It must have Mia Heikurin35, in hockey for almost three decades ever since Teemu Selänne made all the kids in the yard get excited about hockey.
Weak also wanted to play. Dad faded, and soon Heikuri was with the boys at the puck school.
Sometimes love has cracked: for example, when Heikuri played the qualifying series with the Eastern Helsinki Puck and when the team’s activities finally ended.
Faith has at times been put to the test. Sometimes Heikuri has taken a break, but always blood has drawn back into the trough.
The long journey together has also required sacrifices, especially large financial ones.
– All savings have been used. I don’t get paid for playing, and the support for home care is pretty small. We went to this season with an all-in meeting, Heikuri times at the playground of the Vantaa suburb, which is popular with families with children.
In the Women’s League, most players pay closer and closer to € 2,000 a season to play in the main series. In some teams, players pay for the hotels and food themselves during the game trips.
This is despite the fact that for the last four years, women’s and girls’ hockey has been one of the priorities of the Hockey Association’s strategy. Elected Chairman of the Women’s League Management Team in 2018 Eeva Perttula In an interview with Sport, one of his main goals was that players should not at least have to pay to play.
The situation has hardly improved in four years.
However, Heikuri is lucky to play in HIFK. In the Helsinki team, players do not have to pay their season fees themselves.
I am all right
Representing a traditional Helsinki club has been a dream for Heikuri, who was born and raised in the capital.
– As long as I remember who it’s worth, it’s always been HIFK. Simo Saarinen (ed. note: HIFK, a hockey defender who has represented HIFK throughout his career in Finland) was at one time in my high school as a teacher and coach, Heikuri recalls.
Helsinki IFK was one of the ten teams involved when the Women’s League was founded in 1982. In 1988 and 1989, HIFK even placed in bronze until women’s representation in the club ended.
The activity was revived in the second half of the 2010s. Officially, Stadin Gimmat started his journey from Mestis in the 2018–2019 season. The body of the team also consisted of HIFK’s Red Wings club, which played in Mestis, and Heikuri was also involved.
He describes the project as upswing. The club rose to the Women’s League at the end of its first Mestis season. In the 2019–2020 season, it was still ranked seventh, but last season the result was already bronze medals.
– A lot has been invested in this for the club. Work has been done really well on a long-term basis with coaching and other backgrounds.
Heikuri’s own career also gained momentum with the transition to redness.
– High-quality coaching took your own activities to a new level.
The team will be coached by a newly appointed member of the Female Lion Training Ring Saara Niemi. The three-time World Cup bronze medalist and Olympic bronze medalist had to end his career at the age of 25 due to knee ailments.
After the playing career, the road took the hockey association as a skill coach, and Niemi also visited China to coach the team playing in the Russian league of Kunlun Red Star. After one full day of training, the road brought HIFK back to a new project.
Niemi, who led his team to bronze last spring, was awarded the best coach in the league at the end of the season.
Hockey as a women’s sport has also progressed wildly during Heikuri’s playing years. Much more attention is paid to skating and the game itself than before.
Clubs also invest significantly more in women’s activities.
– When I started in the Finnish Championships, there were hardly any full-time coaches. The ice times were late, there was no maintenance, the skates themselves were sharpened … Things are rolling on a different level today, Heikuri lists.
The activity has moved towards the demands of top sports. HIFK has paid a lot of attention to it and the club has supported women’s activities.
– Of course you could always pay more attention! We have visited Nordis a few times a season, hopefully the men will come to our games too, Heikuri throws.
In the Women’s League, seven out of ten teams have a Full-Time Coach. There are, on the other hand, very few full-time players. For example, who arrived at HPK for the early part of the season due to the Olympic dream Noora Räty said that moving to Finland and playing had cost him about 20,000 euros in his own savings.
– There is no such profession in Finland yet, almost everyone works or studies. Nice to note that things are going forward, but would like them to go a long way.
