As we are in the middle of the quarterfinals of the MOL League playoffs one can not help but jump back to the team that won it all five years ago.
During the 2009-10 season the MOL League was picking up notoriety as teams were signing better and better import players, during that season there was only one team that played the entire MOL League season with only Hungarian players, interestingly enough the coaching staff was two Canadians. The Vasas Budapest Stars under the guidance of Glen Williamson and his assistant Bob Dever, the roster was a bunch of veterans and young up and comers won the league after upsetting two favored teams.
Young and Old
Current Miskolc coach and national team assistant, Gergely Majoross was forward on this Stars team “I think the way that project started was great, I wish there were more teams similar to that setup. There were some young Hungarian players, some older experienced guys, so the young ones had fight hard and learn quick to get a chance to play, but there were guys who were able to help them” Those young players that Majoross is refering to have now become established players in the MOL League, EBEL and the national team, players such as Miklós Rajna, Bence Szirányi, and Balázs Somogyi. It seems as though that these veteran players were the right veterans for the young players to learn from, most of them are now involved in coaching one way or another.
The team was the first and so far the only MOL League winning side to be made up of only Hungarian players, there were no imports on the roster, yes Tamás Sille was from Slovakia, Roger Hoéczy from the U.S. with Sándor Szilárd and Csanád Fodor both from Romania they were all Hungarians.
MOL League Final 4
After the regular season UTE and the Stars finished tied on points but UTE had a goal differential which gave them the three seed and the Stars would face a DAB.Docler team that had two loses all season. Going into the one game semifinals Roger Holécz who was out with some friends had a “Joe Namath guaranteed moment”. When asked how he felt about playing for the bronze medal, he said with an annoyed voice that they will not only upset Dunaújváros but will win the MOL League Final 4.
In the semi finals in the closing minutes of the second period Dávid Szappanos scored two quick goals to put the Stars up 2-0, in the third period DAB.Docler came back from being two down but Roger Holéczy scored in the last minutes of the third period to pull off the shocking upset. In the finals they would face UTE a team that knocked them out of the playoffs the year before, Stars would have to play without Szappanos who got injured after scoring his two goals. In the finals Újpest struck first when Vladimir Dubek beat Rajan but a minute later Tamás Gröschl tied it up, Sándor Szilárd and Csaba Virág scored in the early part of the second period as the Stars held on to a 3-1 win and their first and only MOL League title.
The following season under the name of Vasas HC, and with a new coach the team finished fourth. In the MOL playoffs which went back to the tradition series format, they knocked out Ferencváros and in the semifinals took on Csíkszereda in a best of five which they lost 3 games to 1 with every game going to overtime. After the season ended the senior team disbanded for various reasons.
Great leadership and coaching
“It was a great team to be on, especially with Glen leading the helm” says Holéczy all these years later “in his first year he brought us together and put in a simple system we followed and made a fun environment to motivate us and made us compete hard. It was a lot of fun, and a great team effort!” Not only do the veterans from that squad such as Holéczy and Majoross think back with fondness to that team but so do you players such as Szappanos “we had a really great team with a nice balance of youth and experience Bill (Balázs Kangyal) was great leader that we all looked up to him”
Players have credited not only having talented squad but great coach has been brought up a number of times. Glen Williamson has been mentioned and interestingly enough the players that retired in the following seasons have not only gotten into coaching but have worked under Williamson who is now the director of the Hungarian national team youth system, age groups U18 through U13 are under his direction.
Like a Family
Like any good group of friends or a family anytime you get together you talk about the good old days or the common memories, the 09-10 Stars are no different. “We still talk about that team a lot we I run into former teammates, everyone generally agrees that was the closest or tightest team we have ever been on, it was like a big family. The core was group of former Alba Volán players, we had played together for 7-8 years and were more friends than teammates. To this group was added some talented Hungarians and the young Stars players. What was also great was that everyone got along with Glen, we were not only a family but we acted professionally as well.
Highlights and interviews from the last game can be found here and here.
Roster and current team or position (names in bold have played for the national at least once in their careers)
Goalies
Miklós Rajna- Fehérvár AV19
József Pleszkán-UTE
Defencemen
Bence Svasznek- Retried coaching at MAC and Hungarian U18
Tamás Sille-Retired assistant coach for Fehérvár AV19 and Hungarian national team
Balázs Kangyal-Retired coaching at MAC
Bence Szirányi- Fehérvár AV19
Zsolt Wéber-Debrecen
Krisztián Szajbert-Retired, coaching at Sportország
Gergő Berecki-UTE
Gergő Ványi-UTE
Richárd Nagy- DAB.Docler
Forwards
Szabolcs Fodor-Retired, coaching at MAC and Hungarian U18, commentator for Digi Sport
Roger Holéczy-Retired, coaching at MAC
Szilárd Sándor-Retired
Csaba Gergely-Retired
Tamás Gröschl-DAB.Docler
Balázs Somogyi-DAB.Docler
Gergely Majoross-Retired, head coach of Miskolc and assistant for Hungarian national team
Dávid Szappanos-DAB.Docler
Csaba Virág-UTE
Sergei Maslov-retired, coaching at Vasas
Hunor Strenk-Tisza Volán, coaching at DAB.Docler and Hungarian youth system
Csanád Fodor-Brasov (Romanian national team)
Coaching Staff
Glen Williamson-director of the Hungarian youth system and coach of the U18 national team
Bob Dever-Head coach of MAC Budapest U20