Czech Republic
Some history info
2006 — 2007
The historically first general meeting of the Czech Floorball Federation took part in Třeboň in April 2006. Up to 64 members from 5 Czech sports clubs have been registered into the association. The members of the executive committee, auditorial commission, and inspection commission have been elected for a period of four years and the players´ representative for a one-year period by the shareholder´s meeting. Petr Alina (president of the CFF) and Zbyněk Sýkora (vice-president of the CFF) were elected as the statutory bodies of the association. Lenka Honzátková, Dominik Drahoninský and Jakub Koucký were elected into the executive committee and Zdeněk Štálnik, Bohuslav Hůlka and Jana Fesslová into the auditorial commission. Michal Hájek became the players´ representative for one year.
A milestone in the development of the Czech wheelchair floorball was the entry of the general partner Fortuna a.s. Thanks to the financial help of this betting office, the sports clubs registered in the Czech Floorball Federation o.s. which organized the Fortuna Wheelchair Floorball League 2006 tournaments, could be supported financially. Other partners who joined and sponsored the association were Europ Assistance s.r.o. and Spinflo s.r.o., who has been supporting floorball for the disabled for many years. The Czech Wheelchair Floorball Federation o.s. has picked up on the long lasting cooperation with the Czech Floorball Union and especially with Filip Šuman who has many times offered wheelchair floorball a helping hand. Thanks to this cooperation, the matches of the Wheelchair Floorball League 2006 have been refereed by professional umpires from the Czech Floorball Union.
The Czech Wheelchair Floorball Federation o.s. has organized six weekend league rounds which took part in Třeboň, Plzeň, Prague, Trutnov, Otrokovice, and Ostrava. It has also been possible to introduce wheelchair floorball to those interested in the region of Southern Moravia thanks to the newly arising project called “S handicapem mezi mantinely” (Handicap Among the Boards). In cooperation with the project Cinema Without Barriers the association has presented floorball on the 41st year of the international film festival in Karlovy Vary. The closing ceremony of the Wheelchair Floorball Fortuna League 2006 was held in Prague on 9th December. Guests Filip Šuman (president of the ČbU), Radka Kučírková (chairwoman of the ČSTPS) and Vladimír Fuchs (representative of our partner Europ Assistent s.r.o. and at the same time one of the greatest legends of Czech floorball) have all accepted the invitation to this event. At the end of the year 2006 the Czech Wheelchair Floorball Federation citizens association had 67 registered members among which 57 were disabled. In 2007, the Czech Wheelchair Floorball Federation would like to aspire for further improvement of its activities. One of the resolutions for the upcoming season of 2007 was creating new websites that could serve to full contentment of the readers and association members. We hope you will like them and often revisit them.
2003 — 2005
Despite the complications with registering the players as well as the teams, the first national championship in wheelchair floorball was held in 2003. The Czech Championship 2003 had three rounds played in Plzeň, Dvůr Králové nad Labem and Prague. New teams were founded, such as TJ Tatran Střešovice Praha and SKH Meteor Plzeň. The latter became a very well organized club with great ambitions thanks to its chairman Vlastimil Hahn. However, wheelchair floorball continued to meet some fundamental problems and shortcomings mainly in the area of health classification, referees and rules. Only because of the help of the ČSTPS and the Czech Floorball Union we have managed to survive this period. Two seasons of the Wheelchair Floorball League (2003,2004) have passed off in which these clubs competed on a regular basis: SK AKáda Jánské Lázně, TJ Tatran Střešovice Praha, SKH Meteor Plzeň, and SKV Praha. In 2003, Dominik Drahoninský joined actively into the wheelchair floorball development and contributed to the gradual development of floorball rules. Still, however, the games have been played on a court 26 by 16 metres with only four players on the court. The game changed in 2005 when teams officially started playing by the new classification criteria which had been worked out by a pair of classifiers Lenka Honzátková and Yvetta Uhříčková. During this year a new team has been established as well – SKV Králové České Budějovice lead by a very active chairman Zbyněk Sýkora.
Sadly enough, the Czech floorball had to yet again face problems, the most severe one was lack of financing the sports activities. Taking into consideration the on-going dispute between the Czech Association of the Physically Disabled and the Czech Paralympic committee as well as the rising instability of the ČSTPS, wheelchair floorball was practically without any means. STK – the Sports Technical Commission made decided that the best way how to save and support wheelchair floorball is to establish a citizens association, which could accept donations based on its legal personality. The people who stood at the inception of the association were Petr Alina, Zbyněk Sýkora, Lenka Honzátková, Jan Strcula, Dominik Drahoninský, and Jakub Koucký – they all met at a common meeting in December 2005. The gathering lasted the whole weekend during which representatives of various sports reacted to many issues concerning the future development of wheelchair floorball. Furthermore, a preliminary committee has been put together which became the statutory body until the first general meeting.
