A generational change is taking place in Latvian women’s hockey – this is confirmed by the young team of players. In preparation for the world hockey championship in a foreign country in Mexico, the average age of the Latvian national team is 21 years. So far, it has varied from 25 to even 28 years in tournaments. The national team is led by the Finnish specialist Hannu Saintula, under whose leadership the Finnish women’s ice hockey team won the bronze medal of the world championship four times. His first task in Latvia was to promote the players’ hockey thinking.
“Understanding the game because I’m giving them new ideas on how to think,” Saintula said is a priority in his work for the national team. “I always say, ‘Understand and react.’ [spēlētājām] you have to understand that you have to work as a team, they have to understand each other all the time. I can’t draw where to go on the field if they don’t understand the game, what is the right position and how to work.”
Finnish and Latvian hockey this season has established friendship ties not only in the context of the Zemgale club, but also in the context of the “Rīga” junior hockey school unit.
Now, alongside the head coach, a goalkeeper specialist and an equipment manager also work in the women’s national team from Finland.
Līga Miljone, striker of the Latvian national team, admitted that it was an important experience.
“Of course, it’s something new, you have to get used to it. An insight into Latvian hockey from abroad is quite a big plus in women’s hockey,” Miljone said. “Something that is not often experienced.”
The Miljones surname is not unfamiliar in Latvian women’s hockey. League mom Inese wore the jersey of the national team in 15 world championships. Logically, the daughter also followed in her mother’s footsteps.
Liiga has been recognized as the best player in the national team in three of the nine tournaments held so far, and mom has always been by her side.
“I can definitely say that my mother is my idol in hockey,” Līga Miljone admitted. “She has given me a lot, taught me, supported and pushed me. She was my coach in the boys’ team HS “Rīga” from the age of 7 to 16. She was my teammate in the women’s team “Laima”, also in the national team for a couple of years. She has been in all kinds of roles roles. If you have a person who constantly pushes and pushes to do better, then that person sees that you can, that you have potential, that you can reach that level.”
Both ice hockey players have just won gold in the Spanish ice hockey championship. Līga Miljone is also the first Latvian hockey player who played in the first division of the US college, the goal was to be in the Women’s National Hockey League, but injuries erased this dream.
However, with the obtained bachelor’s degree, Liiga Miljonae has a foundation under its feet, apart from hockey of course.
Inspired by her mother, Latvian national team player Laima Elizabete Lukaševiča also turned to hockey.
“I had no options, my mother didn’t literally force me, but told me to go to hockey,” said Lukaševiča. “She started figure skating, I was also a figure skater. I don’t know why, but I ended up stopping figure skating and she put me on ice hockey skates – so I stayed on them. I kept going, there were moments when I didn’t want to anymore, but mom didn’t offer such an answer “no” . I had to keep going. My dad is a football coach and I wanted to go in the direction of football because I like it in terms of entertainment and I wanted to try. My mom said no, you’ll have hockey.”
Laima’s mother, Inguna, performs the duties of national team manager, her goal is to promote even greater interest in the fair sex to focus on hockey. Currently, slightly more than 300 ice hockey players are registered in Latvia.
Although hockey is more associated with masculinity, it is not.
“According to the rules [sieviešu hokejs] not a power game,” Lukaševiča explained. “Of course, at the championship levels, sharper hockey is also used, but that only belongs to the matter, to the excitement. What I always say is how amateur or men’s hockey differs from women’s hockey: we think more, plan more. In men’s hockey, there is more power play, to show masculinity, strength, but we understand that we cannot use more power, because after [ķermeņa] we can’t really do anything about the structure. We think more with our head and try to think of smart tactics, play more with our head.”
Each of the girls of the national team has different dreams – to take Latvia to the Olympic Games, to build a hockey hall. But the first step is to be in the first division in the world championship.
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