Often times, stories are told about athletes making sacrifices to pursue their sports dreams; of young men and women traveling long distances and making major life concessions to achieve their goals.
Milica Krstojevic has one of those stories.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=4285&SPID=234&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205157862&Q_SEASON=2011@@
A native of Gacko in the Eastern European region of Bosnia, Krstojevic left home three years ago to play college volleyball in the United States. After spending two years at a junior college in Florida, Krstojevic transferred to Oregon last summer to play collegiate volleyball at the highest level.
While being a scholarship athlete has its perks, there are considerable downsides for Krstojevic.
“I won’t go (home) until I’m done with college because we only have like two breaks of 20 days and I don’t have time,” Krstojevic says.
While Krstojevic has a few more years of school to finish until she’ll get to see her family, her teammates have a hard time fathoming how the junior deals with attending a university nearly 6,000 miles from home.
“I don’t know how she does it,” Oregon outside hitter Liz Brenner says. “Even just the language barrier, like I know she can speak English, but I took Spanish and I don’t understand Spanish, so I’m sure everything is really hard for her.”
Krstojevic is fueled by her love of the sport.
“For me,” she says, “the most important thing is volleyball.”
Krstojevic immigrated to the United States when she was 19 in pursuit of a better academic and sports education. She was turned on to the idea by a cousin who played college volleyball in the States.
“She told me how good it is to get an education here, to play a sport and all the conditions they have,” Krstojevic says. “You can improve your skills and do something with your life. I really liked the idea.”
Krstojevic planned to matriculate to a four-year university in Michigan, but was forced to enroll at Florida State College at Jacksonville after struggling with the SAT test.
At first, the transition wasn’t easy.
“I had a really hard time at the beginning getting used to it,” Krstojevic says. “It was really frustrating knowing what people say but you couldn’t speak. It was just a matter of time about language, but I got used to it after a few months.”
Adjusting to the fast-paced American culture also took time.
“It’s a big switch coming from where I’m coming from to this,” Krstojevic says.
Not a bad change, however.
“I prefer this, because it makes me more organized,” Krstojevic says. “I can work even harder. If you go slow you get lazy and you don’t have the (motivation) to do so many things. At home it’s very hard to get an education and play high-level sports at the same time.”
The Oregon staff first spotted Krstojevic last year at the Junior College National Championships. Although she had her eye on several other schools, including nearby Florida Gulf Coast University, Oregon was able to convince the Junior College All-American to take a visit to Eugene in June.
“(Oregon assistant coach) Tina (Johnson-Lockhart) found Milica and saw her in the Junior College National Championships,” Oregon head coach Jim Moore says. “We talked to her and she was planning on going somewhere else and we got her to come visit, and once she visited she was able to change.”@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=115659@@ @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=113244@@
Part of the reason for Krstojevic’s change of heart was her familiarity with several Eastern European volleyball players that have passed through Oregon’s program in recent years, including Nevena Djordjevic, Gorana Maricic and Marija Milosevic. When Krstojevic met Djordjevic on her visit to Oregon, the former Duck setter helped Krstojevic feel at home.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=542074@@ @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=542079@@ @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=1147303@@
“Yeah it did really (influence my decision),” Krstojevic said. “They gave me advice, what should I do, how it was for them, their experiences. I met Nevena on my official visit, so that also made me come here.”
In her first of two years of Pac-12 eligibility, Krstojevic has made solid contributions for an Oregon squad ranked No. 16 in the nation. She is second among rotation players in hitting percentage and first in total blocks, boasting an all-around game more advanced than those of most first-year conference players.@@http://utahutes.cstv.com/sports/w-volley/spec-rel/102411aab.html@@ @@http://www.pac-12.org/Portals/7/images/wvolleyball/2011-Stats/HTML/ORE.HTM#team.ind@@
She’s a good blocker, Moore says. “She’s a solid player and that’s what she brings … she’s more advanced because of her age, which helps.”
Although Krstojevic says understanding instruction can be an issue — “Occasionally yes, if they are using some words and then I lose the whole sense of what he’s saying,” she says — Moore downplays the difficulties of a language barrier. “Milica speaks great English,” he says.
Krstojevic hopes learning from the tutelage of Moore will lead to a career as a professional volleyball player. If that doesn’t work out, she hopes to find a job that will lean on her vast international experience.
“I would really like to play volleyball,” Krstojevic says, “but to work, I really like traveling, in some international company that has a lot of connections everywhere, or some big hotel manager, or something like that.”