INTERVIEW: THE FIRST SWEDISH TEAM IN PFC MINI
For the first time ever, a Swedish team will be participating in PFC MINI. After long negotiations, the participation of the Swedish Frost IBF was finalized. Below we bring you an interview with the team's coach Micke Ohlsson.
1) What inspired you to bring your MINI team from Sweden to the Prague Floorball Cup? Ever since we started the team, there has been a huge appetite for matches and tournaments, not only the kids on the team but also the parents are absolutely fantastic and everyone really wants to join! So when we hatched the idea of going to the Czech Republic to play in the cup, a lot of people were excited.
2) What are you hoping your young players will gain from this tournament experience? It will be incredibly exciting to see how we measure up against teams from the Czech Republic. But above all, I hope that the children will get a chance to experience new countries, new cities and floorball memories that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.
3) How can an event like PFC help kids grow as floorball players and as teammates? In Sweden, we only play matches every fourth weekend or so, so playing cups is something we think is incredibly important. Then I'm convinced that our players will learn new things when they get to face teams from the Czech Republic.
4) For many of your players this might be their first big international tournament — how are they preparing for it? Yes, that's right, we have only played cups in Sweden, which is perhaps not so strange considering their age. Now many of us are going down on December 31st and celebrating New Year's in Prague, so I am convinced that we will have 5 days where we will become even tighter as a team and group. Even when the idea was hatched to play a cup in Prague, it has been this year's goal, so every training, every pass etc. is a milestone for Prague. I would also like to add that we would like to thank our sponsors who have stepped in with some money to cover certain costs that have made this opportunity possible for us.
5) What kind of memories do you hope your players will take home from this weekend? I hope that the whole adventure with both hotel stays and celebrating New Year's in Prague will create memories that will live on for a long time to come, also that the boys in the team will come closer to each other. Regarding the floorball tournament, I hope they will bring with them a lot of experience, partly to meet teams we have never met before, but also tips on how the other teams play, shoot, dribble, etc. Then of course if you want to dream, it is that we manage to win the tournament.
Micke Ohlsson - BU9