2001 — 2002
The first wheelchair floorball exhibition game was held in 2001 as a part of the Rector´s Day which is annually organized by the Prague FTVS (Faculty of Physical Education and Sport). During this event it became possible to hold a meeting for the then member of the executive committee of the ČSTPS (Czech Union of the Physically Disabled Sportsmen) – Štefan Danek, Petr Alina, Zdeněk Krupička, and Lenka Honzátková; they mutually agreed on the entry of a new sport into the ČSTPS. However, the actual incorporation of this sport was carried out in the year 2002, after replacing the then chairman of the union Libor Šnajdra. The new executive committee was much more in favor of our then amateur activities. In the years 2001 and 2002 the players of Jánské Lázně and Prague teams met on a more regular basis. During this period of development of wheelchair floorball it is important for us to highlight the abilities of Zdeněk Krupička who has, in spite of his domination on the court, found a way to advice complete novices in this area. During the year 2002, three collective camps were organized – eight players attended the April camp, the second which took place in a small JÚŠ Prague gym in August had a double attendance and the last took place in Jánské Lázně in November of the same year.
The three main characters of the starting Czech floorball on wheels – Petr Alina, Lenka Honzátková and Zdeněk Krupička – planned the first Czech Championship in 2003. The legislative requirements from the Czech Union of Physically Disabled Sportsmen demanded at least three sports club registered in the ČSTPS in order to establish a new sport. At the end of the year there were three applications handed in to register new teams -SKH Meteor Plzeň, TJ Tatran Střešovice Praha and SK Kontakt Praha.
The Sports centre for the physically disabled, part of the Business College in Jánské Lázně, held a Sports Day in May 1999. Two of the then students of the Jedlička Institute – Zdeněk Krupička and Martin Černý – who had much more floorball experience than the former Krkonoše team, attended this event. A part of it was a floorball tournament of the teams from JÚŠ Praha (Jedlička´s Institute and Schools), Jedlička´s Institute in Liberec and Business College of Jánské Lázně. Apart from the teams of the organizing Business College of the Sports Centre, they were made up of disabled wheelchair players and badly-walking people. In order to prevent a possible injury, it has been decided that walking players will sit on a wheelchair as well and so wheelchair teams will be created. The first game of wheelchair teams was played on this event in 1999. Just to be more specific, team JÚŠ Praha won 18 to 1, mainly thanks to excellent technical abilities of Zdeněk Krupička.
The meeting of players from Prague and Jánské Lázně became a milestone in the development of wheelchair floorball in this country. In 2000, the team SK Akáda Jánské Lázně organized a summer camp in Brno at Kociánka. This camp was also attended by Zdeněk Krupička and Martin Černý. Back then the game was played based on Swiss rules for wheelchair players and the court was 26 by 16 meters, the players used short sticks (max 85cm).
During these years Lenka Honzátková worked in a children sanatorium Vesna in Jánské Lázně and she immediately took to floorball during her first visit of the Akáda practice. She started to actively take part in development of wheelchair floorball and right after her leaving to Prague, where she started working the centre Paraple, a new wheelchair floorball team was founded thanks to her devotion and diligence.
1996 — 2000
The idea of establishing a sports club for the disabled arose in Jásnké Lázně in January 1996, the main initiator was Mgr. Kateřina Dušková. The newly established sports club SK Akáda Obchodní akademie for the disabled in Jánské Lázně was registered under the name of the Czech Union of Physically Disabled Sportsmen. Immediately after its foundation, the coaches started to prepare the first sport and free-time activities. Back then, everybody had a chance to choose among the many existing and well organized sports of the ČSTPS. The mutual cooperation between Petr Alina, Ing. Jaroslav Marks and Martin Eriksson contributed to foundation of new floorball clubs apart from SK Akáda. At that time, they were coaching the Czech National Floorball Team and in Jánské Lázně they were thinking up plans and tactics for the mutual international matches. Martin Eriksson, a Swede living in the Czech Republic, explained the principles of floorball to a group of students and these enthusiasts founded a new team of handicapped-but-walking players who started practicing under the guidance of Petr Alina. Their efforts climaxed in Switzerland in 2001 – they returned with a bronze medal. The disabled often watched these players during practices and wished to try out this new sport too; this was the point when the idea of establishing a wheelchair floorball team emerged. Among the first players of the Jánské Lázně team were Kateřina Grusová, Pavel Matěcha, Pavel Dvořák, Pavel Kučera and Miroslav Podzimek.