Interview Dejan Mladenovic physical education and sports teacher - basketball coach BUDAPEST 2021.

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Dejan Mladenovic, former professional basketball player, now basketball coach and physical education teacher of the Serbian Secondary Comprehensive School “Nikola Tesla” in Budapest.

BOTH ON THE COURT AND THE BENCH

Serbian/Hungarian basketball internationalist Dejan Mladenovic was born on the 30 th of July 1985. in Ada, Vojvodina. Serbia. He has been living in Hungary for almost a decade now! In the 2011-2012 season, the club “Kormend” was his first superleague club in the Northern neighborhood. With them, he won third place and a bronze medal, in the final four of the Hungarian State Cup. Dejan then transfers to “FAKTUM” from Debrecen where he was consistently the starter in the first five. After that, he signs for “JKSE” from Jászberény a team which with him included, for the first time in history secures themselves an European “visa”-participation in the “FIBA EuroCup Challenge with the sponsorship from FIBA!

Before Hungary, Mladenovic played in the Slovakian team “KCERO” from Nitra, and after that in four teams in Romania- “CSU” Brasov, “CSM-OLCHIM” Raminku Valcea , “CSM” Iasi, and “ELBA” Temisvar, with which he entered the finals of the National Cup of Romania, playing against the inviolable “ASESOFT” from Ploiesti.

The first team of this 185cm tall basketball playmaker was “Spartak” in Subotica in which he played in all the categories, and in all of them earned the championship of Vojvodina!

For the “Blue Pigeons” from the furthest Northern town in Serbia, Dejo, Deja or Deki (as everybody calls him) played also as a senior, but played for OKK “Kikinda” and “Polet” from Novi Becej as well. To draw attention to himself from the youngest age of playing basketball, he first had to achieve remarkable results with a team of players under the age of 14. That is when he won the “Students Olympics” for the primary school students in Serbia. The primary school of Ada, the town in which he grew up and in which his parents still live today, achieved unbelievable results, as they became state champions in the year 2000. That is basically when everything started, the first basketball steps and first love towards this sport.

During the many year of his playing career, Mladenovic firmly defined his goals – What follows the end of the game? He decided – AFTER SPORT, SPORT AGAIN. Therefore, he simultaneously worked on his education. He earned a teacher’s degree of Faculty of Physical Education and Sports in Novi Sad, got a PhD and earned the calling “Teacher of PE and Sports”, as well as “Visoki je kosarkaski trener”. He owns a red “FIBA” license.

He didn’t wait long for an option of a new start in these callings. In the 2015-2016 school year, he has been employed as a PE teacher and coach of the school basketball team in the Serbian comprehensive secondary school “Nikola Tesla” in Budapest (along with that, he is also coach of the baskeball players of the Budaors “BDSE” team. He began working there in 2020 after working in the “Ujpest” team in Budapest).The “Ujpest Megyeri Tigrisek” team, also from Budapest is where he also had great success, leading the seniors to the second league of the Hungarian National championship. Due to the pandemic situation the championship was stopped, and at that moment his team was in second place, which automatically meant they were in the higher level of the competition.

Dejan got the chance to, after only six months of coaching experience, lead the cadets and juniors of “Rado Basket fusion Budaors” as the first strategist in the “Europe for the young” tournaments, youth basketball league “EYBL”. There, his team managed to out-play very known teams from Prague, London, Minhen, Helsinki,… He sees this as one of his big career accomplishments.

In his uprising basketball coach career, he believes his biggest accomplishments are the two golden medals (2017 and 2019) which he won on the Student Olympics of the secondary schools in Hungary on the final tournaments in Pecs, with the male team of the Serbian “Nikola Tesla” school, and a title for the best coach on the held competitions.

He is a participant in international basketball camps such as “Laslo Ratgeber academy” from Pecuj (the camp takes place in Baja, Hungary), “YUBAK FIBA” (Kopaonik, Serbia), promotes the “Roda” amp in Becej, Serbia. He is in the organization of the “Data Sport Agency” , as well as visitor of many well known seminars in the region and wider.

… He saw himself as a coach in the future, during his last first league season, playing for “Jazbereny”, when he took the place of the staff chief (who was ill at the time) and got the chance to lead the team – because he was the only one with a coach licence! Their opponents were the leaders on the board and multiple champions of Hungary – “PAKS ATOMEROMU”. Motivated by the unexpected situation and with little tactical corrections, “Jazbereny” managed to surprise the opponent and win the match with four points of advantage! Those were sensational news that the Hungarian sports’ portals talked about.

We ask him: How much does the work of a school basketball coach differ from one in a team? There is a difference in the categories and quality of the competitions, the work conditions, quantity of practices and dedication of the players, their dedication and sacrifice. There is also a difference in the prior knowledge the young basketball players come with, so there are examples where the coach has to lower the criteria and reprogram the practice because of the level of their tactical and technical knowledge. Either way, there are many things that need to be worked on, fixed, upgraded. The main vision (which is also the end goal) is to elevate the level of basketball in “Tesla’s” Serbian school in Budapest, so that we could one day be equal with the big basketball academies! Those ambitions need to be followed by a long term established plan, so that the idea could become a reality. That means we need to gather talented, determined children that are on the same level and create a positive competitive environment, for overall progress in all fields. They should have the idea of being able to become professional players one day as well, if possible. On the other hand, the coach needs to be maximally dedicated as well - no matter the age or category. No one was born with the knowledge, so the gaps and missing parts need to be worked on to make up for them. Those are usually the differences I have come across in the coaching process. We should mention that professional sports exists due to the mass amateur sports. By reproducing mass sports, and by selection we get to the elite small percentage of potential professionals, that is the main reason why we mustn’t make differences between amateur and professional sports. We should work with the same energy and dedication in all the levels and categories of the competition, and this is what shows us that it is the only correct way. I feel good working with young players and I always do my best to prepare for each practice, no matter if it’s individual work or team practice. I can see how they make progress each week with systematical work in all segments of the game and that brings me satisfaction for further work - said teacher Dejan Mladenović

Interview Varos television and newspaper, Budapest, January 2021

Forming of the complete personality during the many years of working in the sports world

“The most important guarantee of anyone working in the sports field is - living a healthy lifestyle and taking care of your health! People of this kind have a big chance of becoming great individuals. By that I mean that they, through sport develop social skills, responsibility, solidarity, humanity, awareness of personal education. With all of that combined, they form themselves fully as individuals far faster than their peers. Practice and competition is their biggest support in that process. The hard labour and work they put into what they do prepares them not to let the bitter feeling of losing humiliate them, but also not to get carried away with the sweet feeling of victory. With wins and losses they are best taught to control their positive and negative emotions. Engaging in sports makes people learn certain skills which makes them more successful than the rest, which makes great impact on their self esteem which is of great significance especially in their teenage and adolescent years. Good habits and work ethic are acquired, you get the knowledge of how to properly behave in a collective, group and community. Due to that they become better and more capable people, and they will be prepared to face their obstacles and problems later in life. There are many other positive effect that are an advantage and benefit for later in life, in whichever field they end up finding themselves! The more successful and talented ones should for sure be guided and specialized for sports so that they could achieve their maximum, but nonetheless everyone is in a win-win situation at the end of the day, no matter how far they go in the world of sport” said Dejan Mladenovic, physical education and sports teacher - basketball coach.