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Catching up with Riki Isabegovic: Former Tiger reflects on journey from Bosnia to Princeton · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Catching up with Riky Issabekovic. Former Tiger reflects on journey
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  Speaker 1: from Bosnia to Princeton. Written by Kevin Hieronimus. This article
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  Speaker 1: is being read by an automated voice brought to you
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  Speaker 1: by Everlett. Riky Issabekovich never imagined he'd spend two years
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  Speaker 1: of high school in Princeton, let alone the United States.
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  Speaker 1: Isabekovic and fellow Bosnian refugee Mirza Salkich were key members
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  Speaker 1: of Princeton's nineteen ninety five Class A Sectional champions and
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  Speaker 1: the tigers nineteen ninety six Class two A Regional finalists.
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  Speaker 1: I've always wanted to catch up to Riki and Mirza
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  Speaker 1: to see what they were up to after all these years.
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  Speaker 1: While I was unable to connect with Mirza, I recently
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  Speaker 1: chatted with Riki. The forty eight year old father of
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  Speaker 1: two grown children, is a senior project lash production manager
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  Speaker 1: for a construction company in Maryland, where he's lived since
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  Speaker 1: two thousand and five. Tegovich said he and Salkik are
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  Speaker 1: not in touch on a regularly basis, but will connect
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  Speaker 1: on birthdays and holidays. Riki shared his story of his
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  Speaker 1: journey to Princeton with me. Both Isabekovich and Salkich were
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  Speaker 1: members of the Bosnian junior national basketball team, which traveled
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  Speaker 1: to Croatia. Because of the Bosnian War, they never made
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  Speaker 1: it back to his hometown Tuzla in Bosnia. The war
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  Speaker 1: started in nineteen ninety two. In nineteen ninety three, we
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  Speaker 1: left with anticipation we would come back after a couple months,
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  Speaker 1: he said. We were never supposed to come to the States.
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  Speaker 1: Once we left the country, all the roads were blocked off.
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  Speaker 1: There was no more entrance back into the country. From Croatia,
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  Speaker 1: the basketball team went to Turkey and were supposed to
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  Speaker 1: play in the European Championship in Czechoslovakia, but it never happened.
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  Speaker 1: Isabegovic said one of their coaches had family in Chicago,
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  Speaker 1: and all seventeen players and two coaches got special visas
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  Speaker 1: to come to the US, arriving in December nineteen ninety
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  Speaker 1: three in two groups. The Rotary Club sponsored them and
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  Speaker 1: found host families within sixty miles of Chicago. Isabegovic spent
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  Speaker 1: one semester in Crystal Lake and one in Genoa, Kingston,
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  Speaker 1: but could not play sports because of issay regulations. From there,
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  Speaker 1: Isabekovic and Salkik found their way to Princeton. Isabigovich was
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  Speaker 1: taken in by Jim Miller of Princeton, while Salkok came
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  Speaker 1: with Steve and Karla Bauslag when Steve received a new
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  Speaker 1: job opportunity with the former Citizens Bank in Princeton. I
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  Speaker 1: remember the people and the help offered to us kids
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  Speaker 1: coming from a different country, especially the way we came
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  Speaker 1: without our parents, Isabegovic said, Steve and Carla Bouslog Jim
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  Speaker 1: Miller just to take us in and be like our
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  Speaker 1: parents meant a lot. Back then, we were kids, teenagers,
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  Speaker 1: and we don't really know much about life. Isabigovich and
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  Speaker 1: Miller maintain a strong relationship to this day. I call
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  Speaker 1: him dad, he calls me son, Isabegovic said, he's been
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  Speaker 1: involved with my kids. My son lives in Florida, about
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  Speaker 1: a half hour away from where Jim resides, and they
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  Speaker 1: see each other. It's a great relationship. We're like father's son,
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  Speaker 1: even though we're not blood. He was very appreciative of
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  Speaker 1: the community and teachers at PHS who helped him adjust
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  Speaker 1: to his new home, especially Stephen Paula Matthews, Bruce and
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  Speaker 1: Rita Plassaic. Tom Crane and Marty Kaiser. People like that
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  Speaker 1: left a pretty big imprint on our life and missus
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  Speaker 1: Matthews helping us with language is a big Evic said.
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  Speaker 1: They opened doors and welcomed us to their community. Not
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  Speaker 1: all the of the reception was warm, however, we were
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  Speaker 1: welcomed by a lot of