EHM The Blue Line

Whilst many new coaches dream of being offered the job of coaching the New Jersey Devils or the Detroit Redwings. Some have dreams of moving to Europe and mastering the art of coaching. Having played some Junior hockey and being some what of a reccy player. I have taken the relevant courses required and gained my coaching certificate. I have aspirations of lifting the Stanley Cup centre ice at the air canada centre. I have dreams of drafting that number 1 pick who will change the NHL forever. I have dreams of being in the hockey hall of fame, seen by millions, admired by everybody. I have high aspirations in the coaching world. Despite my lack of playing experience my overall hockey knowledge is not that bad. So I pay a small fee and sign to a local hockey agency. The aim is to get some coaching job in a college or smaller team and build my way up through the ranks.

I wait for a few weeks, eagerly sitting by the phone waiting for the call. Im slightly worried that most leagues seasons have nearly started. But am hopefull that some team would pick me up. I decide to call the agency and ask if they have found anything. To be blunt nobody was interested in a 25 year old coach with little experience and little playing career. I ask them to keep looking and keep me in touch.

Finally I get a call, a secretary asks me to come into the office to discuss a deal the agents have worked on. I jump into my car and make my way down to the offices. All I can think of is which team it is. ECHL? AHL? or what if its a bad deal? What if I get a job in some little town who hates hockey, or a team thats guranteed to lose each game. I wait in the waiting room nervous but also excited.

I get called into the meeting room. Two men are sitting at a table with a phone either side of them. They inform me that its quite late in the offseason and that getting a team with my experience is nearly impossible. I feel saddened but continue to listen. A team has expressed interest, the moneys poor but a job is a job. I try to run in my mind what team it is. They pass me a piece of paper, I slowly look down and see the words WarKis Varkaus written on a piece of paper. Warkis who? I reply.

A Slightly sheepish response from the agents inform me that they are a semi proffesional team in one of the lowest leagues in Finland. They have recently cut there coach, and nobody else wants the job. Its mine if I want it. I agree to the job, but as I sat in the car afterwards I start to have second thoughts. The team has agreed to fly me over in three days time. Just over one month till the season starts.

Saturday 9th August 2003

I land in Finland, I am taken to the Varkaus ice hall which will be my office for the next few months. I take a look around the rink. It holds around 1,200 people with about 1,000 seats in there. The ice size is massive compared to Canada, but having seen the ice its very poor. Uneven in certain places and bumpy. It should make for some interesting games. I get to meet the board first a gentleman called Jari Tikkanen greets me with a firm handshake. He tells me that I am going to need to improve the teams roster during the season. But that there is no transfer money available to purchase players, and the old coach spent too much on wages and the team is over its budget. The team is in debt aswell. Not by much but there is debt. I slowly start to realise that this is not going to be an easy task at all.

I am introduced to my staff, firstly head coach Tero Heiskanen he is a 35 year old who has been involved with hockey for a lot of years. I soon meet Assistant coach Lasse Koponen who is known for his determination and ambition. Ville Koivisto is the next person I meet. He is the teams scout he will be directly reporting to me of good players to aquire. Finally I meet Jari Lehtinen the teams physio. He is great at working with the younger players, but also very strict.

I decide its best to check the fixture list early to see what the schedule is like. The first game is just over a month away so I try and arrange some pre-season friendlies to churn up a bit of revenue and get a look at the team in action. Two games have been arranged with Seinajoki and Vermuntila.

Sunday 10th August 2003

I decide to look into signing a few free players and then see how it goes in the friendly games. I am shocked by the news in the local newspaper that Lappeenranta have offered our head coach a job as a scout. I shrug the news off and am slightly dissapointed to note that I only get two lines in the local paper, informing people about me. I have sent a fax to Blues Espoo about the possibility of loaning a player called Miika Elomo, He is not wanted by his team and we can pay up to 55% of his wages here. They fax back saying that they are not interested. I offer some trials to a few younger players and wait to hear back.

Thursday 14th August 2003

After a few quiet days I get a call from Lappeenranta, in broken English the person on the other line says they have confirmed a deal with our head coach, and we will get £500 in compensation. I have quickly made an offer to a Finnish head coach to come in. But am told that I have failed to secure the services of Markus Juvakoski a 23 year old winger I tried offering a trial too. Ironicly he has signed for Lappeenranta.

Having spent some time with my team practicing, I can see that there is a few problems in the team. But I will deal with the tomorrow. I have a fax sitting on the table with an offer from Finnish Elite League side Rauma for Timo Savolainen. Its worth £3,500 I agree to the deal. Its up to them now to agree terms with Timo.

Something like this really belongs in a new section of our site.

Really impressive stuff

Yep, cool stuff

Only one thing bothering me... You're not using the Kidhander's league pack 2.0, for the real Finnish team names. "Lappeenranta" is SaiPa in RL.