Why the change?
There are two reason to why I am leaving.
I came at the wrong time, maybe I should have come in one or two years. These guys have a lot in them, but it is hard to work with them. I talked to coaches who have coached in the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar and they all agree with me, these guys have everything money can buy but in sports that is not enough. You can not buy hard work and growth. This is something that is hard to get the locals to understand. It is hard to motivate the adults who have families, workplaces and live very well off. It is hard to set goals if you just say I will get better, but they do not. They are missing the fire and the strength to want more.
However, the main reason that I left was because last fall I lost my bride to cancer. I have too many bad memories of the place to stay there.
An offer just came in?
Yes I happened to receive an offer from Malaysia, a place that I always loved to visit, because the people are nice and hard working, there is a real Asian mentality.
In 2017 in Sapporo they will have the Asian winter games and later they will have the South East Asian games as well. The latter one is a summer event, however, this will be the first time that winter sports will also be competed. The sight will be Kuala Lumpur, hockey will also be played during both events.
Five countries will be competing, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, all five countries would live to develop hockey, and if they perform well they will get more state funding.
What is your new job exactly?
I am the head coach of the senior national team and also the director of hockey development. We would like to have everyone playing within one system in all of Malaysia, for this to happen everyone needs to be familiar with the system. I will be working together with the coaches throughout the country to work out a plan.
This will not be easy, they would like to have the same results in Malaysia as I had in Taiwan, I worked there for eight years and it took three-four years until we started to see some results. Here they would like to do this in two years.
What are the technical points of the contract?
I have signed with the federation for 2+2 years.
When will we see you back home?
Maybe for Christmas, but we’ll see.