Da se čekanje na poziv Odbojkaškog saveza isplatilo, videli smo krajem septembra, kada su odbojkaši stigli do titule prvaka Evrope We saw that the wait for the invitation from the Volleyball Association paid off at the end of September, when Serbia’s volleyball players
took the title of continental champions
H e promised to call at the agreed time, but didn’t do so. I under- stood that Slobodan Kovač was very busy after winning gold at the European Championships with the Ser- bian national team, so I awaited him pa- tiently. When he nally called, he immedi- ately told me how some people who are far more important than me had waited for him due to some much more impor- tant things. “I’m known for being late. When I was called to be the head coach, I rst consid- ered, then cut o . They told me to come to a meeting with Zoran Gajić, president of the Volleyball Association, on Friday at 6pm at an agreed place. I was late, of course, and everyone was already wondering where I was. I entered, saw that they’d all sighed, then said: “Sorry I’m late, but if I was able to wait four years for you, you could wait a few min- utes for me! Well, that’s also the case with this interview,” - exclaims the proverbially calm Kovač, almost choking with laughter. We saw that the wait for the invitation from the Volleyball Association paid o at the end of September, when Serbia’s vol- leyball players took the title of continen- tal champions. “Honestly, it was arduous, but I nd it much more arduous than anything that happened to us on the road to gold having all these interviews and media attention, which I particularly dislike. So, here I am, heading with my wife to the seaside. This is the holiday that I owed her when I ac- cepted the invitation to be national team coach,” says a high-spirited Kovač. His wife’s now-cult statement that she was “left without a holiday” because
her partner got a job and toured the en- tire region. “Ha-ha-ha, that’s true, but here’s what happened: we were holiday at Silver Lake, where I have boarding houses, and in the end she went to the coast. She’s actually a former volleyball player, so she under- stands all the responsibilities I have. Now that it’s all over, the only thing I wanted to do was go to the lake and to sh. And I did that, but then I went to the seaside with Tanja, not to let her down,” he says. After mentioning Silver Lake, he told an interesting story about how he built his apartments in this resort in eastern Serbia. “I’m a native of Veliko Gradište and when we won a medal at the 1996 At- lanta Olympics I was given a plot of land from the Municipality. But I’m not the only one to have received a gift from my home town. Kvisko Vujović received a painting from Budva, the Grbić brothers got a log cabin on the River Tisa, Vlada Batez got a Yugo car, Željko Tanasković got rakia. The Municipality promised him that he would receive the rakia 25 years after winning the medal. And as I’d already been given that plot of land from my small and poor mu- nicipality, I decided to build apartments. I nished them in 2000, and since then I’ve used every spare moment to go to the lake. That’s my mini paradise,” says Slobodan. Kovač had already mentioned that he’s married to a former volleyball player, but their son, David, is also involved in the sport. “If you’ve seen me warring with the players, then you can imagine that I’m 100 times worse with my son. You have no idea how much I delve into myself in order to explain something to him, and in response I’m met by“well, I just won’t”. But he’s now
at that age. He’s very talented and it isn’t easy for him to be David Kovač. When I’m not on the court and don’t have obliga- tions at the club, I spend time training with my son. We’re either out on the court or watching volleyball on TV, so I’m explain- ing things to him. To be honest, we live a very boring life. Both my wife Tanja and I are focused on our son and constantly check how he’s trained, whether he’s eaten well etc. See, Tanja is laughing, she’s next to me, but we are really a sporting fami- ly orientated towards volleyball,” says the head coach candidly. Kovač claims that it’s much tougher for him now than it was when he was a player. “Being a player is easy, you always have friends who are also there for you when things aren’t going well. No matter how bad you are, there will always be someone who will tell you,“Bravo, maestro!You can’t play on your own, everyone has to get involved”. But there’s none of that when you’re a coach. You have to watch every step they make, how they eat, whether something’s both- ering them, whether they’re too euphoric or something bad is happening to them. Being a coach is much more demanding.” However, in the end, despite the team having only 21 days under Kovač’s leader- ship to prepare for the European Champi- onships, everything turned out well. “Thank God it was so. Honestly, they accepted me nicely, and likewise I them. They respect me, just as I do the whole team. We had an emotional rst encoun- ter, but in the end it all paid o . Now the focus is on qualifying for the Olympics. May God help us, because it will be devilish- ly dicult for us to succeed in that,” con- cludes Kovač.
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