MEGA’S KIDS: “THERE WILL BE MORE MEDALS”

Summer 2017 was very successful for younger selections of Serbia NT and we hope that A team will complete success in the most beautiful way. The juniors won gold at the European Championship, the cadets were third, Serbia U20 won the fifth place while the University selection was the fourth at the Universiade.

We used a short break during the preparation for the new season to talk to six Mega Bemax players who won medals this year. Nikola Miskovic and Andrija Marjanovic became junior champions of Europe in Slovakia while Miskovic was selected as MVP. Four of the Mega Bemax cadets who brought the bronze from the European Championship for players up to 16 years old are Aleksandar Langovic, Marko Andric, Stefan Agoc and Novak Miskovic.

We started the interview with the MVP player of the European Junior Championship, Nikola Miskovic who told us about his impressions from the national team:

– The preparations were hard, we lost some matches and we started defeating the championship. Nevertheless, we had faith in each other, although we continued to lose half-time at the games eventually win. We gained self-confidence and ultimately achieved great success,

Miskovic said, and Marjanovic continued:

– It was probably the greatest virtue of our team, because we knew that we had to rise from difficult situations and falls in the game, which in the end was one of the main reasons for winning gold.

The story of the winning bronze with the cadets of Serbia we started with Marko Andric, who began to practice basketball when he was five, and last season he was a member of the pioneers team of Mega that dominantly won the double crown in Serbia. The prize for good games was a call to the cadet selection of Serbia, although Andric was a year younger than the most players at European Championship:

– In the beginning it was hard to catch everything but after a while everything started to come to its place, everything fit better and ultimately I won the place in 12. Winning bronze medal is a reward for the great effort that we all invested,

Andric said, and then Agoc, who is also one year younger than most players, continued:

– It will mean a lot to us this experience, we saw how it looks like playing against one year old players and we know what is ahead of us in the next championship. Of course, by then there is time, but we are certainly looking forward to it.

Aleksandar Langovic provided excellent games at the European Championship which was held in Podgorica:

– As the championship went through, somehow I managed to play better. This came at the right time, this is our first experience of playing for the national team of Serbia and we are very pleased that they are positive from the start,

Langovic said, and then we asked Novak Miskovic, brother Nikola, from whom he received support during the competition:

– From the family and of course the older brother Nikola. He had already won a golden medal with juniors, and during the competition we received words of support that meant a lot,

said Novak Miskovic.

We asked the Mega’s kids whether they would stop at these medals. The answer was unanimous:

– Not! We all believe there will be more and we will do our best to achieve this.

After the story of the national team, we switched to Mega Bemax. Nikola Miskovic, who will be the fourth season in the club, is definitely the longest one here. Interestingly, as a little boy, he often went to see Mega’s practices while there we at hall Sumice:

– I can be very pleased with the club’s stay in the past. We became cadet champions of Serbia in the two seasons ago, with juniors we were the second in Europe and Serbia … I believe that the youth selectionf sof club choices will continue with the success because quality work with young players is always paid off. Goga Bitadze, Mihailo Jovicic and I from the last season’s junior team entered the first team and I believe that this trend will continue in the coming seasons. It is up to me that through training I earn minutes on the field in order to grow as soon as possible in one of the team’s bearers,

Miskovic said.

Andrija Marjanovic came to Mega from Barcelona youth selections:

– I had a great desire to work with domestic trainers again. Regarding individual progress, here it is much more and better done because when you go to Barcelona or Real Madrid, you are expected to come as a practically ready player. And on the example of Mihailo Jovicic, who came from Real Madrid last year, I could only confirm my opinion that Mega is the right place for the progress of young players. We work well on preparation and I can not wait for the league to start,

said Marjanovic, who is also a roommate with Jovicic. Asked whether there was a trembling on Barcelona-Real Madrid, Andrija said the result was unresolved:

– They got us in the cadet finals two seasons ago, then we got them in the junior finals so that none of us have too many basics to joke with the other side,

Marjanović laughed.

An interesting basketball start was also played by Stefan Agoc, who debuted for the pioneers of Mege on the Mini Cup BeoBasket 2017 held in the organization of KSS in February during the Radivoj Korac Cup in Nis:

– I started playing basketball after the first grade of elementary school. The condition for training was to finish the first grade with excellent success, and when I did it, my parents enrolled me to the basketball school in Novi Sad, which was close to our house.

Marko Andric stressed that he was overwhelmed with the conditions in Megi and the attention paid to all club selections:

– We are doing very well in training, the coach Stefan Bulatovic led us last year in the pioneers, now he is the cadet coach. We are very familiar, the cooperation was excellent and we are glad that it will continue in the next season.

Aleksandar Langovic was a member of the pioneer team of Mega in the first year of the club’s selection, and on the way to the first team will have the opportunity to pass the complete system in Mega:

– After a short break after the national team, preparations for the new season followed. We expect a difficult and hard road, but I believe that at the end of the season, we will all come out as better players than at the beginning,

Langovic said and then we asked Novak Miskovic about the goals:

– In addition to individual progress, I hope that we will succeed in regaining the cadet title in Serbia. Nikola sometimes likes to screw me about it, he was the first with Cadets of the Mega, we were the second and now we have to do everything to bring back the title,

Novak laughed when asked if he used to play basket 1 on 1 with Nikola, Novak replied:

– We played a lot of times. I do not have a discount from my brother, he always does his best against me and so he needs. Unfortunately, until now I have not managed to beat him,

Novak said, and then Nikola added:

– When he is better, he will win. And that will never be hahaha,

he said through his older brother’s laughter. Novak keep this interview for a case, when the time comes.

In the end, we asked the players how they like to work in the “Mega Factory” hall where all club selections practice from this year. Impressions are more than positive:

– It’s great for us in the hall, we have excellent conditions and we like to work in it,

said Nikola Miskovic, and his younger brother Novak agreed with this:

– Since August we have been training here and to all categories of the club are being paid a lot of attention. Whatever we need before or during the training, we have that available.

Marjanovic pointed out to him work in the Mega Factory hall suit him very well:

– It means a lot to us that we have a whole hall with accompanying contents available, which will mean a lot to us on individual work and progress.

Langovic, Agoc and Andric pointed out that for younger players means a lot of attention that everyone in the club takes care of them and for the conditions in which they train:

– We are working hard on training and it’s getting easier when it’s done in a beautiful environment. We have already acustomed to the hall and are looking forward to new victories in the same,

Mega’s kids are on the road to new successes and medals.

Photo: Mega Bemax / Ivica Veselinov