Members of the IFF Athletes’ Commission have been contributing Blog posts on what they are up to. Jarno Ihme joined the ATC in 2020. He played in highest league in Sweden and Finland for 14 years and he won gold medals at WFC, U19 WFC and World University Championships. In 2019 he joined the coaching staff of the Finnish Men’s U19 team and now he is the goalkeeper coach in the Finnish Men’s team.
We have a great sport!
Just before writing this, I was planning practices and tournaments for my 7-year-old son’s floorball team. The joy that floorball brings to children puts me in a good mood!
I started playing floorball when I was about eight years old with the boys on the Finnish baseball team. We played baseball in the summer and floorball in the winter. I also tried a lot of other sports such as ice hockey, athletics and volleyball, but these two were the most important.
When I was 16, I read on a Finnish floorball magazine about the Junior World Championships. It became my goal to be in those games myself in two years. It was great to get to the U19 WFC in Prague in 2003. Since then, I’ve wanted to be the best and win on the floorball field.
I got to play for 13 years in the Finnish floorball league (in OLS and SPV). Together with SPV, we won three Finnish championships. In my last season, 2016-17, I realized one of my floorball dreams and played in Sweden in the shirt of Sirius IBK. Then my dream about the national team also came true, when I got to represent the men’s national team during 12 years and I played in the 2016 World Championships in Riga.
Playing career has given me a lot! The most important are the memories of sharing everyday life with my game buddies and chasing our dreams. And floorball still gives me a lot.
After my playing career, I got a chance to become the goalkeeper coach of the Finnish Men’s U19 national team. During four years, I learned a lot from our coaching team about the game and coaching in general. I also got to know the activities of the Finnish Floorball Federation. There are many ambitious people who want to develop our sport and take it forward. Now I have been part of the coaching of the Men’s national team for a little over a year and we are preparing for the World Championships in Malmö in December.
I have worked for 13 years as a physical education teacher at Seinäjoki high school and as a coach and training coordinator at the Etelä-Pohjanmaa Sports Academy. I get to work daily in floorball with players aged 16-20. I have to say that floorball is part of my life everyday and I really like it!!!
New season is starting!! Have fun on the field!!!
/Jarno
