One day over their anniversary of 13th of January, the day they were officially registered as a team, the Vukovi Belgrade celebrated five years of existence and their highly successful year. Just across the field where they did not lose a single game in 2007, in all competitions, not just CEFL, Club President Goran Nišavić handed out team awards to players and deserving contributors of the team.
Alongside awards for team MVP, offensive and defensive player, best lineman etc. Nišavić thanked the team’s and league’s backers, Gabriel Dielacher, Goran Topalović with Rade Rakočević and Nikola Đuričko, the latest Vukovi board members, and others who were not present, without who most of the club’s success would not be possible, and presented them with awards. Players awarded include Briton Burge as the overall MVP, Pavle Tasić as the Offensive Player of the Year, and Ivan Nedeljković as the Defensive Player of the Year.
Big news was also the presence of Aleksandar Ćirić who is the team’s new athletic director. The current Serbian national team’s coach will coordinate the Vukovi’s numerous teams; their best will participate in CEFL, their second team, Vukovi II, will play in next year’s revamped Serbian league, where they will also have teams in junior competitions for the first time.
Ćirić is among the people that introduced the sport in Serbia, one of the founders of the team in Kragujevac, but the position will be somewhat new to him.
”No, I was never in this position. Except in Kragujevac where I was the team president, but I was also the coach, a player and I had a lot of joined functions. I won’t have a lot of problems, I know all the players. I coached a lot of them with the national team, with some I was a teammate and an opponent for most of them. All the coaches I know well and I have all the conditions to do my job well”, says Ćirić. “What’s important to do straight away is to establish a system of how we will do things and to divide our responsibilities … to make a selection of players for our A team and to select the coaching staff for the A team”, adds Ćirić.
The team will also be, for the second straight year, going in a different direction with the head coach of the team. Aleksandar Hadži-Pavlović, who as a coach guided the team to wins in CEFL Bowl and Serbian Bowl, while posting a 10-1 score, won’t be with the team in 2008. Who will replace him is not yet certain, but Nišavić has said the decision will come soon and the new coach will probably be someone from abroad.
“We couldn’t come to terms about our future cooperation. I’d like to thank Saša for all that he has done for us and I wish him all the best in his future work“, said Nišavić.