The U16 project combines in total 21 partners from 16 different countries. 10 ice hockey federations as partners, 5 ice hockey federations as associate partners and 7 other sport organizations as associate partners would cooperate to help young girls by providing equal opportunities while playing ice hockey.
The Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation (HIHF) is in charge of organizing the meetings and the CUPs by booking hotels, renting the arena, and preparing a time schedule for all activities during these events. HIHF also acts as the project coordinator, and leads the general organization, media work and the financial accounting of the events and the whole project.
The beneficiary partners are “Ice Hockey Federations” who are responsible to gather girls from their respective countries to take part in the CUPs, practices, games, camps, and other workshops. The partners also appoint team staff, with the focus on developing potential female coaches who lead the teams and benefit from other activities and who realize the on and off ice training with the coaches and players.
Amongst the associate partners there are “Experts”. Brock University Centre for Sport Capacity as an institutional associate partner in this project helps to disseminate the project idea on a national and international level.
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and the Hungarian Referees Committee (MJJE) are responsible to assign female game officials to the CUPs and on the other hand educate them as well through Referee Coaches.
The Corvinus University, the Hungarian Anti-Doping Group (HUNADO), the Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB), the Erste Bank and the IIHF facilitate the workshops during the activities on Coaching Seminar, Anti-Doping, Dual Career, Match-Fixing and Marketing/Business Plan which we believe can help the players to became professional athletes, and the national federations to have more knowledgeable coaches, staff, and leaders.
PREPARATION
U16 girls’ program at national federations
To be part of this project the partner and associate partner ice hockey federations must start a U16 girls’ program at their federation if they have not started one yet. This program gives young girls playing ice hockey at different clubs the chance to see what it means to play only with girls (most of them are playing for boys teams), what is the required level to join a national team program later on, and motivate them to continue playing hockey despite of being tough not to have equal chances with the boys at the same age.
At the same time, the federations assign the team staff working with the U16 program. Amongst the coaches there must be at least one female coach.
Through the program, the assigned staff picks the best 20 players and 2 goalies each year for the CUPs.
IMPLEMENTATION
Educational Program: Workshops and other activities
In order to educate groups at this age, and through this project to help achieve the goals of the European Union, the following workshops and seminars are scheduled to be organized during the EWIHC CUPs & Camps:
- Players Education
- Anti-Doping
- presentations by Hungarian Anti-Doping Group (HUNADO) leader Ágnes dr. Tiszeker
- questionnaires
- free discussions
- Dual Career
- presentations by Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB) experts and Csaba Kiss from Corvinus University
- free discussions
- Match-Fixing
- presentations by Blanka Elekes Szentágotai from IIHF (Women’s Program Manager)
- questionnaires
- free discussions
- Anti-Doping
- Coaches education
- seminars in different topics lead by women’s hockey experts, such as Melody Davidson from Hockey Canada, Tuula Puputti from Finish Ice Hockey Association, and Aku Nieminen from IIHF
- Anti-Doping
- presentations by Hungarian Anti-Doping Group (HUNADO) leader Ágnes dr. Tiszeker
- questionnaires
- free discussions
- Dual Career
- presentations by Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB) experts and Csaba Kiss from Corvinus University
- free discussions
- Match-Fixing
- presentations by Blanka Elekes Szentágotai from IIHF (Women’s Program Manager)
- questionnaires
- free discussions
- Leaders Education
- Transfer of Knowledge
- presentations by the federations (team leaders, general managers, other leaders) about the topic of equal opportunities for girls playing ice hockey
- free discussions and exchange of ideas
- analysis and evaluation will be done after each CUP, so three times during the project timeline in order to prove that bringing together all those experts, staff members and teams helps to create a better environment in Europe for female hockey players
- countries will receive the same questionnaire they did before submitting the project to the European Union
- Marketing/Business Plan
- presentations by Richárd Szabados from Erste Bank
- free discussions
- Transfer of Knowledge
- Game Officials Education
- seminars lead by Referee Coaches and Referees working on international level (at IIHF world championships)
- on-ice sessions
- written feedbacks of their performance
- Anti-Doping
- presentations by Hungarian Anti-Doping Group (HUNADO) leader Ágnes dr. Tiszeker
- questionnaires
- free discussions
- Dual Career
- presentations by Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB) experts and Csaba Kiss from Corvinus University
- free discussions
- Match-Fixing
- presentations by Blanka Elekes Szentágotai from IIHF (Women’s Program Manager)
- questionnaires
- free discussion
- seminars lead by Referee Coaches and Referees working on international level (at IIHF world championships)
U16 Girls CUPs
The first U16 CUP is planned to be played with 14 teams in two groups of seven teams. The ranking of the teams depends on the women’s U18 world ranking of the given year. The women’s U18 world ranking is updated after the U18 Women’s World Championships played in January every year.
First a Round-Robin Format will be played at the tournament. That means 6 games per team in the groups.
According to the results in each group, the first, second, third and fourth … ranked teams will play against each other to decide on the final ranking.
Depending on the feedback from the participating countries, there can be changes in the playing format at the upcoming CUPs.
IIHF Women’s High-Performance Camp
The Women’s Committee of IIHF hosts the Women’s High-Performance Camp in July 2022, where players and staff from all our partner and associate partner national federations will be invited to attend, as well as from other national ice hockey federations which are not partners in the project, as it is an international event organized by the international federation. The purpose of the camp is to bring together some of the most knowledgeable women’s hockey people in the world, all to one place to mentor athletes and team staff. The week will be designed to teach what is required to become an elite female hockey player on an international stage and to educate the staff who will be responsible for helping the athletes to achieve that. Most participants will be working with the teams where players from the top women’s hockey countries are mixed into different teams that are together during the week of action to practice, play, do testing, learn on and off the ice, and develop friendships across the borders.
These potential future world-class players will be educated in skills, training, nutrition, anti-doping and other information, knowledge and abilities needed to compete as top-level athletes and share it at home with their peers.
Besides the player development program, the Women’s High-Performance Camp will also include programs for coaches, goalie coaches, video coaches, team managers, equipment managers, strength and conditioning coaches and athletic trainers who will take part in the program, practices, and games.
On the coaching side the focus of the camp is on the development of female coaches, especially on former top athletes.
During the camps IIHF Officiating Committee will organize camps for game officials as well. They will be educated on and off ice and will have the possibility to try 4 women’s systems during exhibition games.
These camps will be organized and financed by the IIHF.