{"id":2797,"date":"2018-05-16T11:25:29","date_gmt":"2018-05-16T15:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hamiltoncroatia.com\/wordpress\/?p=2797"},"modified":"2018-05-16T11:25:29","modified_gmt":"2018-05-16T15:25:29","slug":"hamilton-croatia-goalie-going-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hamiltoncroatia.com\/csccofh\/hamilton-croatia-goalie-going-south\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton Croatia Goalie Going South"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luka Gavran receives NCAA soccer scholarship<\/h3>\nBy Larry Moko\n\nA 6-foot-5, 200-pound goalkeeper who led St. Jean de Brebeuf to its first Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic indoor soccer championship has landed a soccer scholarship to St. John\u2019s University in Queens, N.Y.\n\n
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Luke (in yellow) pictured here with the Poskoci after their 2018 CISL Zivko Cup Championship win.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nLuka Gavran will become a member of the NCAA Division I Red Storm beginning in the fall.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m excited,\u201d Gavran said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity.\u201d\n\nIn addition to his involvement over the past four years of high school with the St. Jean de Brebeuf Braves, Gavran played at various showcase events in Canada and the United States with the GPS Academy. That organization is based primarily in Stoney Creek and Oakville.\n\n\u201cLuka stands out,\u201d Brebeuf coach Larry Garcia said. \u201cAnyone watching his games would notice him.\u201d\n\nGavran was outstanding during two days of HWCAA indoor championship tournament action at Redeemer University College this past week. There, he stopped four of five penalty shootout attempts and showed off a powerful leg in driving the ball downfield.\n\nDino Perri, a St. Thomas More teacher and former goalkeeper who is in his 11th season as coach of the McMaster Marauder men\u2019s soccer program, was on hand for the final between More and Brebeuf. When asked about Gavran, Perri said: \u201cFirst and foremost, it\u2019s his size. He\u2019s a big body \u2013 the prototype for a goalkeeper.\n\n\u201cHe\u2019s an excellent athlete, as well. It bodes well for him. I still don\u2019t think he\u2019s reached his full potential. Going to St. John\u2019s for four years and really committing himself to goalkeeping should be huge for his progression.\u201d\n\nGavran started playing for the Hamilton Croatia organization at the age of 6. He learned the skills of a striker until shifting to the goaltending position at the academy five years ago.\n\nSaid Perri: \u201cBecause he played out for so many years you can see he\u2019s very comfortable with the ball at his feet. That\u2019s extremely important as a goalkeeper. It makes him versatile and more of an asset.\u201d\n\nSt. Thomas More Knights coach Marinus Meulendyks agreed with Perri\u2019s assessment and says Gavran is like having a 12th man at the back end of the field.\n\n\u201cHe\u2019s definitely a big weapon for them,\u201d Meulendyks said.\n\nA former volleyball player at Brebeuf, Gavran said he is confident in reading the play and going up to grab high balls.\n\n\u201cLuka gets very emotional,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cHe\u2019s really into the games. He doesn\u2019t like to lose. His skill has got him to where he is now.\u201d\n\nAt St. John\u2019s, the soccer roster is comprised of players from all over the world.\n\n\u201c(St. John\u2019s) is in a great location,\u201d Gavran said. \u201cWho wouldn\u2019t want to live in New York? And they have a great coach who has been with the team for 28 years.\u201d\n\nGavran plans to study Finance. Then, he\u2019s hoping for a professional soccer career. \u201cThe goal right now after my four years is Major League Soccer.\u201d","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luka Gavran receives NCAA soccer scholarship By Larry Moko A 6-foot-5, 200-pound goalkeeper who led St. Jean de Brebeuf to its first Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic indoor soccer championship has landed a soccer scholarship to St. John\u2019s University in Queens, N.Y. Luka Gavran will become a member of the NCAA Division I Red Storm beginning in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-soccer"],"cb_total_comments":0,"cb_categories":[{"term_id":10,"name":"Soccer","slug":"soccer","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":10,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":97,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":10,"category_count":97,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Soccer","category_nicename":"soccer","category_parent":0}],"cb_excerpt":"Luka Gavran receives NCAA soccer scholarship By Larry Moko A 6-foot-5, 200-pound goalkeeper who led St. Jean de Brebeuf to its first Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic indoor soccer championship has landed a soccer scholarship to St. John\u2019s University in Queens, N.Y. Luka Gavran will become a member of the NCAA Division I Red Storm beginning in the fall. \u201cI\u2019m excited,\u201d Gavran said. […]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncroatia.com\/csccofh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncroatia.com\/csccofh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncroatia.com\/csccofh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncroatia.com\/csccofh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncroatia.com\/csccofh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncroatia.com\/csccofh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2797\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncroatia.com\/csccofh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncroatia.com\/csccofh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamiltoncroatia.com\/csccofh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}