Dunedin Ice Hockey Association

DIHA appoints Professional Coach Janos Kaszala

To all DIHA Members,

It’s with great pleasure that the DIHA board can announce that it has appointed Janos Kaszala to be the new full time professional coach of the club.

Janos has spent the last 4 years playing and coaching in Canterbury. He is the Canterbury minors head coach – coaching all youth players in the region. He also coaches under 13 and under 16 rep Canterbury teams as well as the Red Devils in the NZIHL. Prior to coming to New Zealand Janos played professional Ice Hockey in Hungary for 12 years, and has played for the Hungarian Senior National Team. Janos has qualifications in coaching and sports management from the Hungarian Physical Education University.

This is a significant step for the DIHA. While we have had professional coaching in the past, it has only been in-season, and coaches have tended to change year to year. The employment of Janos as a full time, full year coach commits the DIHA to growing ice hockey, and raising the quality and profile of our programme to the best in New Zealand. He will develop and support our programme from kiwihockey beginners, through all the age grades, seniors at all levels, as well as assisting our young coaches develop their skills further, and providing continuity in individual and team development.

As well as a development in quality, all members will have more opportunities to develop your skills – holiday programmes, summer development sessions, off-ice training. The board is currently working on timetables and costs for these programmes and we hope to have them to you soon.

We are tremendously grateful to the Dunedin Ice Stadium for their support of this position, which has made this step possible. The club is talking to other potential partners to try and spread the financial cost of this step further – we are aware of the costs of your chosen sport and want to limit the costs of this development to us all.

Janos will be in town on Tuesday and will no doubt be around the rink on Tuesday night while the DIHL is on. Please introduce yourselves to him. Larry Wheeler always said we are the most friendly hockey club in the world, I’m sure you won’t dissapoint.

Janos, wife Andrea, son Valintin (9 years) and daughter Jazmin (6 years) will be moving down to Dunedin in the next few weeks so please make them all feel welcome. Andrea will be looking for a job merchandising, which she currently does in Christchurch. If anyone has any contacts re this i’m sure they would be grateful.

We will keep you all in the loop as things progress.

Regards Pete Wallis

Operations Vice-President