“The very best thing about becoming champions was we are all like a family; these are all my best friends!” AHTC’s Christoph Soldat on the essence that makes European club hockey such a special thing.
He was speaking to the EHL website ahead of their return to competition after a 12-year absence following their run to the Austrian national title in June.
It sets them up for this week’s KO16 contest with Mannheimer HC in Surbiton, a dream for the player who came up through the youth system since his family moved to Germany in 2009.
There, he grew up with numerous of his team mates like Oliver Kern, Lorenzo Rizzi and team captain Florian Albrecht.
“We are all very excited because, for a small club in Austria, it’s not every day that you play such a big competition along with such a big media!
“We are very young team and most of the guys are aged between 17 and 25. I think this is a huge part of our success. We’re not just meeting for training sessions but we’re also meeting for drinks or coffee or studying or whatever.
“A huge part in how we as a team work because we’re very close to each other.”
Given that profile, there are no direct links back to their previous EHL campaigns but Soldat says the stories when he started joining the first team as a teenager still got told.
“I don’t really remember it at the time but I got to play with some of the players who were in the squad at that time.
“Obviously this was a big talking point at the training ground. As a young player, joining the squad at 16 or 17, you obviously listen to those stories from guys like Dominik Monghy, Fabian Zeidler and Matthias Gerö, those kind of guys.”
That early introduction is something indicative of the club with the ‘if they are good enough, they are old enough’ adage holding true.
Albrecht made his European debut in 2017 as a 15-year-old in the EuroHockey Club Trophy in Elektrostal; Kern was 17 at that same tournament.
“I think this is an issue for Austria in general. Yeah. If they are good young players, they will be introduced into the first team very early.
“There’s not so many players around compared to other countries so if you’re any good or at a certain level, it’s usual to get to the first team at a very young age like we did.”
By that stage, the then 17-year-old Soldat had already been capped at senior level but his international career has been a slow-burner until this year when he has been an ever-present in the Olympic and EuroHockey qualifiers.
In the interim, he spent a season with Harvestehuder THC after coming into contact Christoph Bechmann who was doubling as T2 for the Austian national setup.
Soldat did find opportunities in the first team in Hamburg limited but he did return with renewed zeal to AHTC; he was named the Austrian MVP for the championship winning season.
“I feel like the one year training wise – because I got to train with the first team all year long – improved my game. But also, it was like coming home and there was less pressure, to be honest, in terms of everyone was very welcoming.
“Maybe that combination of being in a good hockey shape and the mental part was huge I guess.”
For this season, the panel has new additions in Ben Kramer (Münchner SC), Tom Seidensticker (Düsseldorfer HC), Paul Baier, Maximilian Fink and Leopold Breitmayer (all from their own youth section).
But, for the most part, AHTC are likely to keep faith with much of the side Lukas Staniczek coached to glory last term.
“Concerning EHL, I think we’ve decided as a team that we would like to play with the championship side of last year, to give all of the guys who played a big role in that the opportunity to play on such a stage.”
Having drawn Mannheim in the KO16, he is well aware of the size of the challenge ahead.
“If you are a German champion, you’re probably one of the best three or four in Europe and obviously they have one or two who just won the silver medal at the Olympics. I think this is a great opportunity for us to play against such a team of such high quality.
“And to show them that we’re not bad either! So, yeah, we’re looking forward to it. Obviously we know it’s a tough, tough challenge and we are realistic, but we’ll give it our best and push for the best outcome possible.”
