ and we actually started doing and I’ll be honest, it’s great,” Dodig said. “The way how he transitioned me to his plan was so smooth that I didn’t feel the difference, not physically, not psychologically, so I think that was the biggest part of his so really after this year, there’s no reason for me to transfer, there’s no reason for me to think that I’m not going to be part of this school you know till the end of my collegiate career.”

The value that Dodig brings to the track and field team as a Cougar with his background in Serbia is irreplaceable.

Ignoring his older sisters’ suggestions to “‘quit the track, go to school,’” as they did, Dodig turned his desire to prove he could do both into a driving force to succeed in track and field. He decided to follow his mother’s love of the sport.

Dodig’s mother, Mirjana coached athletes of the Olympic caliber all his life, so growing up, Dodig was surrounded by athletic greats early on. Even still, it was his mother’s personality that helped him the most.

“I don’t think that many people can handle her personality because she doesn’t believe in failure so she pushes you to go through limits you put yourself and then if you’re not capable of them, you just break down,” Dodig said.

This technique of persevering to be the best is what Dodig brings to each practice and meet for WSU. A fellow decathlete on the Cougar team remarked on how Dodig implements these skills in the multi-event competitions.

“Being a multi, it’s really demanding physically but mentally… I think it’s more mentally demanding than physically demanding and I think that’s why he thrives so much because he’s mentally strong and he’s a smart guy,” redshirt sophomore and best friend to Dodig, Grayson Anderson said. “And so I think that’s one of the reasons he excels so much, but he’s a great athlete also so that helps. He’s a funny guy too like he knows when to turn it on and he knows when to turn it off and that’s another reason he’s so good.”