Xavier Coach Hadzic teaches his players more than soccer

CEDAR RAPIDS - Two bags of belongings. That's all Amir Hadzic could take with him.

Naturally one of those contained soccer cleats.

The Cedar Rapids Xavier head coach loves “the beautiful game,” had a professional playing career in his hometown of Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, interrupted by war in the early 1990s. As did so many others, he chose to leave the chaos.

With two bags.

“Sarajevo was in a valley surrounded by mountains with people who wanted to shoot you,” said Hadzic, whose Saints play Norwalk on Thursday in a Class 2A state tournament quarterfinal. “So people dug a tunnel underneath the airport. United Nations soldiers were stationed at the airport. It was kind of primitive. You'd go in a group of 500 people in complete pitch dark with your two bags ... You don't know if you will come out alive.”

Once he did, it was time for a hike.

Mount Igman was the site of the ski-jumping competition in the 1984 Winter Olympics. Hadzic was a high-school kid then, full of so much national pride that he volunteered to be an interpreter and guide for athletes, including members of the United States ski team.

Legendary brothers Steve and Phil Mahre gave him a team jacket as thanks that he wore until it wore out. It was so cruelly ironic now that he had to scale Mount Igman to leave his beloved country.

“It is 10,000 feet (high),” said Hadzic, 44. “We had these guides, and I was carrying bags. We got on a bus, and they took us to Croatia to a refugee camp. I was there for eight months.”

That's when fate intervened, and he met the woman who eventually would become his wife. Iowa City native Amy Weismann - who works for the University of Iowa's Center For Human Rights - was a humantarian aid worker helping the refugees.

Hadzic finally got a chance to come to the United States in 1995. It was New York City initially, then Weismann's parents invited him to visit Eastern Iowa.

“The very next day, I saw in The Gazette an advertisement for a (head) coach at Mount Mercy (University),” Hadzic said. “I got that job, and I called my cousin in New York and said I was staying in Iowa.”

He's been here since, being named Midwest Collegiate Conference men's coach of the year a second consecutive year last November. It's his sixth season leading the Xavier boys' program, and the Saints have won the last two Class 2A state championships.

“He's one of the best coaches I've had. Easily,” said senior Chad Gilmer, an accomplished club player who has played soccer since he was a youth. “The way we practice, everything. He's a super nice man, friendly, teaches us a lot of life skills.”

Hadzic's impact on local soccer is immense. Sixteen of his former players at Mount Mercy have become head coaches, including J.P. Graham at Cedar Rapids Washington, John O'Connor at Cedar Rapids Jefferson and Corey Brinkmeyer at Linn-Mar.

“I always take big pride in that,” Hadzic said. “I really enjoy coaching both at Mount Mercy and here, spreading my passion and knowledge (to) hopefully have an impact on kids.”