Playing at HIFK is one of Heikuri’s long-term dreams, but by no means the only one. The biggest dream came true in the summer of 2020, when the long-awaited Otto son was born. Heikuri had already dropped out of the team’s games and practice a year and a half earlier.
– It was not difficult at all, after hoping and dreaming about the child for so long. I was involved in a bit of coaching for the rest of the season.
Quick return to the playing field
Many female athletes end their careers in childbirth, but at Heikuri it was not part of the plans.
– My own career started a bit like a new one with HIFK. I got in good shape. The idea was that it would be what the future brings when it comes. It was not self-evident that the career would continue. The idea was that if all goes well, the career will continue, Weak times.
Although the birth took place by caesarean section, Heikuri had been in the trough for a couple of months after the birth. She visited a maternity physiotherapist a few times and initially sought momentum with HIFK’s women’s hobby group.
– That’s where I got a little feel. The baby was so small at the point that his terms went. I was breastfeeding at first, so she still rhythmized those moments. A few times he was in the auditorium with my mother and I watched there that now the baby is not calming down, I have to leave the job and go to feed, Heikuri recalls laughing.
However, the body recovered well from childbirth.
– The big help was that I was in good shape before I was pregnant. It facilitated recovery.
However, returning to the top required work. Heikuri says he trained at best eight times a week.
Men who play hockey are less likely to be asked how to combine family life with a career in play. For women who play the puck, the palette is often combined with day work in addition to playing. Heikuri praises the support he receives from his home, as the spouse’s shift work allows him to get into rehearsals in the evenings and games on the weekends.
The spouse also enjoys being with the boy, and at home matches, the family is a familiar sight in the auditorium encouraging the mother.
Roller hockey helped abroad
Heikuri is currently on parental leave from his job as a nurse. During the Women’s League’s more than two-month Olympic break, she did some gig work, and a return to work awaits right after the season ends in the spring.
– You can see how everyday life starts to roll, whether there is energy or time for sports. I can’t think yet. I’m just focused on this season, Weaker reveals.
The investment has paid off, as this season HIFK is seriously fighting for the championship. On Wednesday last week, the team won for the first time in league history in the local competition Kiekko-Espoo 5–1 and is now second in the series. After last season ending the Bronze Festival, the team has only one goal for this season.
– The championship has been a goal from the beginning. After last season, nothing else can be set.
While gambling has required sacrifices, it has also yielded a lot. Through hockey, Heikuri has also found his favorite hobby in roller hockey.
– It’s a nice counterweight in the summer. Roller hockey has always been used with a good relaxed feel. The species is really dear to me.
The weaker is also active in the species organization. The Finnish Hockey Association only runs roller skating activities for men, so the women set up their own organization. The women’s national team has participated in the World Championships hosted by the International Skating Association, most recently in 2019.
Weaker plays a big role in the organization.
– I am the president of our association, the treasurer, the conveners .. Such a multifunctional, he describes.
Through the roller hockey, Heikuri also ended up playing in Switzerland for the season. He missed new challenges, and Abroad began to attract more and more.
Heikuri asked Swiss friends who became familiar with roller skating circles if there was a team in the country where they could play. Less than a month after the first thought, Heikuri was already on his way to get to know his new company.
Playing and practicing was free, and Heikuri lived with the aupair family. The arrangement suited Heikuri well, as the evenings and weekends were dedicated to rehearsals and games. During the day he looked after the children of the family and received compensation for it.
After IHK’s activities ended in the spring of 2011, Heikuri had taken a break from hockey for a season, but now it started to taste again.
-I played from their Mest, and at the end of the season we went up to the main series. I myself got to enjoy playing again. It was a really good season, I won the points exchange, Heikuri recalls with a laugh.
Despite all the sacrifices, Heikuri emphasizes that he would not change his daily life.
Otto laughs on the swing and demands more momentum, even as the snow blows in his face.
Mom answers the request with a smile.
– I am currently living the best time of my life.
Helsinki IFK will face today in the Kiekko-Espoo hockey Women’s League match today at 7.30 pm. The Women’s League Regular Season ends on Sunday.