When Goran Milosevic rallied with this year’s Wimbledon runner-up, Eugenie Bouchard, she was 19 years old and ranked 170th on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings.
“She had potential, you could definitely see that,” says Milosevic. “And she had what you don’t see very often in Canadian tennis players, which is a very strong desire to win.”
Milosevic played with Bouchard at the practice courts at Hollyburn Tennis Club in West Vancouver. Running those courts, where players come to warm up before tournaments, is one of his jobs. One of his other jobs involves coming to Bowen to run tennis programs for BICS, camps through Bowen Island Rec, and also private lessons.
“In 2004 – 2005 I was working for Tennis Excel, and the guy who was running it mentioned an assignment where you’d have to get up at 7 a.m and take the ferry, I thought it was a joke at first! But I took the job, and I’m glad I did because I am in love with the community and have met so many wonderful people,” says Milosevic.
Milosevic’s path in the world of tennis was not a typical Eastern European tennis story.
“Basically, if someone sees potential in a kid the family will devote all its resources into training and making sure that kid succeeds,” says Milosevic, on the topic of tennis in Eastern Europe. “Some kids crack under all of that pressure, others thrive. The ones that thrive are the ones we end up hearing about.”
Milosevic says he started playing not because anyone saw potential in him, but because a classmate was involved in tennis so he followed suit. His youth was disrupted by the war in Yugoslavia, and the move to Belgrade. He moved to Canada with his wife at the age of 20.
“I never really had the chance to develop my potential,” he says. “But when my son was born, that’s when I decided to get into coaching.”
At a certain point, Milosevic says, he decided not to push his son in tennis.
“I was warned that it is very hard to separate the relationship of father and son from coach and student, and I really didn’t want to force him in a direction that wasn’t of his own choosing.”
As for his work teaching tennis on Bowen, Milosevic says he sees a lot of tennis potential channeled into different paths, like baseball or soccer or hockey.
“I was really hoping some kind of community centre would be built, and maybe in that there might be a small indoor facility where people could play all winter,” says Milosevic. “Sometimes, when I come back in the spring it feels like starting from scratch with my students.”
That said, Milosevic says he has seen some major improvements in players who have continued to play through the winter.
“There is one boy who started in my classes and had a really hard time in all kinds of activities, especially when winning and losing was involved. Then in the winter, he came to me for private lessons twice or sometimes three times per week. Now, he’s only eight but I let him play with the under 12’s and he is at least as good as all of them. Beyond that, the mental and emotional progress this boy has played is absolutely amazing.”
Milosevic coaches players of all ages (starting at four years-old) and all levels.
“I love coaching the little kids, simply for their presence,” he says. “But of course, the challenge of coaching a high-level player, and trying to make it interesting for them is great in a completely different way.”
This summer, Goran Milosevic will be running camps through Bowen Rec for kids under 8, under 12, teen and adult beginners and adult intermediate players starting on July 14th. Contact Bowen Community Recreation for details, or contact him directly at: [email protected]
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