Branko Gavric is not one to be content. Since he first kicked a soccer ball at age 2 in his native Yugoslavia, he has been diligently working to improve his game and build on his successes. Persistent is how he - and many others -describe his character both on and off the field.
"Branko loves the game," says Ralph Lundy, head coach of the Cougars men's soccer team. "He has tremendous integrity and commitment, self-discipline and leadership skills. Players listen to him."
Those ingredients along with his technical skills and inspired play are what caught Lundy's eye when he first met the midfielder at a premier Canadian soccer academy in Toronto. Gavric had already established himself as an exceptional player at his high school in Kitchener, Ontario. During the 2007 season, he served as team captain and was named the team's and league's MVP.
But Canada was cold.
It was 12 degrees below zero when Coach Lundy came up to see him play. Gavric had three other scholarship offers on the table, but chose the College because of the combination of a strong athletics program and a solid academic reputation.
Charleston's temperate weather seems like a pretty good move. Gavric, this year's Cougars team captain and a biology major, made the all-conference SoCon team last season and represented Canada at the World University Games, held last summer in Serbia. Gavric, who started every game in the tournament, was one of only three Canadian players to be chosen from the U.S.
The event, which hosted some 6,300 athletes from 142 countries, had the atmosphere of an Olympic venue.
"I didn't realize how large it was until I actually got there," Gavric says.
But the tournament's size wasn't what made it a big deal for him. What mattered most was that it was a homecoming to a country he had left 14 years ago. Serbian by nationality, Gavric grew up in the former Yugoslavia. A few years after fighting began in the region, his family emigrated to Canada.
The ethnic and religious war in the Balkans claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people in its three-year span. And the conflict continued in the former Yugoslav republics until 2001.
"There was a lot of war ... a lot of stuff kids my age shouldn't have seen ... a lot of death," recalls Gavric, who, despite the lingering memories of the conflict, still tries to visit his homeland every few years.
"It makes you feel humble for everything that you have here. And that just makes you want to work that much harder." 