Former Vista del Lago multi-sport athlete, Luke Avdalovic, continues to pursue his basketball career with hopes of playing in the NBA and is currently playing for the G League team Austin Spurs, a feeder team for the NBA team San Antonio Spurs.
His passion for the game started early and grew while playing for Vista. While playing both soccer and basketball, he eventually gravitated toward basketball. “I think anyone in my circle will tell you the same thing; it’s honestly just been my passion. It’s what I love the most,” said Avdalovic.
While playing in his youth, Avdalovic built a core group of basketball players with strong chemistry. This included Will FitzPatrick, Chris Fairchild, and Thomas Reinking.
“The one thing about our teams that made us really good was how close we were off the court. Some of those guys I’m still best friends with to this day,” said Avdalovic.
With Avdalovic leading the way, they made it to the Division III Regional Semi-finals, the furthest Vista’s basketball team has managed to get.
In his senior year, Avdalovic led the team averaging 16.5 points on 46% shooting. He was in the top 150 in the nation for 3-point makes.
Although he was one of the team stars, Avdalovic didn’t plan on going pro. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t think playing pro was really a reality until my third year of college.”
After high school, Avdalovic went to Northern Arizona University and later transferred as a senior to the University of Pacific. In his three years of basketball at Northern Arizona University, Avdalovic averaged 45% from three. Then, in his two years of basketball at the University of Pacific, he averaged 44% from three.
Now that he’s playing on the Austin Spurs, Avdalovic has tallied up 32 points, 17 rebounds, and 5 assists in 10 games this season. With the Spurs being a feeder team for the San Antonio Spurs, Avdalovic could be signed to the team any day.
Along with Vista’s athletic programs, Vista thrives in helping students prep for college through their academics. Avdalovic is known for his basketball skills, but he is also an experienced journalist who took a journalism class over three times at Vista.
He was a big supporter of Vista’s block schedule which prepares students for what a college system looks like. “The way it’s set up mirrors what college is going to be like for most people, with changing classes, longer lecture periods, and a midterm and final. Vista actually does a really good job, not even just for college athletes but for students in general.”
When his basketball career ends, Avdalovic plans to use his communications degree along with the skills he learned in Janice Johnson’s journalism class at Vista to pursue a career in sports writing. “The things I learned under Mrs. Johnson and at Vista, in terms of being able to connect with different populations and people, being efficient with the way you write, a lot of the same things kept coming back,” said Avdalovic. “[Her students] were ahead of the schedule, like she really got us in the right spots. We were ready to be successful.”
Mass communications seems to run in the family as Luke’s sister, Hannah Avdalovic, a Vista alumnus, currently does social media and PR for the Golden State Warriors.
Vista looks forward to watching Luke Avdalovic’s career progress—either as an NBA Star or a journalist prodigy.
