Neman Grodno have hired a new coach – well-travelled Czech Milos Holan, who has coaching experience in many countries throughout Europe. Holan's new job will take him back to his hometown for one game at least, in the Champions Hockey League.

by Vaclav Jachim

By winning the 2015 IIHF Continental Cup, Neman Grodno qualified for the Champions Hockey League. Since then, the Belarusian club has gone about bolstering its roster. They also went looking for a coach to lead them in the pan-European competiton, as well as to try to get back to the top of their domestic league. They interviewed a lot of candidates, and the winner is Milos Holan.

“They were looking for a coach from abroad, and said that originally they had 12 candidates. I made it through the screening process and got an offer. We've agreed on a two-year contract,” the 44-year-old Czech began.

Holan hails from Bilovec, a town just west of Ostrava, the Czech Republic's third-largest city. He's a product of the Vitkovice club, and played 12 years of professional hockey as a defenceman, including three in North America, where he played 49 NHL games with the Philadelphia Flyers and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.  

Like many other players, he got into coaching after his playing career ended in 2000. He went back to his roots in Vitkovice, eventually working as an assistant coach for the A-team, which led the way to head coaching positions in Norway, Slovakia, Ukraine and Austria, where he spent the past two seasons at the helm of VEU Feldkirch in the Austrian second-tier league. 

“These past two years were wonderful for me,” he fondly recalls. “This year we won the Austrian Cup and then in the playoffs we reached the league finals. But I thought it was time for another change.”

This time, change takes him to Grodno, a city of 350,000 in western Belarus, just 20 km from the Polish border and 30 km from the border with Lithuania. HK Neman Grodno has been a Belarusian hockey power of late, winning back-to-back national titles in 2013 and 2014 before sliding back to fourth last season. 

When he went to visit the city and the club's facilities, Holan was quite impressed.

“I was invited to a week-long stay. I had the opportunity to see the facilities, the rink, the conditions, the city. Everything is first-class,” he nodded.

Holan's assistants will be Vitali Semechenko and goaltending coach Alexei Vasiliev – the trio prevously worked together with Berkat Kiev in the 2012–13 season. 

“They wanted someone who can communicate well in English and Russian,” Holan explained about one of the reasons he was hired. “I've coached before in Kiev and other Ukrainian teams, so maybe that's why I was asked. I am very happy to have this opportunity – it's a challenge for me.” 

But before he accepted the job in Grodno, however, there were certain things he had to take into consideration. Family is the most important thing to Holan, and before he takes any new job, he seeks the opinion of his father.

Just as the younger Holan has done, Milos Sr. was a professional hockey player – a skilled centre for Vitkovice in the 1970s and early '80s – who went into coaching after his career was done. 

“My father is now retired,” Holan said about the biggest influence on his own career. “He knows that I have my own way of coaching, but I still take his advice. He has a lot of experience in hockey. He told me to take the Neman Grodno job, so I did. Some time during the season he'll definitely come to watch. He did in my previous jobs.”

The elder Holan won't just be going to Belarus to see his son, but also his granddaughter. Just as he has throughout his career, Holan's whole family is going with him.

“We managed fine until now in Austria,” he said about re-locating his family to another country. “My daughter is five years old – we have two more years before she starts school. In the Czech Republic she went to pre-school, but during the season she and my wife were with me. I wouldn't go anywhere without my family. I need to have my wife and daughter with me.” 

Right now the family is busy planning the big move, scheduled for 29 June. Then Holan doesn't have much time before he has to start working.

“We start on 1 July,” he said about the team's first meeting. “The first three and a half weeks will be dry-land training, after which we hit the ice. I've already planned out our schedule for training camp and the pre-season. We'll play 10 games, including one against Dynamo Moscow and the Ruslan Salei Cup, which involves all 12 teams in the Belarusian Extraliga.”

Team management has been busy assembling a line-up for next season and Holan is now part of that process. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the team will have a slight Czecho-Slovak flavour. So far, Slovak left winger Michal Chovan and Czech centre Milan Mikulik have been added, while Czech defenceman Daniel Seman – whom Holan is familiar with from Vitkovice – returns from last year's squad. But there are still import spots to be filled. 

“Every Belarusian club can have five import players, and in the Champions League we can have two extra. We're also going to have a Canadian centre and a defenceman from Finland,” he said, without naming exactly who those players will be.

Turning his attention to the Champions League, Holan says, “In the group with Vitkovice and Mannheim, it will be interesting.”

Neman's first two games are against the German champions, 21 August at home and 27 August in Mannheim. Then come the games he's really looking forward to.  

“I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited about it,” he said about the pair of games against Vitkovice Ostrava – 30 August in Grodno and 4 September at CEZ Arena in Ostrava, his former home rink. 

“Although I've been gone a long time, Vitkovice is home. A lot of people have told me they're coming to watch. It'll be interesting. I must say that I am looking forward to that game.”

As the team's last game in the Group Stage, the experience will be even greater for Holan if his team can use it to advance to the next round of the Champions Hockey League.