Category: Sports

From the May 7, 2002 New York Times. John Kraljic Petrovic: An Athlete of the World By HARVEY ARATONARIO MIOCIC still calls Willis Reed to reminisce, to wonder what mighthave been and…

From the April 28, 2002 New York Times – Mihaljevic of Croatia coaches the St. Francic College Women’s Water Polo Team Diverse Women Form Tournament Team By ERIK BOLAND Megan Nolan admitted she had low expectations for her first season on the St. Francis College women’s water polo team. “Hopefully, we’ll win more than three games,” Nolan, a junior,recalled thinking after transferring to St. Francis in Brooklyn Heights last August from Golden West Community College in California. The pessimism was understandable. The women’s program, a Title IX sport established in 1996, had never won more than four games in a season. But under their first-year coach, Srdjan Mihaljevic, the Terriers, an undermanned amalgam of nationalities and playing experience, finished 16-3 and qualified for this weekend’s Collegiate Water Polo Association Eastern Championships at Princeton, N.J. St. Francis, seeded 11th, played second-seeded Hartwick (23-8) last night. The winner of the 12-team tournament, in which Michigan is seeded first, advances to the N.C.A.A. tournament in Los Angeles. The 23-year-old Mihaljevic played on several Croatian junior national teams before coming to the United States in 1996 as a high school exchange student. The assistant coach, Yulian Hristov, is from Bulgaria. Jelena Maljkovic, a sophomore, is from Yugoslavia. Gili Kollan, a freshman, and Carmit Reuven, a junior, come from Israel. The freshman goalie Liz Grant is from Texas. “Think about it, a Jewish girl coming tostudy in a Catholic school,” Reuven said. “People ask me about it all the time, but I think it’s beautiful to learn about another culture. We are all good friends.” Kollan and Reuven played together on various Israeli junior water polo teams. “We try not to talk too much Hebrew,” Kollan said, adding, “Jelena tries not to talk too much Serbian and Liz tries not to talk too much, I guess you would call it, Texan.” The Terriers have nine players. All of St. Francis’s opponents have between 18 and 20 players, allowing for liberal substitutions during the grueling 28-minute games in which players swim an average of one mile. St. Francis has few substitution options and even less room for injuries. Grant sat poolside during a recent practice, her right thumb wrapped in gauze that covered a blue plastic splint. She broke the thumb, the second time she has broken it this season, in practice last week before the Northern Division playoffs in New London, Conn. Grant played all four games as the Terriers went 2-2 to qualify for this weekend. “It hurts, but you play with it,” Grant said. “We only have nine people.” Warding off shots of the yellow one-pound rubber ball, Grant has also suffered a concussion, a hyperextended elbow and had her nose broken twice this season. Mihaljevic attended St. Francis on an athletic and academic scholarship, playing four years for St. Francis’s men’s water polo team. While finishing his economics degree last spring, he assisted the former coach, Kylie Parnaby, and took over when Parnaby chose not to return this season. Mihaljevic, who works during the day as an equity controller with Morgan Stanley, inherited a team with little or no water polo experience. Other than Maljkovic, the team’s leading scorer this season with 57 goals, and Reuven (27 goals), much of the team was made up of converted swimmers like the New Yorkers Patricia Comer and Catherine Dale, who were learning the sport for the first time. Mihaljevic, and seasoned players like Kollan, Reuven and Nolan, attribute much of this season’s 12-game improvement to the swimmers’ rapid progress. “They’re way better than I was my second year,” said Nolan, who played four years of water polo in high school, then two more at community college. “They’ve really done well for just starting.” For next year, Mihaljevic has already secured commitments from two players, one from Yugoslavia and one from Florida. Still, finding players in the United States remains difficult. “In the U.S., with the exception of California, you don’t have water-polo powers in a state,” Mihaljevic said. “And the kids in California, they always want to go to the best water-polo schools, which are over there. My best bet when I’m recruiting people is selling coming to New York City.” And perhaps, after this weekend, an N.C.A.A. tournament berth.

Dear Nenad,   Judging by the amount of calls and enquiries received from Croats and non-Croats from abroad, I am certain that information about the Davor Suker Soccer Academy “International Soccer Camps” would be…

  BOL, Croatia (Ticker) — No. 4 Iva Majoli did not disappoint the native fans as she was one of three seeds to advance in the first round of the $170,000 Croatian Bol…

Please join in welcoming one of the world’s best table tennis players to Chicago:Croatian Olympian Zoran Primorac will perform an exhibition and meet theCroatian communityWHEN: Wednesday, May 8, 2002 – 7 p.m….

  IVA WINS Tennis-Family Circle Cup final result CHARLESTON, South Carolina, April 21 (Reuters) – Final result at the $1.224 Family Circle Cup WTA tennis tournament on Sunday (prefix denotes seedings):Iva Majoli…

IVA MAJOLI Croatian tennis player, Iva Majoli reached final at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina. The tennis match will be televised on April 21st at 1 PM on WCBS….

