Playing On in Kindred Spirit : As Strife Echoes in Homeland, Ankica Bilaver and Family Rally Around Soccer

Grant High’s Ankica Bilaver comes from what she calls “a very soccer family.”

So roughly 50 people will be cheering for her from the Birmingham High stands when the Lancers play Chatsworth for the City Section girls’ soccer championship at 2 p.m. today.

Those friends and Croatian family members will include her father, Stanko, himself a soccer coach, her soccer-playing brothers and several players from San Pedro Croat, the semipro team Stanko coaches.

The Bilaver family is Ankica’s anchor, a source of joy. But for more than a year, since civil strife engulfed the former republic of Yugoslavia, happy occasions such as championship matches have been far outweighed by sadness and tragedy.

In November, 1991, the Croatian village of Skabrnje, a port on the Adriatic Sea, was bombed by Serbian forces. Bilaver’s parents were born in Skabrnje, and most of the extended Bilaver family still lived there.

Forty-five family members have been killed since that day. The fate of two more, an aunt and uncle, is unknown.

“One night you get a telephone call and half your family is not alive,” Ankica said.

Ankica’s paternal grandfather was killed in the attack, but the Bilavers didn’t learn of his death until relatives called three weeks later.

“My father they bury,” Stanko said. “By nobody in the family. Strangers. Whether he’s alive or dead, I can’t help, but I got to be there (to bury him).”

Skabrnje formerly was a beautiful agricultural village, according to Stanko, known for its grapes, almonds and marascas, a sour cherry made into a liqueur. Now it is known as a graveyard.

“There is nothing alive there,” Stanko said. “Everything is burned.”

Croatian forces captured Skabrnje early this week from Serb forces, but heavy fighting resumed Wednesday.

Ankica (pronounced An-KEES-ah) has joined her parents in front of the Federal Building in Westwood protesting the war and helps at Croatian Hall, a San Pedro-based organization that aids Croatian refugees, raises money and collects clothing and medical supplies to ship to Croatia.

“We are very active in anything Croatian,” Bilaver said.

For the Bilavers, that includes soccer.

One living room wall in their North Hollywood home is almost completely obscured by soccer trophies, some up to four feet high, mementos of a family devoted to the sport.

Stanko, 43, emigrated to the United States with his wife Angela in 1968. He played semipro soccer for San Pedro Croat for five years and has coached the team since 1982, winning three California State Cup titles in the past seven years.

Ankica’s cousin, Ante Razov, is a freshman starter for the UCLA men’s soccer team and a member of the under-20 U.S. Olympic team. Both her brothers, Ante, 17, and Miro, 13, are talented club players. Ante also plays basketball at Grant.

Ankica is no exception to the “very soccer family.” The senior midfielder is weighing offers to play next year at Loyola Marymount and St. Mary’s. But Bilaver almost didn’t play for the Lancers this season. The past two seasons Bilaver has played basketball, not soccer, for Grant, and entering her senior season, had no intention of pulling double duty.

“I didn’t want to play soccer, because I didn’t want to get burned out,” she said.

But Loyola soccer Coach Peter Novakovic already knew about Bilaver, she said, because of her soccer-playing relatives and her club experience. He impressed upon her the importance of playing high school soccer if she wanted to earn a scholarship.

Bilaver also saw the talent on Grant’s team this season and persuaded basketball Coach Steve Brumwell to let her play both.

“He didn’t like the idea of me playing both sports, but when I told him about the scholarship to LMU, he finally agreed,” Bilaver said.

Bilaver, who averages 12 points and seven rebounds a game as a basketball forward, joined the Lancer soccer team midway through its season, getting six goals and 12 assists in 10 matches.

“You can tell she’s been playing the game for a long time,” Grant soccer Coach David Oravez said. “She’s real smart, and she can really control the match when she’s playing well.”

Said Bilaver: “I’m playing OK. I could be scoring more, but I’m just there to assist, coming in midway through the season.”

She has one goal and four assists in Grant’s two playoff matches, and although Chatsworth (9-0) has won all four City Section championships since City girls’ soccer began in 1988 and is favored over Grant (14-0-1), Bilaver concedes nothing. “Everybody says we’re the underdogs, but I think we’re going to win,” she said. “I think we have the better team.”

Win or lose, the physical and emotional release of competition has provided a welcome distraction for Bilaver, who grieves with the rest of her family.

“You can’t think. You hurt every night,” she said. “It helps to do other things. You want to keep going on. Soccer helps.”