Last week Eesti Jäähoki Liit contacted us again and asked about possibility to continue to coach Team Estonia and prepare the team for the upcoming Div-I World Championships. We did quickly meet at Tallinn and here’s what us coaches did give for the Jäähoki Liit as answer:
1) Players first!!!
We asked jäähoki liit to put together a written plan describing how they are planning to manage the team, conditions, support etc for next season. From our perspective we need 100% guarantees that players are taken care of like they should as hard working professional athletes. This means everything from training conditions to meals and equipment etc. For us it does not make sense to negotiate about coaching before we know that players have been taken care of first and they have conditions & environment which will support hard work and winning culture. If we see a plan and guarantees that are satisfactory, we are ready to negotiate as we really appreciated the attitude, hard work and professionalism that Team Estonia players demonstrated at D-II Narva tournament.
2) Different situation
Us coaches are at a different situation than last season. Ismo was not under contract with any professional team at the time he agreed to coach Team Estonia and Jukka was only coaching Zurich Lions goalies. Now Ismo is coaching KooKoo at Finland and Jukka has signed for another year with Zurich and is also consulting KooKoo. This means that our time is limited and we would have to take time for this project away from our regular work, scarce vacation days with families etc. Anyhow, we are willing to negotiate as long as jäähoki liit shows us that players are taken care first. Naturally the project needs much more work that last season at D-II level so our time needs to be compensated as well. Good news is also that other people involved like Pekka Ajanto and Mika Harlo are also available under same conditions as us coaches.
Having said that we sincerely hope that Estonian hockey has turned a new page and the great game of hockey will start prospering at Estonia.
Jukka & Ismo
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Jukka ja Ismo tehkää sen!
VastaaPoistaNice, that both parties are in principle interested in continuation of the co-operation. I thought Estonian association would seek for other coaches after having received straight-forward critics from you. Good, that I have been wrong. I really appreciate your approach about written and concrete plan for preparation period. Professional demands! I genuinely hope, that parties will reach to the common understanding, it would inevitably develop Estonian ice-hockey. Good luck for negotiations and looking forward to hear news about next season about you with Estonian team!
VastaaPoistaJust a quick update that we have asked where Jäähoki Liit is with the plan and 1,5 weeks ago we were told that they will be able to provide that after annual conference at Germany has made final decisions about the next season tournaments etc.
VastaaPoistaJukka
Ps. We have gotten Maksim Semjonov a personal training program and Ismo will take him to Finland for a tryout this summer when his team starts on ice.