Mikael Hill has had most of his coaching experience with club teams. He was announced as the new Head Coach of team Sweden in the Spring and has already had a successful tournament with the team as Sweden won all their matches in the EFT in Turku. Now he wants to take the team to gold in The World Games.
Hill with team Sweden in Euro Floorball Tour in Turku. Photo: Salibandyliiga Flickr
Mikael Hill
Age: 44
Country of birth: Sweden
Team: SWE M
What does The World Games mean to you?
For me personally, I think it’s huge. It’s a big event and it will be a stage, for me, that I have never been near of before. I think it will be great fun, and for floorball it will, it’s a big step towards our dream of being an Olympic sport.
How does it feel to be one of the first floorball teams in the tournament?
It’s amazing. As the head coach of Sweden my first trip with the team was EFT, so the second one will be to Poland and it will be amazing to be a part of such a big event.
What do you think The World Games can do to floorball?
I think it can open up doors for new audience and make our sport grow bigger throughout both Europe and the rest of the world.
Now that you only have 14 players and the playing time is 3×15 how will it change the game?
It will surely change the game. We’ll try to think in new mindsets how we can save the player’s energy in order to not get tired too early. It’s a big concern for us, but I hopefully think that we can find ways around it. I think the games will be faster than usual and you can’t wait for your opponent to do the next thing to change the phase of the game. Now it will be more close game and more direct play, I suppose.
Sweden lost the dramatic WFC final against Finland in Riga. Is it payback time?
Yeah, I think so. I was in the stand at that time so it was very sad to see, but our aim is to reach the number one point again and the first step is to win The World Games of course.
The World Games will be played in Wroclaw, Poland 20th-30th of July. The Floorball competition will be held over 4 days, from 27th – 30th July, and will involve 6 men´s teams divided into two groups of 3. Group A consists of Finland, Czech Republic and Poland and Group B consists of Sweden, Switzerland and USA.
More information about The World Games can be found here: www.floorball.org/pages/EN/The-World-Games-2017
