Aleksei Evgenievich Deev, the director of the CSKA hockey school summed up the season, commented on the Army team’s victory in the Russian U15 Junior Championship, and spoke about the difficulties that the school teams faced in the past season.
– Aleksey Evgenievich, let's start with the recent victory of CSKA U-15 at the Russian Juniour Championship: how was the tournament going on and how satisfied were the teams with the game?
– Of course, we are happy with the first place, the guys are the champions of Russia. The tournament was very difficult even for this team: there were many injuries. The doctor worked 200%, thank him very much for this. During the tournament, we lost two players – the leading defenseman and the best forward of the tournament. Nevertheless, the team withstood everything and played great. The main thing is the champion title.
– The international UTLC ICE CUP tournament was held in Nizhny Novgorod, where CSKA U-14 won too. Did you follow the results, how important it is to win in such tournaments?
– Unfortunately, at the moment there are almost no foreign teams with whom we could play. Europe is closed and we responded to this tournament. Of course, this is a good experience for us. The level was decent and thanks to the guys for winning this tournament. The last match was on May 31, and with this victory we closed the season of the CSKA children's school. A good experience for the guys, a victory is always a victory.
– Let's sum up the results for the school, given that the season was very difficult due to the situation in the world?
– The season turned out to be peculiar, but we started it well. We are the only school in Moscow that has passed all training camps and pre-season tournaments. Then they went back to the remote format of work, the guys did well, they studied at home using video programs. Yes, it was difficult to play in one circle – everything went very quickly. Moreover, we thought that it would be even more difficult to play with the regional teams and with ‘Lokomotiv’ Yaroslavl, since their training process did not stop, the teams have been playing since September in their usual schedule. Nevertheless, our school withstood everything, having made the best result: out of eight playing ages, we have six first places and two second places. I think this is a good achievement.
– This year the graduation ceremony was held for the guys born in 2004, a very strong team. What is the future of the guys, given that many have joined the "Red Army"?
– As far as I know, 11 professional contracts have already been offered to the guys, four more are tryout ones. This age is very good and promising. I hope that many of them will stay in the "Red Army" and will adequately defend the colours of our club.
– What are your plans and hopes for the next season?
– The first plan is a move, the main one. We will need to transport all the teams, get used to a new place and provide all the conditions for the guys so that the training process goes on as before. The sporting task is to repeat the result of this year or even surpass it.
