Image Credit: Szekelyfoldi Jegkorong Akademia

By Adam Donnelly

Szekelyfoldi Jegkorong Akademia

Romanian hockey academy is putting the ‘I’ back in KIBIHT for 2023

Dec 13, 2023 | 6:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — Hockey isn’t generally the first thing that comes to mind when you hear ‘Transylvania.’ However, the area in central Romania is where the Seklerland Hockey Academy is located. The name of the Academy in Romanian?

“That’s the hardest part: Szekelyfoldi Jegkorong Akademia,” Head Coach Tamas Sille explains. “It’s the Seklerland Hockey Academy. Seklerland is part of the Transylvanian territory.”

Looking at these young hockey players at practice, you’d never know they’re coming off a 36-hour travel day to get to this 10:15 a.m. ice time at the McArthur Island Sports Centre.

“I feel like I’m a little bit tired because we just got in yesterday, at night,” Keve Hajdo, one of the players, tells CFJC Today. “I’m excited about the experience and I hope I can give my 100 per cent.”

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“I think it’s very nice we have the training before the games,” Laszlo Mathe says. “It’s very nice to practice.”

How these academy players ended up in Kamloops goes back to a local who coached in Hungary several years ago.

“I know [Coach Sille] from his time in Budapest with the Stars,” Bob Dever explains. “I was an assistant coach with the pro team there and our relationship carried on for a couple of seasons. When the academy started in Transylvania, we stayed in touch and brought up the idea of coming Kamloops, to KIBIHT. We thought last year was a possibility, but the amount of time and effort on their end actually just pushed it back a year.”

The coaches and players from the academy are looking forward to the opportunity to test their mettle against the Canadian teams they’ll be playing. They get the feature game on Friday night, following the 5:00 p.m. opening ceremony, against Kamloops.

“I hope I can show something to the local teams and learn something important here,” Keve says.

“I think we have a good team,” Laszlo says. “A lot of teamwork, everyone who skates wants to win the game, and the whole team has a very nice hockey spirit.”

“The kids, they were so pumped,” Tamas says. “It was a long trip for us, but since we jumped on the bus, they get that energy, they see the mountains and everything around. They are so excited.”

KIBIHT gets underway on Friday (Dec. 15). The championship game will take place next Tuesday.