Ready to Shock! Croatian rookie sensation Korie Hlede stands alone on the wing as she prepares to take it to the hole.Photo: Mitchell Layton Croatian rookie sensation Korie Hlede April 18, 2002Utah Gets…

Boksic salutes his strike Manchester Utd 0-1 Middlesbrough Boksic 9 Tim Hobbs reporting Alen Boksic blew the title race wide open as his solitary strike saw Steve McClaren’s Middlesbrough sink the champions. The Croatia international netted just nine minutes in to prevent Manchester United moving four points clear at thetop of the Premiership on a day when Arsenal were otherwise engaged in the FA Cup. United, who forced just one save from Mark Schwarzer, still have a one-point cushion over their rivals, but will seethis as the defining moment if they fail to take the title for the fourth season in succession. The Gunners, ominouslyfor Old Trafford, now have two games in hand. Middlesbrough of course ended United’s own hopes of a domestic double by knocking them out of the FA Cup and if they do prove to be the side that scuppers the title challenge, McClaren can look back with great satisfaction at theway he has matched his old mentor Sir Alex Ferguson. Boro set their stall out to defend in numbers, but with Boksic the focal point up front and Benito Carbone and NoelWhelan flodding forward willingly down either channel, had the audacity to snatch the lead – with a helping handfrom Juan Sebastian Veron. The £28million man, preferred to Paul Scholes in the engine room, darkened an already dreary display when he was caught in possession by Carbone and with the United defenders caught off-gauard, the Italian lifted a precise ball to the back post for Boksic to stab home from eight yards. Usually such upstarts are swept aside with minimum fuss by the red machine, but they had not bargained for the defensive heroics of England hopefuls Gareth Southgate and Ugo Ehiogu and a collective off-day that left everyone connected with United pulling their hair out with sheer frustration. Yet it could have been worse. Fabien Barthez had to get down well and keep out another Boksic effort at his near post, while he should have doubled his tally after being picked out again by strike partner Carbone. The Italian is playing for a permanent deal at the Riverside and could not have picked his timing better, as his lively touches and link play overshadowed the man who should have been alongside Boksic, Diego Forlan. The Uruguayan opted for Old Trafford instead and did little to rub McClaren’s nose in it with a performance that was patchy at best, and way below the standards he set in the Champions League in midweek. Ruud van Nistelrooy fared little better against Ehiogu and Southgate, but came within a whisker of levelling as his smart shot on the turn from a Forlan cross shaved the outside of a post. Ryan Giggs, who promised much but ultimately produced little, then dragged a disappointing effort wide as United moved in for the kill, but for once were found wanting at the crucial time.David Beckham summed up the frustration when he was booked for venting his fury at a linesman, while Ferguson stormed off at the break with the officials again on the receiving end. Even then, everyone expected his fury to spark a second-half onslaught and although United dominated and pinned Boro back on the edge of their own box, they failed to find a way through a compact rearguard relishing the battle and protected by a prowling Paul Ince, who shrugged off constant jeering with a grizzly display. Mikael Silvestre and van Nistelrooy went into the book as United pushed for the equaliser, only to see their promising build-up blighted by some wretched final balls and brave Boro defending. Van Nistelrooy sent one of three towering headers ballooning over the top before Fergie threw on Scholes to shakehis side up, at the expense of Veron, whose parting shot was a wild 30-yarder that threatened the heads of anyUnited fans daring to stand up. But even Scholes could not spark United into life. Van Nistelrooy failed to finish off another Beckham centre, GaryNeville looped a header onto the top of the net and Ehiogu hacked clear on two occasions. The only time United did get a clear sight on goal they found Schwarzer determined to take a clean sheet away withhim, the giant Aussie racing off his line and making a brilliant block as van Nistelrooy controlled a Beckham ball inand rifled goalwards on the turn. Heads were in hands by now, but Boro refused to crumble. Southgate and Ehioug stood firm, Carbone was a intermittant menace and Robbie Mustoe joined Ince in manning the barracks and keeping any threat at bay. Even Boksic, at 32, ran until the end, finding an extra yard on the back of his ninth goal of the season. A goal that allbut expelled the threat of relegation from the Riverside, but one that could be even more important to events at theother end of the table. Man Utd: Barthez, Gary Neville, Johnsen, Blanc, Silvestre, Beckham, Butt, Veron (Scholes 58), Giggs, van Nistelrooy, Forlan (Fortune 82). Subs Not Used: Carroll, Phil Neville, O’Shea. Booked: Beckham, Veron, Silvestre, van Nistelrooy. Middlesbrough: Schwarzer, Stockdale, Ehiogu, Southgate, Queudrue, Greening (Wilkshire 21), Ince, Mustoe, Whelan, Boksic (Windass 79), Carbone. Subs Not Used: Crossley, Nemeth, Gavin. Booked: Queudrue, Ince. Att: 67,683 Ref: S Bennett (Kent)