For this year’s annual general assembly there were 132 attendees representing 62 clubs and organizations.
Before the assembly started, stepping down President Csaba Kovács read the resignation letter of Gábor Ocskay who was stepping down with three years remaining on his term as board member of the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation and that he would not like to be nominated for any other positions as well.
The Federation followed this up by remembering the passing of former hockey players during the past year, Béla Zsitva (1944-2015), István Vagyóczky (1922-2015), Janka Méri (2002-2015), János Krasznai (1951-2015), József Kertész (1940-2015), Gábor Garbóczi (1971-2016) and Piroska Bögi (1985-2016).
The first order of business was Csaba Kovács presenting the year end review of the senior men’s and women’s national teams, youth national teams as well as the national championships, which was accepted by the assembly.
The second and third points were covered by Aliz Szénási the HIHF financial director presented the how the Federation did financially this past year. The oversight committee also presented their findings of the past year as well.
Dr. Zsuzsanna Kolbenheyer informed everyone in attendance of the technical plans for the upcoming 2016-17 season, both with the national teams as well as the national championships.
The men’s senior team will be hosting a six team EIHC tournament in the Tüskecsarnok between November 3rd through the 6th, later in the season the team will travel to South Korea to take part in a four team tournament between February 9th through the 12th. March 30th will mark the 90th anniversary of the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation, plans are underway for the senior team to play an A-Pool national team on this day in the László Papp Sports Arena. The 2017 Division 1/A World Championships will be held April 21-29 in Kiev with the national team holding camp from the 10th through the 20th.
The U20 national team will face the U18 USA team in August in Budapest and finishing up the month in Sweden in a tournament in Karlstad. In November the squad will be in Italy for a 4 Nations tournament and the U20 Division 1/B World Championships will be in Budapest between December 11-17 in the Tüskecsarnok.
The U18 age group will be split into two teams, the U17 and U18 national team up until February 2017. There will be an Olympic Hopefuls Tournament at the start of the season with a 4 Nations tournament in in Austria in November. In December there will be 4 Nations tournament on home ice with an invitation to a tournament in North America as well. The end of the season will be rounded out with 4 Nations tournament in Feburary and the Division 1/A World Championships in April with the host still to be determined.
The U16, U15, U14 and U13 mini camps will be held every month, this will be the fourth year that the U16 age group spends in this youth system, they will again be travelling to Kamloops to defend their KIBIHT title.
The Women’s senior will be playing at the Division 1/A level at next year’s World Championships, which will be held in Austria April 15-21. The preparation for the upcoming season will be starting in August, with a number of international tournaments, with the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in December in Norway. Just before the end of the calendar year for the third year in a row the national team will face the Canadian U22 team and hopefully in February another Olympic Qualifying round will be on the schedule, if not a 4 Nations Tournament will be on the schedule instead.
The Women’s U18 Division 1 World Championships will be contested on home ice in the Tüskecsarnok between January 8 through the 14th 2017. Before this in November in Hungary and in December in Poland the girls will be partaking in a 4 Nations tournament. For the IIHF Summer High Performance camp, that is for the top 16 countries in the world, Hungary will be sending nine players born between 1998 and 2000 as well as five staff members.
The Women’s U15 program will continue to work under the same structure by having a A, B and C squad that have monthly mini camps. The plan is to have the team go to an international tournament during the spring of 2017.
The national championships and the Hungarian Cup is also getting a makeover. The qualifying round for the Hungarian Cup looks to be expanded. The Continental Cup group stage schedule will be decided by the IIHF at a later date, however DVTK Jegesmedvék would like to host their opening round which will be held in October.
The idea of a U25 championship has also been talked about, this would be geared towards players who have aged out of the U20 age group but are not getting regular ice time in the MOL League.
Plans are underway for a small rink U12 championship, this would be for the clubs who have the ability to field a proper U12 squad but because of the lack of a regulation sized rink they are unable to do so.
The proposed financial plan for the upcoming season was presented and accepted by the general assembly. With the elections of the new leadership following.
Photo: László Mudra