During the past two days a real hockey recruitment campaign took place in the Transylvanian hartland in Szeklerland, also known in Hungarian as Székelyföld.
Hockey stars from the region such as István Bartalis and Tihamér Becze travelled back home for a two day event as they visited towns and settlements such as Csíkkarcfalva, Gyergyószentmiklós, Csíkszereda and Szepsiszentgyörgy in an effort to not only popularise the sport but to breath new life into the sport that dominated the region and recruit kids to join a new hockey academy.
In conjunction with the Hungarian Government the Székely Hokiakadémia was established not only to get more kids to play the sport but also to keep them home for a longer period of time. Recently there has been an exodus of young hockey players from the Székleland region. There are 14-17 year olds moving to clubs in Hungary such as Debrecen, MAC, Fehérvár and Győr the past couple of seasons, to learn and develop in a better atmosphere.
“We split up the work, Titi (Tihamér) presented about strength and conditioning and I showed the kids stick handling and the technical side of the sport.” said Hungarian national team forward and Csíkszereda native, István Bartalis about the two day event, “There were mostly three age groups of kids that were in attendance U14, U12 and U10, a couple of U8 kids were also here. I didn’t answer any questions persay it was more us showing proper technique and fixing smaller things.”
Bartalis was also asked how he saw the big picture and what might be the correct answer for this solution. “Right now I think everything is moving in the right direction, this academy needs to work together with the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation, the Transylvanian and the Szeklerland clubs need to participate in the Hungarian leagues and championships, this needs to be continued. Also we need more academies that are set up similarly to the ones that are in Hungary, for example like the one in Fehérvár. The kids need to be on the same level at the time they reach the age of 14 like the ones in Hungary, this way they can stay at home, develop and work in a family surroundings and after that they can move to a higher level such as in Hungary and possibly the EBEL for example.”
There are a number of young hockey players from the region who left to develop their careers, aside from Bartalis, Tamás Sárpátki and Áron Reisz have also played for the Hungarian men's senior team.
It will be interesting to see who will be the first “stars” to come out of this academy in the Transylvanian hockey hotbed.
photo:szekely.ro