Despite national team assistant coach Diego Scandella not being able to be with the team because of the schedule of Ambri Piotta, the number of coaches on the coaching staff actually increased instead of decreasing. This was because of the addition of Péter Mayer and Jukka Kontsas who were with the national team through the HIHF coaching program.
Water is water but in different forms when parallels were being drawn between the Hungarian national waterpolo team and the ice hockey team. The two national teams have a good relationship with each other, during the 2013 Division 1/A World Championships the water polo team visited the hockey team during the off day of the world championships.
When the water polo team was getting ready for their world championships during that summer the hockey team visited them, the two sports have had similar problems, one of them being not enough ice surfaces or or pool for the two sports to develop as well ahs having quality coaches. In recent years both pool and ice rinks have been popping up all throughout the country and the HIHF has been keeping an eye on developing quality coaches.
DVTK Jegesmedvék who are the defending MOL League, Hungarian and Hungarian Cup champions have provided two coaches to the Hungarian national team coaching staff in Péter Mayer and Jukka Kontsas. The Hungarian national team coaching staff for the 2015-16 looks like this:
Head coach: Rich Chernomaz
Assistant coaches: Gergely Majoross, Diego Scandella, Tamás Sille, Viktor Tokaji
goalie coach: Gary Clark
strength and conditioning coach: Sándor Puskás
“I started the season as the coach of the senior team however the past ten years I have been working with the youth national teams, I have received positive feedback from Glen Williamson. This year it looked as if I would not be able to be apart of any of the national team since I was the head coach of DVTK and I would not be able to leave the team for two weeks at a time. This was when the idea came up as I could be a guest coach for the senior team” said Péter Mayer.
During the international break back in November I had already been with the team but did not make the trip to Stavanger since the coaching staff was already set. However for the Olympic Qualifying tournament I would have been with the senior team no matter what. The coaching staff treated Jukka and myself as if we were regular members of the staff. We tried to keep to ourselves at the start but it was clear that Rich Chernomaz was counting on us and included us in everything.”
Mayer and Kontsas were with the team right from the start of camp all the way to the final moment against Poland.
“It was a high level of hockey with knowledgeable coaches”, said Jukka Kontsas, I
was with the team as the video coach, I would break down key moments from our team and the opponent's game tape. I go through the game tapes and cut the important moments that the coaching staff would like to see and what we can use for the next game. Of course this is a big chance for my coaching career. I have been in Hungary for three years and I am proud that I have been able to work with the national team.”
The Hungarian coaches program is in full swing with two purposes, one to have the Hungarian coaches develop and also in the longrun to have a large pool of Hungarian coaches to choose from for the national team programs.
This can be seen with the number of coaches working with all the national teams, the days of a head coach, assistant coach and a goalie coach are long gone.
“In today’s hockey culture the coaching staffs are larger than they used to be, this is because we have reached a point more people are needed, we don’t even have to look for or for a big team to see this. The U18 team for RedBull Salzburg has five person coaching staff that goes everywhere with the team, everyone has a specific job on the staff that without them the team might not perform as well.
During the tournament, Rich Chernomaz was clearly behind the bench, but Viktor Tokaji, Jukka and myself were working. Jukka was the video coach, Tokaji was looking for tactical tendencies and I was running the stats. The head coach sees a lot from the bench but this is not perfect.”
Since his change in position Mayer is back as the technical director for DVTK with Kontsas as the assistant coach and goalie coach for the MOL League team.
“I don’t really want to be a head coach, I have always worked with goalies, however I really do like to be a video coach and an assistant coach”, said Kontsas, “A head coach has to be able to pay attention to and know what is going on with 30 players, I really like to individually work with guys, one on one. During the Qualifying tournament I think we had the best goalies, they were all very technically sound and played great. Will I stay with the national team? That is not my decisions, I do hope there is a need for me.”
Rich Chernomaz did give a positive feedback and was happy with what the Kontsas brought to the table. “That week was very usefull for me, I learned a lot and I was very happy with the opportunity that i was presented” said Mayer