VALDEMORO, Spain – Spain hosts the Olympic Qualification Group L with the youngest roster in the competition – and that’s just how head coach Luciano Basile likes it.
Host nation Spain takes to the ice with the youngest roster in the competition. With an average age of just 22, and almost every player born in the 1990s, it’s another step towards nurturing a new generation in Spanish hockey.
And for Italian-Canadian coach Luciano Basile, now in his sixth year with the Spanish set-up, the Olympic Qualification process is a great chance to showcase the talent that Spain has to offer.
“I’m really excited about it,” he said after Thursday’s training session. “We’ve got the youngest team here and I’m proud of that. It’s a lot of fun because coaching a young team there’s so much enthusiasm. The Spanish are a very passionate people and our Spanish hockey team has the same traits as the rest of the country. When you mix that passion with the enthusiasm of youth, a lot of our job as coaches is to calm them down a bit. Even in practice they want to do so well, they bring so much energy. Sometimes being over-excited gets them into trouble but it’s a lot of fun working with that energy.”
Basile was also involved in the move to a more youthful roster after Spain was relegated from Division II Group A in Zagreb in 2013. Back then the team had an experienced spine but disappointing results made it clear that things had to change. As the head coach explained, there was no point in winning promotion back to IIA with a roster that had already failed.
“I said to Frank [Gonzalez, President of the Spanish Ice Sports Federation] that now was the time to start building with our really young players,” Basile said. “When you can’t compete in IIA with an experienced roster that’s a message that something has to change. Next year we introduced six under-20 players right off the bat because the objective was not only to win IIB but win with a young we can build.”
The plan worked: promotion was followed by survival in last season’s Division IIA in Reykjavik and the next step is to target another elevation to the Division I Group B. Along the way, success on home ice here would offer a huge opportunity to take on stronger opponents than usual such as Italy or Hungary in February – perhaps changing some people’s opinions of Spanish players in the process.
“We know we’re not going to be playing at the Olympic Games but our objective is to win this weekend and be able to play in the second phase,” Basile added. “That’s a chance to showcase the qualities of Spanish hockey.
“A couple of years ago when I was coaching in Briancon, Ander Alcaine played a year for me. We won the League Cup that year with a 19-year-old Spanish goalie. People wondered what I was doing, even my fan base thought I’d got it wrong. There’s very little respect for Spanish players and coaches won’t take a chance on them. But we have some good players and if we can compete with pro players that’s a shop window for our guys.”
Alcaine, currently back in Spain with CH Jaca, followed his spell in France with a period over the Atlantic in the Maple Leafs organization. While coach Basile worries that many Spanish players are disadvantaged by their passports, forward Pol Gonzalez has also been able to take his talents across the Atlantic.
Currently the 23-year-old is playing for the Concordia University in Ottawa – and he’s gaining a lot from that experience.
“I still remember my first shift over there,” he said. “I went out on the ice and just got destroyed against the boards. Back then, I was just this tiny guy; it made me change my routine right away. I started working out and focusing on that Canadian hockey routine.”
Those efforts also helped to make the transition from an exotic creature to a regular member of the team. “When I first went over people couldn’t believe there was a hockey player from Spain,” he said. “They were like ‘who’s this guy coming to play our sport?’ But they got used to it pretty quickly. As long as they can see you’re giving all you have and playing for the team they are right with you.”
Now he’s hoping to see more hockey played back home in Spain, and more youngsters get the chance to play at a higher level in leagues around the world.
“To promote Spanish hockey we need to build more arenas here,” Gonzalez added. “We need to give the kids a chance to develop their hockey skills and then help the best ones move to the North American system. We understand that to succeed in hockey we need to export our players to go to one of the top countries to play the game.”
A strong showing in Valdemoro this weekend would be a great way to pursue that ambition.
ANDY POTTS |
