Recently schreinerte Sven Leuenberger a wooden table. He had promised his wife in the summer and kept his word. “I find him the Moment the same,” he says, as he looks for the photo on the phone. “Here he is!”, he says and proudly shows off the photo. It is a long table made of light-coloured, precious-looking wood. He makes a robust impression.

graduated As Leuenberger once with 20 of his four-year apprenticeship as a Carpenter, he played in the first team of the SCB. The craft has not forgotten the Eastern Switzerland, but his main job today is to build with players, Teams and non-wood furniture. Although there are certainly similarities: Even hockey teams are supposed to touch the soul, and they should also be stable, can endure.

Well, there are also differences: A table is eventually finished, a Team needs daily care. And sometimes you have to planing and grinding for success. Head of sports, is a lovely, but demanding Job. Last year’s ZSC Lions were on paper probably the best Team he had ever assembled, says Leuenberger. But then everything went wrong. “What, once again, showed that you can’t plan in the sports, everything.”

In his third ZSC-season, the 50-Year-old can do something for the first time to catch their breath. The Lions lead the League, one has the feeling that they are in Sweden Rikard Grönborg in good hands. And the Cup in the Ajoie is annoying, but soon forgotten. Back he could lean emphasizes Leuenberger. This is probably not even his nature. But for the first time, he was in Zurich in time to look a little further to the front to look for once a game of the farm team, or to scout for other players.

“last season, I almost dared not me to let the ZSC alone. And the media wanted to, even after almost every Match is a Statement from me.” On game days he had been in the morning nervous, because it was about sports to Survive. At the Moment, he was a bit more calm.

The Trouble wegatmen

“But of course, I’m still tingling when they have a match,” he says. And during matches, his tension is palpable. In the case of unsuccessful actions expletives fall, or he knocks with his fist on the table. The journalists, however, only at away games, if he sits in the press box. The home games, he followed in the control room of the indoor stadium. “That’s better. It’s all spell is not Mature, what I’m saying. But it is already much better than in the past. I learned breathing exercises to calm me down.”

as a player, he could not well lose, and sometimes with the head through the wall wanted. But he was no swashbuckler, but a playful, accomplished defender, blessed with intelligence and a certain elegance. What bothers him most today, are “stupid actions”. This can be a Puckverlust or a penalty at an inopportune time. “Errors can always happen, but there are bad and less bad moments of this.”

“In the Tram could it be that the two were talking so loud about the SCB, I heard, what for a pipe, I am.”

He was with the SCB, four times a champion(1989, 1991, 1992, 1997), before he retired in 2003 with 33, young boss, and in 2006, the head of sports advancement. The Bernese were in the quarter-final failed, Alpo Suhonen had to go, and Leuenberger could choose his coach. With John Van Boxmeer he understood from the first phone call to well, the Canadians, coached the SCB in the first year, in the Final, and then twice on rank 1. But in the Playoff, nothing worked. After a new quarter-final From 2009 Leuenberger had to be sacked for the first time a Coach. “Van Boxmeer made it for me but just. He said before the Playoff to me: If we lose again in the quarter-final, you have to send me.”

Leuenberger was blowing a stiff breeze in the opposite. The feel in Bern and Zurich, similar, he says. “In Zurich, the media presence is still greater, in Bern, the ice hockey when the people present. Since you’re so fond of in the city.”

Directly he had rarely been approached by disgruntled Fans. “But if I was in the Tram, it could be that the two were talking so loud about the SCB, I heard, what for a pipe, I am.” In the beginning it had taken the very, in the meantime, he attempts to convince itself that it was nothing Personal.

“character beats Talent”

Larry Huras and a new philosophy Leuenberger made a kind of liberation. “My teaching was: character beats Talent. I realized: When it comes down to it, it needs something else than in the qualification.” He brought foreigners like Jean-Pierre Vigier and Brett McLean, who fought rarely excelled, but always. The SCB in 2010, worked for the first title Leuenbergers as a sport chief.

Against his will, Huras was fired in October 2011. Leuenberger got the plans of the Board of Directors in the course of that home game against the ZSC Lions (1:2) and protested, but it helped nothing. CEO Marc Lüthi announced the measure, Leuenberger distanced himself from it.

“character beats Talent. When it comes down to it, it needs something else than in the qualification.” Sven Leuenberger, ZSC-sports-in-chief

Luthi and President Walter Born the next day aufboten As him for an interview, they asked him if he could work with them more. He replied: “Yes, but only if I’m not allowed to publicly say that it was my decision.” So he could save face.

Five years later, he was then, as it was the successor of Guy Boucher – but at the cost of his job. Because he suggested his younger brother, Lars, and a double Leuenberger, the VR did not want to. Sven Leuenberger came back to the second link and got right: Bern became the champion.

“I’m still in touch with today, with all the coaches that I have, or someone is fired differently,” he says. “Except Hans Wallson.” However, even the assistant in Zurich Lars Johansson knew nothing More about him.

In Grönborg has found Leuenberger a coach to him in terms of work attitude and Temperament is similar. “And fortunately, we are both experienced something. Sooner would be and flew the sparks between us.” So, both felt, as Leuenberger wanted to entertain at the Tuesday evening after the 3:6-embarrassment against Ajoie with Sweden: It is probably better if you sleep first night.

icebreaker – Hockey Podcast by Tamedia

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Created: 29.11.2019, at 18:02