Return to Serbia brings back troubling memories
6/15/2009 2:15:00 PM | Men's Soccer
by Christine Rivet, The Record (Kitchener, Ontario)
When College of Charleston standout Branko Gavric strides onto the soccer pitch wearing Canada's colours in his native Serbia, he'll fly the flags of everyone he remembers back at Eastwood Collegiate.
Eastwood's patchwork of nationalities and the possibilities they shaped together have left an indelible mark on him.
More than the championships he helped the Eastwood Rebels win during his days there, Gavric recalls how the game of soccer united a disparate group of boys.
Many, like him, were new to Canada.
Gavric, 21, was recently named to Canada's entry at the Summer Universiade. Also known as the World University Games, the event runs July 1-12 in Belgrade.
"I feel like I'm representing all those guys," said Kitchener's Gavric, an all-conference midfielder and captain of his new team, the College of Charleston in South Carolina. "Not everyone had the opportunities I did.
"These are the people who always wished me well. So I carry them on my shoulders and remember them."
Now a Canadian citizen, the son of working-class parents recalls how the bombs in his war-torn homeland chased his family to Canada 14 years ago.
Gavric's relationship with soccer is thorny.
Although the sport opened up a world of opportunity for Gavric, it nearly killed him, too.
When a missile exploded near his house in Serbia, at the exact spot where he and his father, Nebojsa, were playing soccer moments before, the family knew it was time to leave.
"That was life or death. It was destiny right there," remembered Gavric. "There was no way anybody could have survived that blast. Half the house was missing."
Those dark days in Serbia are memories that don't fade.
And now, Gavric gets the chance to return to a rebuilt Serbia, playing the game he loves, for his new country, before family members who stayed behind.
He can only hope that this time his generation gets it right.
"I don't hold any grudges or hate toward anyone. I just try to move on and build peace."
When the curly topped Gavric arrived at Eastwood and its English-as-a-second-language program, he and many other recent immigrants gathered on the only familiar territory they could find -- the school's soccer field.
Soccer was the common denominator for the kids, some of whom had escaped the former Yugoslavia be they Serb, Bosnian, Croatian or Kosovar.
Gavric remembers a time when such a union between those ethic groups on the soccer field would have sparked a riot in Yugoslavia.
"You just remind them that they have to forget what's going on back home," said Gavric's former coach at Eastwood, Jaret Brown. "It's time to start fresh and that's what they do."
"The ball is what brings everyone together," Gavric said after his helped the Rebels win the senior boys regional soccer crown 2005.
This summer and before he returns for his third year in Charleston, Gavric is working for a soccer academy in Toronto and is playing for one of the top amateur clubs in Canada, the Toronto Lynx.
He dreams of tugging the senior Canadian national team jersey over his head.
Gavric can also envision a time when he returns to Eastwood, as a teacher.
"I love trying to help kids out anyway I can. I think that would be a great job, to be able to set the path for the future."
Another of Gavric's former soccer coaches at Eastwood, George Sedra, remains an academic adviser to Gavric, who maintains a B-plus average in his biology studies down south.
Sedra said he'll be thrilled the day Gavric unpacks his briefcase at Eastwood.
"This (place) was a defining moment in his life. It is always your first success, your first moment that drives you and makes you soar to higher skies. No wonder Branko wants to come back to teach at Eastwood."
