The first two editions of the Rookie Cup have been very successful in Hungary with multiple Hungarian teams making it to the Final 4 each year.
2014-15 European Rookie Cup
During the first instalment of the European Rookie Cup two Hungarian teams had won their preliminary round to advance to the Final 4 with a third one just missing out. Fehérvár AV19 hosted and won their group with MAC Budapest advancing as a second place team, UTE just missed out on advancing with an overtime loss in their last game.
Joining the two Hungarian teams in the Final 4 that was held in Salzburg was Austrian side EAC Junior Capitals and Slovenian club HK Triglav Kranj. The Final 4 was a surprisingly tight fought tournament as every team picked up point with the champion being decided during the final game. The Capitals ended up winning the inaugural tournament with Hungarian clubs MAC and Fehérvár bringin home the silver and bronze medals.
Friday, 10th of April:
EAC Junior Capitals - Fehervar AV19 5:4 OT
HK Triglav Kranj - MAC Budapest 3:5
Saturday, 11th of April:
Fehervar AV19 - HK Triglav Kranj 1:2 PS
MAC Budapest - EAC Junior Capitals 2:3 PS
Sunday, 12th of April:
Fehervar AV19 - MAC Budapest 3:4 PS
EAC Junior Capitals - HK Triglav Kranj 2:1
2015-16 European Rookie Cup
The overall Hungarian presence in the Rookie Cup improved from year one to year two as this time UTE managed to accomplish what they just missed out on the year before with an overtime loss in the group stage to eventual champions, EAC Junior Capitals. This time around UTE made it through to the Final 4 as they were joined by fellow Hungarian clubs Fehérvár and MAC who had qualified to the Final 4 for the second year in a row. The 2016 European Rookie Cup Final 4 was held in Zagreb Croatia with Austrian club Villach rounded out the championship round. Unlike the previous year Fehérvár won the tournament with a clean sweep of all three opponents, MAC finished second for the second year in a row with UTE finishing fourth.
Friday, 8th of April:
MAC Budapest - Fehérvár AV19 2-6
EC VSV - UTE 2-4
Saturday, 9th of April:
Fehérvár AV - EC VSV 6-4
UTE - MAC Budapest 1-6
Sunday, 10th of April
MAC Budapest - EC VSV 5-8
Fehérvá AV19 - UTE 11-1
The organizers of the European Rookie Cup are satisfied with the second season. Icehockey.hu talked about the tournament’s present and future with Axel Bammer of the European Rookie Cup
How did you get the idea to organize an event such as European Rookie Cup?
The Erste Bank Eishockey Liga already organizes the Erste Bank Young Stars League (EBYSL - U20) and the Erste Bank Juniors League (EBJL - U18), therefore it made sense to do something for the U16 age group. At the same time the Austrian Hockey Board gave us the instruction to find ways for financial support through the European Union. Our goal is to improve the skills level on the ice and to prepare the young players for a professional career. The European Commission announced some topics in the so called „Call for proposals 2014”, which need to be tackled by projects throughout Europe. These topics were: Match-Fixing, Doping, Discrimination & Intolerance and Physical Inactivity. With our project "European Rookie CUP” we try to tackle all those topics at the same time by organizing lectures with the respective experts in that field during the Tournament weekends.
Do you get from it what you want in the two season?
The role of the project worked out very well so far, in the first year 2015 everything was new and had to be organized on a very short notice, but together with all our partners we managed to organize everything according to our project proposal. On the hockey side the participating teams had a chance to play more games at a good and international level. The lectures worked out very well and we got a lot information about the knowledge of the players towards the respective topics. For the second season we made some adjustments and presentations and about the set-up as far as it was possible within the project-budget.
Are you satisfied with this year competition, the performance of the teams and the level of the organization?
I am very satisfied about the work of all our project partners and definitely about the local organizers of all the tournaments. They did a great job and tried to fulfill all the wishes of the teams. The number of the "Likes” on our Facebook-account and visits on our website were really good and shows that the players, parents, etc, are interested on the topics.
There were three Hungarian teams participating in the finals with Fehérvár winning the Cup. What do you think was the reason for the Hungarian domanence?
This shows us that the Hungarian Federation made some good decisions in the past to focus on the youth program and now they are seeing the results, but on the flip side this gives the other teams from Austria or Slovenia the chance to play against better Hungarian teams to become better themselves.
Do you plan to continue the tournament next year? Would you like change anything in competition or programs?
The project is a 3 year program and will contiune on in 2017, after that the EU-funing will end and we will have to see how this project can go on.