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SLOBODAN KOVAČ, SELECTOR OF THE NATIONAL VOLLEYBALL TEAM OF SERBIA
Maturity and Traps
We have players in their best years, leaders in the strongest clubs, and the staff to fight for the top in big competitions. But the younger selections do not have such results and there are many reasons to worry, as in many of our other sports. Sports in our country are no longer available to everyone, the number of families who can bear the costs of children’s training is significantly reduced. Parents and society educate young people in such a way that they associate sports with money and fame in advance, so they only push them into sports where they think those can be found. That is not a good road and it will not bring good results to anyone. The state must think about it now

By: Dejan Bulajić
Photo: FIVB, CEV, OSS

Slobodan Kovač is a man who remembers many beautiful moments in his playing and coaching career, marked by titles and medals. Perhaps a special place in that gallery of triumph is occupied by two Olympic medals, in Atlanta and Sydney. All the more so with a certain melancholy, he watched the Olympic volleyball tournament in Tokyo, where our team was not present.
– From everything we could see, it is perfectly clear that our national team had a place at the Olympic Games. I am sure that, given the quality we have, we would get involved in the fight for a medal. The question, however, is whether we should now think about why we were not there. We had our chances, two qualifying tournaments, but we didn’t use them. There remains a good lesson about equal competition in European volleyball, in which we can always count on a high ranking, but we can also be left without any significant result. Let that be a warning before the next important competitions.

What impression did the Olympic Games in Tokyo leave on you?
When you ask such a question to athletes, you will always get the answer that the Olympic Games are something incomparable and that they should be protected from all the challenges of modern times at all costs. However, to be honest, after everything we saw in Tokyo, the impression remains that a lot of important things were missing. First of all, the audience that gives the whole phenomenon of sports its final appearance. There was a lack of good mood, of both hosts and guests, and finally, there was a lack of recognizable Olympic enthusiasm.

Your Olympic memories are especially valuable?
Very much! Two Olympics – Sydney and Atlanta, and two medals. These are memories that make time even more valuable, and those of us who participated in it even more proud.

How to interpret the rise of that golden generation to which you yourself belonged?
There are various factors that have contributed to this good story. First of all, we as a nation are talented at ball games. Secondly, a group of very interesting players appeared who, and that is especially important, because of those unfortunate sanctions, got the opportunity to go to foreign clubs earlier than was the case until then. There we gained the experience we lacked in the domestic league – a higher level of professionalism, stronger training, stronger competition... When we finally got the opportunity to play for the national team, we were completely ready for top results, which surprised the entire volleyball world.

CARELESS LOSS OF GENERATIONS

What does Serbian men’s volleyball look like today?
Many tend to compare our men’s volleyball with women’s, which at first glance seems more convincing. That is where we will get the right answers. Namely, it is of crucial importance how many children are trained in a sport, and that is mostly the question of parents, not children. Volleyball is the most popular sport among girls. But that’s not the case with boys. Parents, regardless of the wishes of their offspring, much prefer their son to be a future basketball, football or tennis player, than volleyball player. Of course, the reason for that is the desire of a large number of parents to make good use of their sons’ talent. So, unfortunately, we come to the point that boys in Serbia are training volleyball less and less. The generation we have in the national team had better results than ours in the younger categories. I am afraid that we have no reason to be very optimistic in this regard.

What can we do to save men’s volleyball?
The question is what to do to preserve many other sports, not just volleyball. As for us, first of all we need good results, we need medals, in order to attract the attention of the public and younger generations and encourage them to join us. However, there is another problem above that. Namely, in modern conditions, it is not easy to do sports. Rest assured: if my generation had grown up according to the laws of the modern age, many of us would have given up volleyball, because even our parents would not be able to support us. The state, in cooperation with the federations, must do everything it can to make sport accessible to everyone again, because now it is not. And what is the worst, talented children who have good character, but do not have the resources, usually give up sports. Champion generations are created from such people, and we carelessly lose them.

NEW TYPES OF BURDEN

Is modern sport becoming too strenuous for even the most talented competitors?
You have seen what is happening on the elite scene as well. The best gymnast in the world gives up in the middle of the Olympic competitions, due to mental problems. For the same reasons, the best tennis player in the world is leaving Roland Garros. There will be more and more such examples, because sport itself is very stressful. The old saying that it is important to participate has not been valid for a long time. Merciless professionalism does not forgive failures, and everything except medals or titles is not considered a success. In addition, there is a so-called modern problem. These are social media, where everyone, even athletes, is on. They are dominated by a bunch of stupid comments, characters who give themselves the right to interpret everything and everyone, and those comments are mostly full of insults. Unfortunately, it seems difficult to get rid of such a public reflex. Athletes are very exposed to them and I know that they are hard to resist. Because of all that, no sports team will be able to function without a sports psychologist. It seems to me that they will soon become more important than coaches.

It’s stressful to be a player, but is it stressful to be a coach too?
There is that old coaching saying that is often conveyed to players: ”I was in your sneakers, and you are not in mine”! Given the experience I have, I can freely say that being a coach is much harder. When you are a player and when you are not doing well, everyone around you will do their best to justify and encourage you to get back in shape as soon as possible. It’s different with coaches. Every coach must have a careful relationship, both with the team and with the players. To adapt them to the game, tactics, to deal with psychology, to reveal their weaknesses and virtues, and finally to have a goal that sometimes the players themselves do not recognize. After all, a coach is easier to sacrifice than a player when things don’t go the way they want, so his role really isn’t easy at all.

Will you soon add the role of a club coach to the duties of the selector?
Honestly speaking, working in the national team is something I do out of love and great pleasure, but it is completely clear that due to the general living conditions, it is necessary to find a club engagement. I have already agreed to take over one of the best European clubs next season, the Polish ”Belchatow”, in which I will work with some of our national team members. Our federation does not create a problem about that, so I will continue to work on two fronts, as long as the results allow something like that.

Do we have enough reasons to believe in the good results of our national team in the next period as well?
Without any dilemma! The players who play in our national team have been among the leaders in prestigious European teams for years. They are in their best years, they have fully matured through great competitions. When they are in good shape and completely physically ready, I think that there is no competition where we are not ready to go for one of the medals. I claim that we are one of the best selections in the world. However, that past period is not good, the time of Covid, in which some of our players had somewhat weaker results (poor physical condition, injuries). This could disrupt us and call into question the plans we are making. Everything else is completely under control and gives us the right to be optimistic.

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Sports Journey
He started his volleyball career in his hometown (VGSK), then played for ”Kolubara” from Lazarevac, ”Student Aviation” from Mostar and ”Vojvodina” from Novi Sad. Abroad, he played the longest in Italy (for ”Gioia del Colle”, ”Lube Macerata”, ”Taranto”, ”Anione” and ”Molfeta”), in Greece he played for ”Aris” from Thessaloniki, in Iran for ”Urmia”, in Kuwait for ”Kazma”. Before the end of his career, he also played for ”Radnički” from Kragujevac for one season. With the Yugoslav national team, he won seven medals at the world’s biggest competitions, including the Olympic gold in Sydney in 2000.

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Coaching Career
As a coach, Slobodan Kovač won two Serbian championship titles with ”Radnički” from Kragujevac, which he repeated with ”Halkbank” in Turkey (plus the Cup). He was the vice-champion of Italy and the finalist of the Cup with ”Perugia”. He won the Challenger Cup with the Russian ”Belogorie”. With the national teams of Iran and Slovenia, as a selector, he achieved the greatest successes in the history of volleyball in those countries.
Since August 2019, he has been the selector of the national volleyball team of Serbia. Already in the first competition, it became the European champion (2019).