Being patient about the doctor thing
Medical school can wait for Coquitlam’s Blagojevic, picked by Whitecaps in third round
Medical school can wait. Jovan Blagojevic has a childhood dream to chase.
The Simon Fraser University senior winger will have time to prove himself with the Whitecaps after the MLS club picked him in the third round of the SuperDraft on Tuesday.
Blagojevic, a 23-year-old goal scorer from Coquitlam, had applied to seven medical schools in the U.S. after graduating. He studied molecular biology biochemistry at SFU, where he scored 18 goals in 18 games for the Clan in 2014.
He was serious enough about his studies that he didn’t even play soccer for his first two years at SFU. But Dr. Blagojevic is Plan B for now.
“I’ll live out this dream for a little bit,” Blagojevic said. “You’ve got to take every opportunity as it comes.”
This latest opportunity will surely be a season in USL Pro with the Whitecaps new development team, WFC2. And Blagojevic might not have to adjust to a new coach. SFU bench boss Alan Koch is among the leading candidates for the Caps’ USL Pro coaching job.
Koch has been working as a college scout for the Caps and was with Carl Robinson and his staff at the MLS player combine in Florida and last week’s first two rounds of the SuperDraft in Philadelphia.
Tuesday’s third and fourth rounds were done via teleconference.
Even with his college coach in Robinson’s ear, Blagojevic said he didn’t know what to expect Tuesday.
He followed the draft nervously online, sitting with his girlfriend in front of his computer. His friends scooped him anyway.
“I guess my screen didn’t refresh quick enough and I just got a whole bunch of texts: congrats, congrats, congrats,” said the Serbianborn Blagojevic, who moved to the Lower Mainland at two and developed locally with Roman Tulis and Coquitlam Metro-Ford.
“I was more than ecstatic. It brought so much joy to my family.”
Blagojevic, the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and West Region player of the year in 2014, was one of five picks for the Caps on Tuesday.
They also took Michigan State University midfielder Adam Montague and University of Washington goalkeeper Spencer Richey in the third round. In the fourth round, the Caps picked up a pair of centre-backs: 6-foot-5 Craig Nitti from Loyola Marymount University and Nikola Paunic, a Canadian from the University of South Florida.
All could get a shot with the USL Pro team, which will play its home games at UBC’s Thunderbird Stadium.