Nikolich Gets Early Exit From Yugoslavia : Basketball: Talented Capistrano Valley junior joins brother, uncle in San Juan Capistrano after fighting gets closer to family home in Belgrade.

Fifty days ago, Capistrano Valley junior Milan Nikolich had one major deterrent to class work at his old school in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Make it one general deterrent, or a captain, or a sergeant . . .

Military officers entered classrooms daily and drafted young students into the Yugoslavian army, the same army which backs the Serbian guerrilla forces that are currently engaged in an ethnic civil war with Croatia.

“While in class, (the army) would just come in and register you,” Nikolich said. “They would sign you up right then and there.

“Before the war broke out, you would spend one year in training. Now, you prepare for fighting in just 20 days, then they send you out to the (Serbian) army.” Nikolich said, shaking his head.

“I don’t know . . . what can they teach you in 20 days? How to fire a gun?”

The guns moved closer to the Nikolich’s Belgrade home in early November as the ethnic struggle intensified. More than 10,000 lives have already been lost since Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia on June 25.

With the fighting closer, Milena Nikolich, who was born in Michigan and reared in California, hurried her youngest son, Milan, out of the war-torn country to join her older son, Danilo, a Capistrano Valley senior who arrived earlier this year.

Now, both Nikoliches live in San Juan Capistrano with their uncle, Michael Gregorich, Milena’s brother.

“I wasn’t supposed to come over (to the United States) until next year, but my mom didn’t want to take any chances that (the Yugoslavian) government might close down the airport,” said Nikolich, who was born in the United States. “She told me that I would be going to America on Thursday (Nov. 7), and Sunday (Nov. 10) I left.

“The worst thing was that I didn’t get to see my father before I left because he was working in Montenegro (100 miles south of Belgrade). I haven’t seen him in six months.”

Despite spending the holidays away from his family, Nikolich, a point guard, has taken the adversity in stride and manages an even keel with his studies and basketball providing a steady rudder.

In the classroom, Nikolich is taking Advanced Placement courses and earned five A’s and one B during his first five weeks. On the basketball court, the transition to the American style of play has been a little tougher.

After starting for his club team in Yugoslavia, Nikolich is the back-up to David Sedgwick, a junior who has started since his sophomore year.

Although Nikolich is unpolished, Capistrano Valley basketball Coach Mark Thornton immediately recognized the talent.

“He has a lot of potential,” Thornton said. “He works hard and is one of the quickest players we have.

“But he has only one speed . . . and that’s fast . So basically, that’s his problem. He just has to figure out when to push the ball and when to slow it down.”

Nikolich was more blunt in assessing his play.

“Right now my defense is OK, but my offense is pretty bad,” he said.

“It was much easier in Yugoslavia. I scored 10 to 15 points per game, and you just played.”

Nikolich said games in the United States are “taken more seriously.”

“Here, all these people come to watch you play in these big gyms, while in Yugoslavia, it was just the coaches and players on the bench who watched,” he said.

“The (overall) play is much better here. There are different rules and I have to learn a lot of plays. I don’t know (Coach Thornton) too well yet, but I guess he knows my abilities and he has faith in me to put me on the varsity.”

Thornton’s faith was tested when Sedgwick missed a Dec. 12 game with the flu. Although Nikolich didn’t score a point, he helped the Cougars to a 62-60 double-overtime victory over Lakewood in the quarterfinals of the Ocean View Tournament of Champions.

“I was really pleased with his play,” Thornton said. “He did well against Lakewood, which is a team in the top 10 in CIF.”

That poise seems out of place for a 17-year-old who has been uprooted by a civil war and moved to a foreign land half-a-world away from home.

It seems out of place for a 17-year-old who worries every night if his family is still safe from military action in Yugoslavia.

But Nikolich speaks matter-of-factly about his situation

“I would like to visit home, but I plan to live here,” Nikolich said. “The country is all torn apart. You could be a doctor and still couldn’t find a job over there.”

When he graduates from Capistrano Valley, Nikolich would like to attend California, the alma mater of his mother and uncle.

But he also realizes the financial burden of a college education and would like to land an academic or athletic scholarship.

If it’s not in basketball, Nikolich will also try tennis. He was the top-ranked junior player in Serbia two years ago before he quit to concentrate on academics.

If it’s not in tennis, Nikolich will try football next fall.

“My uncle said I would make a good . . . what do you call it, a wide receiver,” Nikolich said.

If not in sports, Nikolich is shooting for a 4.0 grade-point average.

In only six weeks, he has already planned out his future in the United States.

“I watched all the movies saying how America was a dream land,” Nikolich said.