As the men's senior team continues on with their in house tournament and the coaching staff evaluating the players for the upcoming world championships it is worth taking a look at the support staff that is working hard behind the scenes of the national team. We will first be taking a look at the equipment staff and their two members.
STAFF
Head coach: Rich Chernomaz
Coaches: Gergely Majoross , Diego Scandella, Tamás Sille, Viktor Tokaji
Goalie coach: Gary Clark
Strength and conditioning: Sándor Puskás
GM: Attila Nagy
Team leader: Lajos Imre
Doctor: Ernő Majzik
Physio: Imre Bagonya, Tamás Sashalmi
Equipment managers: József Nagy, Gábor Tornyi
The term equipment manager goes beyond the original meaning where this person would wash the equipment and hang it up to dry and deal with similar aspects of the equipment. In today’s world it has a lot more to do with knowing the ins and outs of every piece of equipment and how each player on the team likes their skates and sticks handled.
This is not a one man job even though sometimes the budget keeps it that way for most club teams. For the Hungarian men’s senior team start this season it is a two man crew working the skate sharpening machine.
Joining József Nagy who was the lone equipment manager at the division 1/A worlds will be long time youth system equipment guy Gábor Tornyi for this year's run. Both men have a number of years of MOL League experience under their belts, as Nagy worked with DVTK this past season and Tornyi with MAC.
The two gentlemen talked to us during a coffee break which started out more as a technical side and ended up in laughter.
How hard is it that this year instead of working with the amount of guys for one to two teams you are responsible for taking care of three teams worth of players?
József Nagy: The first day is always crazy but once you have an order set up then you won't really have any problems. On Monday we moved in and set everything up and we hoped that all the players read all the emails that went out...which of course they did not. :)
How much help is it that you are not working alone this time around?
JN: It is tremendous help we split the work with Tornyi and we get along great because he is equally big of a goof like me.
Gábor Tornyi: For me it is a great honor that I can be here and try to help out where I can.
For you how much help is it that you are working on you home field here at the Tüskecsarnok or would you be fine anywhere in the country?
GT: I think I would be fine anywhere but it does help to be at home, plus I can tell József that we will not be lacking any kilometers in our legs as we cover all the corners of this facility, but I think he knows this.
JN: Yes, we will be packing on the kilometers for sure.
GT: We will be asking the federation for a scooter or a segway or something like that…
How much free time do you have during an action packed week like this first week of this year camp?
GT: Free time? What's that? :)
JN: We have some time when the guys are eating but that's when we are usually sharpening the skates actually... We try to steal 5-10 minutes when we can, we start our day before the team gets here and we stick around 1.5 to 2 hours after they leave.
When can you actually get some rest, you guys are an important part of the team just like everyone else…
JN: We can rest when we come back home, but when two people can split the time equally they will be fine.
GT: We rest when we travel, we regenerate. We have become accustomed to this, and once a system is set everything goes a lot more smoothly.
Compared to last seasons Div 1/A world championships or any of the U20 or U18 worlds how much is this years a bigger event?
JN: This is huge and we really need to be on target this season, we need to be running a tight ship because we will have real hockey people that will be looking into our locker room.
GT: It is a real motivation.
How crazy do your families think that you are that you are working at an ice rink from dawn till dusk?
JN: Very much so but they they except me, they know what I do and they are happy for my success.
GT: I am afraid that when I get home my things will be out on the front lawn. :)
Photo: László Mudra
ROSTER
Goalies (9): ARANY Gergely, BÁLIZS Bence (MAC Budapest), DUSCHEK Dávid (Dunaújvárosi Acélbikák), GYENES Dávid, KISS Bence (DVTK-Jegesmedvék), HETÉNYI Zoltán, RAJNA Miklós (Fehérvár AV19), PLESZKÁN József (UTE), VAY Ádám (Debreceni HK)
Defencemen (26): ARANY Máté, LÁDAY Tamás, ORBÁN Attila, REITER Attila, SZABÓ Dániel, SZALLER Márk, SZIRÁNYI Bence, VARGA Arnold, VOKLA Roland, WEHRS Kevin (Fehérvár), DÓSA Krisztián, KISS Dániel (UTE), GARÁT Zsombor, HERNER Olivér, JÁSZAI Dávid, MESTYÁN István, NAGY Patrik, POZSGAI Tamás, STIPSICZ Bence (MAC), DUDÁS Jesse, GŐZ Balázs, SAGERT Kalvin, VOJTKÓ Mátyás, (DVTK), VAS Márton (Fassa, olasz), ERDÉLYI Tamás (Ferencváros Bp. ESMTK), HRUBY Gellért (Dunaújváros)
Forwards (43): BANHAM Frank, BARTALIS István, BENK András, KOCSIS Ferenc, KOVÁCS Csaba, KÓGER Dániel, NAGY Gergő, REISZ Áron, SARAUER Andrew, SÁRPÁTKI Tamás, SIKORCIN Ladislav, SZABÓ Krisztián, VINCZE Péter (Fehérvár), CSÁNYI Karol, GÁGYOR Péter, NEMES Benjámin, TURBUCZ Martin, VIRÁG Tamás (UTE), ERDÉLY Csanád (Sioux Falls, amerikai), GALANISZ Nikandrosz, HAJÓS Roland, MISKOLCZI Márk, PAVUK Attila, SOMOGYI Balázs, TÓTH Adrián (DVTK), GALLÓ Vilmos (Linköping, svéd), HÁRI János (Leksand, svéd), HÁRI Norbert, KÖNCZEI Áron, VINCZE Péter Tamás (Debrecen), KERESZTURY Erik (Düsseldorf, német), KISS Zsombor (Davos, svájci), MAGOSI Bálint (Briancon, francia), NAGY Krisztián, NÉMETH Attila, ROCZANOV Dezső, SCHMÁL Kristóf, TERBÓCS István, TÓTH Richárd (MAC), SÁGI Martin (Feldkirch, osztrák), SEBŐK Balázs (KalPa, finn), SOFRON István (Klagenfurt osztrák), VAS János (Slavia Praha, cseh)
SPRING SCHEDULE
Exibition games
April 15th, Friday, 18.00 (Budapest): v Austria
April 16th, Saturday, 16.30 (Vienna): @Austria
April 20th Wednesday, 19.00 (Budapest): v Slovenia
April 29th, Friday, 19.00 (Budapest): v Kazakhstan
April 30th, Saturday, 19.00 (Budapest): v Russia B
World Championships, Russia
Group B (St. Petersburg)
May 7th, Saturday, 12.15 (11.15): v Slovakia
May 8th, Sunday, 12.15 (11.15): v Canada
May 10th, Tuesday, 20.15 (19.15): v France
May 11th, Wednesday, 20.15 (19.15): v Finland
May 13th, Friday, 16.15 (15.15): v USA
May 14th, Saturday, 16.15 (15.15): v Belarus
May 16th, Monday, 20.15 (19.15): v Germany
(CET)