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Dunedin Ice Hockey Head-Coach finalist for Sports Otago Coach of the Year
Sports Otago has announced the finalists for the 2015 ASB Otago Sports Awards. Dunedin Ice Hockey Head-Coach, Janos Kaszala, has been named finalist for the Coach of the Year award.
Mr Kaszala’s coaching ability are unparallelled in New Zealand. He is making a remarkable contribution to ice hockey at the local, regional and national levels.
Local and regional success
Mr Kaszala is head coach for the Dunedin Ice Hockey Association (DIHA). He’s responsible for coaching all grades of ice hockey players in Dunedin. This includes:
- Kiwi Hockey (Under-10)
- Peewees (Under-13)
- Midgets (Under-16)
- Juniors (Under-20)
- Adult Beginners
- Seniors
- Dunedin Thunder
Under his leadership, the Peewee Dunedin Penguins and the Midget Dunedin Penguins won their regional competitions in the Southern Ice Hockey League.
National success
Nationally, Mr Kaszala lead the Dunedin Thunder to the final of the New Zealand Ice Hockey League for a second year in a row. He also was head coach for the Southern U13 and Southern U20 teams. Both those team won the national league in their age group.
International success
Internationally, Mr Kaszala was assistant-coach for the New Zealand men ice hockey team at the 2014 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Div II Group B in Jaca, Spain. New Zealand won the bronze medal in this competition.
Since then, he was appointed head coach for the New Zealand men ice hockey team for the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Div II Group B. This competition took place in Cape Town, South Africa. He led the Ice Blacks to a second place finish.
About the ASB Otago Sports Awards
The ASB Otago Sports Awards are organised by Sport Otago to recognise and celebrate excellence in sporting achievement in the province.
2 other top contenders will be vying for the Coach of the Year award:
- Mike Hesson who recently helped the Black Caps reach the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup and
- Snow Sports New Zealand head park-and-pipe coach, Tom Willmott.
The awards will be presented at a gala dinner at the Dunedin Town Hall on Friday 22 May.
Read the official ASB Otago Sports Award finalist press release on the Sports Otago website
