Riihimäki now has a women’s team in the women’s handball championship series. It’s already been 40 years since the last time.
– We’ll see the women’s team for once! There will probably be more encouragement in order to get more young-age girls to become players, sighs the 18-year-old vice-captain of the women’s representative team of Riihimäki Cocks Bakashvir Kaur.
He is already taking care of tomorrow. The core of the team that reached the championship series is made up of young people born in 2005-2006.
Coach Kimmo Lähteenmäki admits that there are not many juniors growing up in the age groups of 2007-2009. But there is no need to worry about that now that the exciting season is just ahead.
Cocks’ women’s team is the youngest in the series, as its average age is just over 18 years.
The team eagerly awaits Saturday’s debut against HIFK. This time, the match schedule will be carried out with six teams, so no one is in danger of relegation.
– The atmosphere is eager and expectant. A few practice matches showed that the opponents are at a tough level, says the women’s 24-year-old captain Riina Sammatti.
The ranks are strengthened by a Hungarian Nora Zvolensky and arrived at Riihimäki from Montenegro Ana Saranovic. In the spring, you will see some more foreigners.
Nippanappa young women of full age have trained and grown with a clay ball in hand and have now cleared their way to the championship series. There are no quick wins for Cocks, but even more to learn.
First comes to the cauldron, but then no more?
– We have one goal and that is to be the most developed team in the adult league next season. It can be seen in the way that in the first round before Christmas, the pot is taken in every game. There won’t be a second round in the spring. It’s simply like this, acknowledges the head coach Markku Tuomi.
The coaching team has not yet set a successful goal.
According to Kimmo Lähteenmäki, the women’s team wants to be aggressive, ball-oriented, run fast and rob the opponent of playing equipment.
– It seems that our departure is not yet the top of the series. It takes a few laps to find the right tempo.
Women’s gold is still missing from Riihimäki
The 50-year-old Riihimäki Cocks is the most successful club in modern handball in Finland. The absence of a women’s representative team has been an unfortunate gap. Now it’s patched.
– The club has developed enormously on all fronts. Somehow the appreciation of women’s sports and equality issues in general have become very important to me, admits Kimmo Lähteenmäki. He has seen the development curve of several players from 6-8-year-old juniors to adult handball players.
Decades ago, such clubs as Riihimäki Pallolyöjät and HC-78 kept women’s handball alive in Riihimäki. The clubs brought championship silver and bronze to the city on several occasions.
But the gold is still missing. It would perhaps be available to the women of Cocks at some point.
– Every year if they try to improve the game a little bit, I would think that in 3-4 years we will already be fighting for medals, says the author of the 50-year history of Cocks Pekka Lehtinen. One of the legends of Riihimäkä’s handball.
Captain Riina Sammatti hopes that there will be enough spectators in the stands of Cocks Areena in the future.
– Women have never had such an event. It’s a unique experience, tough games, tough opponents. You rarely see that in Riihimäki.