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player ready...Olga Gvozdenovic could always tell how her basketball career was going by looking at a scoreboard or a box score.
In the late 1990s, the news usually was good. The 6-foot-2-inch center led the Loyola Academy girls basketball team to two Class AA state titles, winning All-America honors along the way.
Now, instead of playing basketball, she sells it. She still keeps score, but her scoreboard is seating charts, and success is the color yellow.
That’s the hue that represents season tickets sold for the Chicago Sky, the WNBA franchise that will begin its inaugural season in May.
Gvozdenovic, an account executive with the Sky, is as competitive as she was as a player, which is why she’ll also be on the bench this fall as a Loyola Academy assistant coach.
Her goal now is to help fill the UIC Pavilion, which will seat 6,500 for Sky games. She seems a perfect fit for the task, combining an effervescent personality with a passion for basketball and an understanding of what the women’s pro game can mean.
Gvozdenovic came to appreciate fully the significance of the WNBA when she sold the Sky at basketball leagues, camps and tournaments over the summer. Those appearances usually turned into bull sessions, with players inquiring about everything from her background to athletic opportunities on and off the court to choosing a college.
“It was very rewarding,” Gvozdenovic said recently. “It’s really important for young women who are athletic and smart to know the outlets and opportunities they have in sports.”
In 1999, when she entered Duke on a basketball scholarship, Gvozdenovic seemed more likely to be playing in the WNBA than pushing it. She had led Loyola to 1997 and 1998 state titles and to an Elite Eight berth in 1999, the year she finished a close second in voting for Ms. Basketball of Illinois.
She played sparingly her first two years at Duke, though, and after her sophomore season she left the team to pursue her other sporting passion, tennis.
“I always had that battle between basketball and tennis,” said Gvozdenovic, who finished third in singles at the state high school tennis meet as a junior and senior. “I knew I was only going to be in college once, so why not do both?”
Gvozdenovic gave up tennis after one season to focus on her schoolwork and job hunting. She left Duke in 2003 with a degree in psychology and human development, then worked as an intern and financial analyst for a large real estate company before applying for a job with Sky President Margaret Stender.
Gvozdenovic has hoops in her DNA. She had given private lessons and played in adult leagues since leaving Duke and saw the Sky as a chance to combine her love for the game with her desire for a business career.
“One, basketball is close to my heart,” she said. “Two, Margaret . . . I want to be a sponge soaking up everything she says.
“Three, I want to be at the start-up level so I get to see a company grow and go through everything.”
Gvozdenovic started with the Sky in April, when it was still five months away from adopting its name and when it had only a few other employees. Her main job is selling tickets, though she also is involved in marketing and customer service.
“I think this is extremely important to Chicago, to have a women’s professional team,” she said. “The WNBA players were huge role models for players when I was in high school, when we just dreamed of doing this.”
Gvozdenovic has visited about three dozen summer basketball events, sent out letters and brochures and even spoke at coaches clinics, where the audience included people she had known in her teens.
“I was talking about the WNBA to coaches I listened to as a high school kid,” she said. “I told them, `This is very awkward, so if I stutter I’m having flashbacks.’ “
One of those coaches was Loyola’s Tanya Johnson, who was not surprised when Gvozdenovic mentioned she might join the Sky.
“I think she just had something that was gnawing at her to get back in basketball,” Johnson said. “I thought it was something she really had to go for.
“This is a great opportunity for a young woman to be involved with a pro sport.”
Gvozdenovic told Johnson she was hoping to get more actively involved in the game, and Johnson asked her to fill a vacancy as an assistant varsity coach.
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“She can actually get in there and play against our kids,” Johnson said. “And the kids know who she is in our program. They know the level she played at and what she has done.
“To have her as a player was a dream and to have her back with us is too much even to wish for.”
Gvozdenovic accepted Johnson’s offer as quickly as it took to clear it with Stender.
“It’s cool to know I can give back to the school and see the other side of coaching,” she said.
Seeing that side, she added, will help determine if she wants to go into the profession on a more full-time basis.
“My ultimate goal is living a balanced life,” Gvozdenovic said. “What that means, I’m not sure yet.
“I know I want to still be able to play basketball and work in a sports-related field, and I’d like to help take Loyola to a state championship.”
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