This past weekend Sacramento Republic FC held the first round of their open tryouts, with the first of many groups of young players vying for the attention of the coaches and talent scouts in attendance. Among those talent evaluators was a man who just a few years ago might have been one of those young players looking for his big break. That man was none other than Republic holding midfielder and fan favorite Ivan Mirković.

“It was interesting, a good experience,” Mirković told Indomitable City Soccer. “I saw a little bit of the other side of the open tryouts.”

Mirković was originally brought into the team by then Technical Director Graham Smith, who has since taken on the title of Director of Football. However, Mirković is still quite familiar with the open tryout process.

“I have been in a couple open tryouts as a player and then as a staff member with Ventura County Fusion in the last couple years,” he said. “This was my first time actually being one of the coaches and being in charge of one of the sessions.”

As one of the coaches for the open tryout groups, Mirković led his batch of hopefuls through a series of drills designed to showcase their skills. It was a different, although not unpleasant, experience for the two-year Republic veteran.

“Before, I was a player so I was more focused on the games and doing well,” explained Mirković. “This time I was the one giving instructions and organizing players, tying to relax them and give them some advice and help them out to do the best they can.”

All of the tryout participants hope to follow in the footsteps of Emrah Klimenta and Max Alvarez, both of whom were discovered by the Republic through the club’s first ever series of open tryouts. However, they are the only players ever to be signed to the first team through the open tryout process, although others, like Sola Abolaji in 2015, have come close.

This year’s batch of open tryout participants will certainly be hoping they can make an impression, but breaking into a talented team like the Republic will be difficult.

To hear more from our talk with Mirković, including the USL team he loves to play against the most, listen to this week’s episode of Beeman’s Republic, recording live Wednesday on KSSU.com at 4pm and released as a podcast this Thursday.