Champion World and multiple champion of the USSR Igor Bondarenko in April assumed the position of General Director of the Irkutsk hockey club “Baikal-Energy”.
Igor Bondarenko was born on August 17, 1961. He spent 17 seasons in his playing career, he played for the Krasnoyarsk Enisey. Eight times he became the champion of the USSR, five times he became the winner of the European Champions Cup, twice the winner of the World Cup, the world champion in 1989. At the end of his career, he worked in the structures of the Yenisei hockey club – from 2007 to 2010 as the general director of the club. From 2010 to 2019 he was the President of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Bandy Federation. Since April 1, 2023, he has been appointed General Director of the Baikal-Energy hockey club.
He spoke about the prospects of the team, its goals for the next season, as well as the development of bandy in Russia in an interview with Lenta.ru.
– What is the reason for your decision to head HC Baikal-Energy?
– I was often asked this question by friends and acquaintances, they asked why I should move from Krasnoyarsk to Irkutsk. After talking with Mikhail Khardikov (Head of En+ energy business — ed. note) about the situation, tasks and opportunities for the development of bandy in Irkutsk, I became interested in gaining new experience and leading a club financed by a private company, while almost all Super League clubs are budget, including Yenisei, where I worked earlier.
It was also influenced by the fact that Andrey Pashkin used to work in the club, with whom we played for several years in that “golden” line-up of Yenisei, and later we worked together as functionaries at Yenisei. Of course, talented and promising guys play in Baikal, which is also a kind of challenge – to achieve high places with them in the Super League.
– How do you assess the work of the club in recent years?
– Since 2019, the hockey club has announced a new strategy for working in all directions, creating a vertical from its own school (which de facto never happened in Irkutsk) to a team of masters, the club has the best marketing in the Super League, work with fans has become more organized , more open, goals and objectives are complex, but the path is chosen correctly. “Baikal-Energy” is now always at the forefront, the club has a lot of loyal and devoted fans. A lot has changed in four years, and I want to try myself in the development of just such an interesting project.
I have been following Baikal-Energy with particular attention over the past year. I do not like to criticize, but I think that the last season, in which the team took seventh place, was extremely unsuccessful from a sports point of view, this needs to be corrected.
– Do you understand what it can be connected with?
Of course there are many factors. Here we are talking about the new composition, and about shortcomings in coaching. We must not forget that we have lost foreign tournaments and, accordingly, the opportunity to focus on their experience, take into account other approaches to the game. Therefore, we are now analyzing, analyzing and identifying weaknesses with the coaching staff in order to show a high level of play in the upcoming season.
– What potential do you see in the development of Baikal-Energy?
An important project for the development of the club in the future is the creation of a children’s hockey school, and I believe that this is one of the main areas of work for Superleague hockey clubs in general in the long term. We discussed this issue with Mikhail Khardikov and confirm the previously taken goal – in the next few years, the core of the adult team should be 60-70 percent local players. This is a really serious, difficult, but very correct task, which will give impetus to the development of bandy in the region. It is important that all fans understand this strategy, this is how a professional club should develop.
– Has the work on the creation of a children’s hockey school already begun?
Yes, sure. We have already formed its budget, now we are recruiting new coaches and we plan to assemble a team of guys born in 2015-2017. As for the teams of 2007, 2008 and 2010, they will continue to compete in all all-Russian competitions. The budget for travel and equipment has been formed. I want to note that in this project the club has a partnership with the administration of Irkutsk, that is, a professional school based on the city’s Sports Development Center. It is especially important that the project is personally supervised and supported by the mayor of Irkutsk Ruslan Bolotov, this is an example of how children’s sports are important for the city. I am sure that the children’s school will bear fruit.
– You are a person with extensive experience in bandy. What, in your opinion, is necessary for victories, is there a universal “recipe”?
Victory is made up of many things. This is a stable budget, the availability of indoor and outdoor ice rinks and, accordingly, the opportunity to train all year round, the selection of players, a good coaching staff. The most important factor is the support of the fans, and I want to emphasize that Irkutsk has some of the best fans in Russia. Of course, many fans will not agree with me, but, for example, in Irkutsk, a thousand people attended the finals of the Russian championship among juniors! Not every match of the Superleague gathers such a number, and I am delighted how much bandy is loved in Irkutsk. The most active ones accompany away matches of the team, regardless of the geography of travel.
Despite the fact that no one has a universal recipe for constant victories, there is a main direction for development – you need to stick to the chosen course and believe in success. Victory will come through hard work and constant work. For each player in the team there will be an individual approach and scrupulous study of all aspects of the game.
– What of the above is missing from Baikal-Energy?
– Everything that I said, the team has thanks to the sponsorship of En +. It’s both budget and opportunity. conduct quality fees, and the necessary infrastructure, and full support from the management. They say a lot that for the result the team needs the psychology of the winners, I will not analyze this separately, the players must give all the answers to the questions on the field. Our team has players who have won almost all trophies in bandy, and we have invited three more experienced hockey players for the next season. We will work so that the whole team lives in the game and the spirit of victory, starting from young hockey players who came to us from the youth team, to our stars, all club employees and fans. Victory is always shared.
– That is, first of all, it is necessary to raise morale?
– Certainly. I watched last season’s matches, where a team with strong opponents played on an equal footing, but could limply lose to those clubs that should not be beaten. It must also be remembered that a fan can forgive defeats, but he will never forgive a weak-willed game.
– You said that new guys came to the team, including from the youth team. How was the composition of the players and coaching staff selected for next season?
– As for the coaching staff, we discussed candidates with Mikhail Khardikov. Consider Oleg Batov – his idea, but it was not the only option. After a general discussion, they decided – Oleg Batov.
Igor Bondarenko and Oleg Batov
Oleg Valerievich previously led the clubs in the lower part of the standings, but with the available opportunities, he made quite strong teams, for example, Murman. It is important here that the coach wants to progress with the team, and for Batov this is a definite challenge. Batov will be assisted by Alexander Krotov, who worked with him in Murmansk. That is, this is an experienced coaching team.
As for the selection of the squad, we parted with a number of players ourselves, some chose other clubs to continue their careers. We selectively selected people for those positions that we need to close. Of course, we would like to strengthen a number of positions, for example, in the center of the field. There are few creative and valuable players on the market at the moment, they are all on existing contracts, but we are working on it, the planning horizon is long-term.
– What are the goals of the team for the coming season?
– We need to take a qualitative step forward, build a strong team that can compete with the leaders on an equal footing. At the moment this is my main task. And I will be able to speak about specific results after the first stage of the Russian Cup, when we will see the first results of the work. We are working hard to achieve our goals.
– In your opinion, how has bandy changed in Russia in recent years and what are its prospects?
– It is difficult to talk about the prospects now, based on the current situation. We are now suspended from the world championships, international club tournaments, which gave a huge impetus to bandy both in Western and Scandinavian countries, and in Russia. But the Bandy Federation of Russia is making a lot of efforts to strengthen the competitive processes within the country, to increase the number of children’s schools. And it is very important that our general sponsor, En+, is in constant dialogue with the federation on these issues.
If we talk about how bandy has changed, it has become much more professional, thanks to the conditions that we have now, both on the street and in indoor rinks. If earlier any team trained “in a slipshod manner” by the end of the season, then after I visited the training sessions of Baikal-Energy, I can say that the team gave themselves completely until the very last day. I think that everything will be fine with us, because bandy in the region is very much loved and will be loved.
Photo: baikal-energy.ru, gornovosti.ru, Tatyana Gluk, Artyom Nepomnyashchikh
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