Dec. 23, 2011

Lady Techsters vs. LSU, Thursday at 7 p.m. at TAC

Lady Techster GameDay

The transition to college life was a little more of a challenge for Louisiana Tech sophomore Jelena Vucinic than the average teenager moving away from home for the first time.

Not only was the 5-foot-8-inch shooting guard transitioning from high school to college, but she was moving to a new country. Jelena is not from around these parts. She is a kiwi.

The Nelson, New Zealand native left her family, her friends and her country to don the Columbia blue and play for head coach Teresa Weatherspoon. She is now living her dream.

"Ever since I was little, I said I wanted to come to the States on a basketball scholarship," Jelena said. "Every year (in high school) we would fill out our goals at the beginning of the year and mine was always to get a basketball scholarship to America. And mine stayed the same every year. My last year, while everyone was trying to figure out what university they were going to back home, I still said I was going to America."

Since there aren't a ton of American coaches making trips overseas to recruit, Jelena had to serve as her own agent in order to fulfill her dream. She started emailing school and sending out clips.

"I emailed coach (Daron) Park," Jelena said. "I was kind of lucky because he had seen me in 2008 when I played (with a New Zealand team) in Las Vegas. He watched the film and coach Spoon watched it, and here I am."

The transition to a new culture hasn't been too difficult, according to Jelena.

"It's been good," she said. "Everything is a lot different. The worst thing is saying words that people don't understand or forgetting words are so different. We have different words for different things.

"I get it a lot every time in class; waiting for the teacher to call my name. Every time the roll gets called, my whole life, the teacher just stops. I have to say my name, and then they hear my voice. Then they start asking questions. People ask and get interested. It makes me feel really interesting."

Jelena said that she has tried to experience as many things as she can during her time in the States, including some of Louisiana's cuisine ... but not all of it.

"No, (I haven't tried crawfish)," Jelena said. "I don't like bugs. I don't like food that looks like bugs. I just don't like when it looks like a little bug, and I'm eating it. I had gumbo. It's good. And jambalaya ... that stuff is good."

Jelena comes by her basketball skills honestly as both of her parents played the sport competitively. Her mother Tatjana Zizic played for the Yugoslavian age group teams growing up before competing for the New Zealand national team. Her father Nenad Vucinic also played for the New Zealand national team and now serves as the organization's head coach.

"We are a New Zealand basketball family," Jelena said.

Basketball wasn't the only sport that Jelena excelled at during her prep days in New Zealand. According to her, she was so competitive that she played just about anything that she could.

"In my school I was the one who always won everything," Jelena said. "We would have track and field days, and I would sign up for everything. I guess I'm just so competitive I wanted to win all the events. I like running.

"Back home there are only three other high schools in Nelson. We would have our own competition to see whom is the best at our school, and then those people compete against the other schools. Eventually, I had to pick (a sport) so I picked basketball. I like team sports more."

Jelena, who was also a member of the Waimea College volleyball team that won the high school national championship in New Zealand, said that although she loves the new people and new places she gets to experience while going to Louisiana Tech, she misses her home.

"Nelson is beautiful," Jelena said. "It's small, but it's bigger than Ruston. It's really nice. When you fly into it, you see the mountains and the ocean. It's really nice landscape. It's at the top of the South Island in the bay area. There are so many different things you can do there.

"It's a really laid back town, not a bustling city. It's kind of like Ruston in that aspect. There are a lot of farms and wineries. There is also a port so ships come in. Tourism is kind of big."

Eventually Jelena will get to move back to Nelson if she chooses. However, for the next two plus years, Louisiana Tech fans will get to call the kiwi one of their own.