By Elizabeth Robinson - Athletic Communications Student Assistant
In Ruma, Serbia, people will do whatever it takes. There are backstabbers, conspirators and con
men. The people there are poor. When an opportunity for success arises, desperation
forces them to cheat or maneuver their way to the top. It's difficult to know
who a person can trust.
Drake volleyball player Jadranka Tramosljanin grew up in this
sort of environment. From a young age,
Jadranka - or Yatza as she is more commonly called - adopted the independent
lifestyle that is so common in Serbia.
She understood what was expected; that people fend for themselves. Yatza wasn't a child for long - she grew up
very quickly.
From the age of 14, Yatza lived on her own. In Serbia, high school is similar to college in
America, complete with moving away, living in dorms, and even having a
major. Yatza moved from her hometown of
Ruma, with around 50,000 citizens, to the city of Belgrade, the capital of
Serbia, with a population of nearly 1.6 million. At a young age, Yatza was challenged to be
independent, to adapt to new surroundings, to work hard, and to grow up.
"I love to be independent," she said. "It's how I've always been. It's just the way
I grew up."
Despite moving and experiencing such significant change at a
young age, there was one thing that remained constant with Yatza: Her love for
volleyball. She began playing at the age
of eight after watching her older sister and has been passionate about the
sport ever since.
"I wanted to do everything like my older sister and she
played volleyball so I played too," Yatza said.
"Volleyball was just always kind of my thing."
Even when it came to volleyball, Yatza seemed to grow up quickly.
Her talent was far beyond her years, which allowed her to play on advanced
teams. In Serbia, professional sports
are the main goal, and players are pushed and challenged to excel from a very
young age. Yatza began competing by the
time she was 11, but not with girls her age.
Rather, she was matched up with girls who had similar levels of skill,
but were nearly twice her age.
"They put me with the older girls and made me practice even
harder," she said. "I loved it, and when
I was practicing I was 150 percent in it."
By the time her senior year of high school rolled around,
Yatza was looking for a new adventure.
She knew what the economy in Serbia was like and she had already
experienced life in the city. Yatza knew
that some of her friends were traveling to countries all over Europe and even
to America to continue playing volleyball.
Volleyball seemed to be her way out.
"I wanted change," she said.
"I wanted something new and different and challenging. Something that would give me new prospects, a
new view, a new lifestyle."
Good timing, luck and skill seemed to be on Yatza's side. During her final high school season, Tony
Sunga, assistant volleyball coach at Wyoming, came to recruit one of Yatza's
teammates. But once he was there, Yatza
caught his eye.
"She's very tough," Sunga said. "She's a solid athlete and she doesn't get bothered
by a lot. She'll do whatever it takes to
get herself on the floor and keep herself on the floor."
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"She's very tough," Sunga said. "She's a solid athlete and she doesn't get bothered
by a lot. She'll do whatever it takes to
get herself on the floor and keep herself on the floor."
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Sunga offered her a spot on the team at Wyoming, which meant
she would have to leave her life in Serbia behind and begin a new life in a new
country.
While Yatza yearned to get out and have new, exciting
experiences, the issue of trust and deception was still in the back of her
mind. Coming from a culture filled with
scams and dishonesty, Yatza was concerned that the possibility of America was
too good to be true.
"In Serbia, people (manipulate you) and I didn't have trust
for anyone," she said. "I'm young and
I'm expecting that you can't trust people, and I'm thinking about America?"
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