Sheffield Ice Hockey Academy are delighted to announce our new Academy Director of Hockey will be Michael Szollosy.

After interviews with Sheffield Committee members, and following the club constitution, outgoing Head Coach Martyn Etheridge made recommendations to the Committee on the way forward, which the Committee have accepted, meaning that Michael is to become the new Director of Hockey to replace Martyn.

Martyn commented: “It was very clear during the interviews, that all 3 candidates had different strengths, but all were passionate about the club push forward, a decision has been made with Michael Szollosy to invite both Alan Hague and Mark Illingworth to become part of a new coaching set-up, each with designated responsibilities. This is something I was looking at doing to help take the Academy forward, and I am glad that Michael Szollosy understands Alan’s and Mark’s strengths which will benefit the Academy as a whole.”

The Committee has agreed to a change of title from Head Coach to Director of hockey with Michael Szollosy, but with the same constitutional rights as the head coach.

Accordingly, Alan Hague will become Head of Player Development, and Mark Illingworth will become Head of Coaching Development.

Michael Szollosy said, "It’s a tremendous privilege to become Director of Hockey at Sheffield Academy. I hope everyone joins me in thanking Martyn Etheridge for the tireless work he has done for us over the years; he came to the Academy and brought exactly the stability and experience the Academy needed. What has become evident now is that the role of the Academy Head Coach is huge; if we’re going to keep taking the Academy forward we need to make use of all the talents available to us. So, with the support of Martyn and the Committee, I asked that Alan and Mark work with me as a team, sharing the work and playing to all of our strengths, so we can better serve the Academy, recruiting and developing more players and coaches.”

Michael’s first job with his new role will be to work with Martyn to finalise the coaching roster and responsibilities for the 2023-24 season. Once team coaches have been selected, these will be announced prior to Academy trials, which begin in May.

On behalf of the Committee, Chair Martin Peters said, “Michael Szollosy has a wealth of experience at Sheffield Academy, having coached at every age group. He started at U10s and progressed through the teams, coaching both development teams and league and Nationals champions, taking the Titans in 2021-22 to the playoffs in their inaugural season. Most recently, last year he was supporting Steve Weeks at the Scimitars, and took the Men’s GB Student’s team to Lake Placid for the Winter World Student Games. But he also brings a lot of experience as Head Coach of other clubs, serving for over a decade now as the Head Coach for the Sheffield Bears and, more recently, the Sheffield Shadows. In each of these roles, he’s sought to create strong teams of coaches to develop players, and build positive cultures that are evident throughout the club, from the newest development players to the most skilled elite athletes. He understands the size of the task to take this role, and it’s great that the other applicants have agreed to join him to help our players develop further.”

As Michael takes over the reins from Martyn Ethridge, we should add a huge thank you to Martyn for his commitment to helping our club over the past 4 years and wish him all the best as he takes some well-deserved time away from coaching at the end of the season. Thank you, Martyn!

We hope you all welcome Michael into the new role, and welcome the new set-up.

Regards
Sheffield IHA Committee