Little Mo Smrikve Bowl – a once in a life time experience

Letter to Mio Bozovic

(Tournament Director for the “Little Mo”/Smrikva Bowl)

Dear Mio,

Our family has had many discussions since we came home, and I have told all of our curious local tennis pros and families about your gorgeous red clay courts, your beautiful house and compound built by craftsmen in your extended family, and about the legion of quiet, selfless volunteers who help make it all possible. I will be sharing many encouragements as an informal U.S ambassador along with Ingrid Neel, and will carry the message to future players of this little eden on the northwest coast of Croatia. I will encourage families to take their time in Pula, as I wish we had – but there will be other chances, I hope.

In short Mio, I am so happy to have met you and shared a little bit of time in this incredible event you put together for tennis, for children, for parents, for peace, happiness and worldwide super-generational understanding and appreciation of the blessings of the earth we share. I can see that we both view tennis as a beautiful and artistic metaphor for life itself: for the opportunity for earned glory, for meeting challenges bravely and handling defeat with grace, for never stopping to try again, and to improve by measures with effort, cunning, artistic talent, and fortitude; placing our hopes and dreams into a prodigal child to be the very best she dares to be, and to celebrate the journey regardless of outcome.

I only wish that after the cleanup, we had one more evening to have a fresh pasta a la oglio-Smrikve, a glass of Pulanese white, another of Pulanese red, and discuss the past and future over a final espresso!

Please consider coming to Minnesota, and we have plenty of room for you and your wife any time at all. All the best Mio, and thank you again for a capital event! Viva Croatia and Tennis Club Smrikve!

Bryan Neel
USA Team Captain