Mantere’s experience, work ethic and passion leading the Adrenaline

Sami Mantere has spent most of his life involved with ice hockey, in two different countries on opposite sides of the world.

It is hard to believe he spent the first two sessions on the ice crying.

“I hated it at first, I cried both those 45 minute lessons,” Mantere said.

“Then Dad and my skating coach convinced me after two sessions that it’ll be alright.”

It is lucky they were able to convince Mantere, as he has made a significant contribution to the game as a coach, a player, a mentor and a fan both in Australia and in his native Finland.

Mantere got his first set of skates when he was two and a half, and started skating with friends at the age of three.

He progressed through the ranks in Finland, first at a club with a skate school, before starting in the youngest junior age group and moving up from there.

Mantere made it to the top, representing Finland in the national team.

The pride taken out of the experience was important for Mantere, “being at the top level you know how hard you have to work already, so the big thing for me was the pride of playing for Finland and also regional teams, it was pretty cool playing for your country or region,” he said.

He really did have to know about hard work, training up to nine times a week as well as playing games, “you’ve got to sacrifice pretty much everything else if you want to play and compete at that level.”

Luckily for Mantere, dedicating that much time to hockey was a choice.

“I grew up following sports with my parents, it was just a lifestyle in sport. I always loved the game, it never felt like something I had to do. It sounds like a cliché but it’s part of me now.”

Despite being a national player, it is coaching where Mantere has had his biggest impact on ice hockey.

He got involved in coaching in Finland while he was studying a sports and leisure management degree whilst at University.

Part of his degree was hockey coaching, as the Ice Hockey Federation quite heavily funded the program.

Another part of it was organising the Women’s Division Two World Championships at his university.

He was not only organising the management, but was also the host for the Australian team.

It was here his connection with Australia started, but it almost didn’t happen.

“I actually wasn’t supposed to be Australia’s host, I was meant to work with the Italians, until two days before the tournament their host got sick, so it got switched around a bit and I went with the Australians,” Mantere said.

At that tournament Mantere met a number of people and a few years later, he had to do a workplace somewhere for university.

Mantere always wanted to go overseas for that, “at that point overseas meant central Europe; Germany, Switzerland, Austria, maybe Italy if I go a bit further, Australia was never really even thought of.”

However, Mantere met some Australian’s, had a few good chats and was asked if he wanted to come here, “there was one fella in particular, Bob Barrington, he was a board member for the Ice Sports Federation of South Australia and he got me to come to Adelaide and I’ve been stuck here every since.”

That was in May 2008.

Mantere was brought to Australia to work with Australian hockey, “I came to help improve the standings and the knowledge here,” he said.

“The way I see it is if the states do well, the country does well, and that helps individual states and clubs as well.”

Initially, Mantere was mentoring coaches for Ice Hockey Australia.

An example of his work was going to the national camps in Newcastle every January, “I was there for three weeks for three different camps, sorting out a plan for what we were doing with coaching but more so giving coaches feedback and helping with them,” Mantere said.

Whilst doing that, Mantere was also coaching the Women’s Assassins (now Rush) team and was a coach with the Ice Factor program.

Despite just coaching at the start, Mantere worked his way up and is now the program manager of Ice Factor.

Since he has been involved in the program, it has grown from seven teams to 18.

Mantere loves the idea of giving people a second chance through the program, “especially when we are looking at younger people, teenagers, we need to give them another chance, and that’s the big idea for me.”

“I can be in a position to help these guys, if they made a mistakes, if they haven’t made the greatest choices in life, it’s not the end of the world.”

Ice Factor is also a great way to expand the sport in Australia.

With 300 students involved in the program, there are more students than hockey players in South Australia.

Mantere hopes Ice Factor to be a pathway to go further in the game, “if we can get some of those players to join competitive club hockey as well then all the better.”

“Now with C grades its easier to start playing hockey at an older age at a lower entry level, so everyone feels more comfortable playing at that level.”

Mantere is now playing local A grade hockey and there’s quite a few players that started in Ice Factor that he’s now playing against, proving the success of the program.

One specific Ice Factor success story Mantere pointed out was Michelle Coonan, “she started in Ice Factor and is now on a scholarship in USA. She played for the women’s team, she played for Australia and now she’s studying in America so we also get those types of top-level players. “

In between his busy coaching schedule, Mantere still played for the Adrenaline for a number of years.

When he first arrived in Australia he was so focused on his coaching that he didn’t even bring his gear over from Finland.

However, when he started getting involved with the team he couldn’t stay away, “I got to know the guys a little bit more so I just started training with them a little bit first and it was good fun getting amongst that, so I thought may as well play.”

It was lucky he did.

In his first season in 2009, the Adrenaline won the championship.

This is what he wants to recreate as coach of the team.

It’s not just about the playing ability of the team however, “we need to create a good culture, not just have good players but have a good tight team.”

Despite the team not having much success in the last few years, Mantere said that is something else he wants to change.

“We really want to win, no excuses. I think we have a team to do it, and that we have so for the last few years but for whatever reason it wasn’t worked out.”

“This year, we are starting to train halfway through November and I don’t think this club has ever started training before the New Year.”

“We are getting the expectations of the players that we mean business.”

While Mantere’s competitive nature means he wants to win, he realises it won’t be a one year fix, “I would not have started coaching if we can’t win but I’m also looking long term.”

“We’ve got some really good young players coming through, so if we create a bit of a pathway for not just this year but five years time, we are going to be even more competitive than we are now.”

With Mantere’s experience, knowledge, work ethic and passion leading the Adrenaline, there’s no doubt this team will create a sustaining winning culture