Many people have a strong passion for their sport, but LSU volleyball coach Fran Flory said few people have a passion like assistant coach Danijela Tomic.
“She changed her entire life,” Flory said. ” She moved countries to play.”
Tomic, a native of Kakanj, Bosnia-Herzegovina, came to the United States in 1995 to play volleyball for the University of Arkansas- Little Rock. She came without knowing any English.
“The culture was different,” said Tomic, who had to take all English classes her first semester of college. “But I thought the people were nice. Arkansas is in the South, so I experienced the southern hospitality.”
Tomic’s talent as an athlete transcended the language barrier. While at Arkansas-Little Rock she was named second team All-Sun Belt Conference and Most Valuable Player of the Sun Belt Conference tournament – where she led her team to its first NCAA tournament appearance.
Tomic took up coaching in 1997 when she became a student assistant. In 1999 she took the assistant coaching job at Arkansas-Little Rock. This is Tomic’s first year with the Tigers, but she has already impressed the athletes.
“She knows so much about the game,” said sophomore starter Megan Heinz. “She helps players learn.”
Junior Beth Cowley said Tomic, 31, has a youthfulness about her.
“She’s younger, so she relates to us,” Cowley said.
Tomic said the assistant coaches participate in all aspects of the team, but she has the specific role of working with the team on ball management and controlling the ball.
“I believe in individual practice,” Tomic said. “I learned with a lot of individual drills. It is not hard to put a team together if all the players know how to hit.”
Tomic’s energetic love for the sport displays itself each day at the beginning of practice. She uses difficult drills to challenge the athletes and teach them how to have ultimate control of the volleyball. She even demonstrates each drill for the athletes and gets actively involved in their learning process.
Two weeks ago, Tomic began practice by having the athletes bump the ball, sit down on the floor and try to stand up and bump the ball again before it hit the ground. Many of the athletes obviously had not done anything like that before, and they laughed at first as they tried over and over again to get up before the ball bounced. Yet, by the end, much of the team had eventually succeeded.
“She’s an outstanding young coach,” Flory said. “She’s fully capable of being head coach at another university. Her experience level in the sport is far beyond most Americans her age.”
However, Tomic has big plans for her tenure at LSU. She said her goal is to help the Tigers be one of the top programs in the country. As for this year’s 3-3 team, Tomic said improvement starts with hard work.
“Each practice needs to be 100 percent,” she said. “We need to learn from each win and each loss.”
Flory said Tomic’s immediate impact will be felt in the 2004 recruiting season. Even though it is too early to determine who the Tigers will have for next season, Flory said Tomic’s international connections will be valuable to LSU’s volleyball program.
New coach impacts Tigers
September 8, 2003