The championship in sight

Torsten Buschmann

For the Chemnitz Crashers ice hockey team, the season is entering the hot phase. The championship in the Regionalliga Ost is at stake. With six games to go, the Chemnitz team is within striking distance of the league leaders from Niesky. We spoke to coach Torsten Buschmann about the development of ice hockey in Chemnitz, the club's work with young talent, plans for the future and professional hockey at Chemnitz Küchwald.

What are your plans for this season? The current position looks promising.
Torsten Buschmann: We're currently second and one point behind Niesky. We play them twice more. So anything is possible. The title of regional league champions would be something we would be delighted with. We're also working hard for that.

Is promotion possible?
We're not quite there yet. Promotion from the Regionalliga to the Oberliga means that we are moving from a purely amateur league to a professional league. That would double our fixture list from 30 to 60 games. That means games on Fridays, Sundays and occasionally Tuesdays. That's not possible with employees, students and schoolchildren. We need professionals for that.

What would change in the event of promotion apart from the sporting requirements?
In the event of promotion, the budget would have to be increased - from the current small six-figure figure into the millions. We don't want to be promoted and then finish last or be in the bottom of the table. No more people will come because nobody is interested. We want to have a team that can compete for the championship in the Oberliga.
We play in the regional league as a club - ESV 03. If we were to be promoted to the 3rd league, it wouldn't be through the parent club, but we would have to set up a limited company. We would need shareholders who have the courage to set up an ice hockey operating company and also to pre-finance the next steps with their own money.

In spring 2014, the Wild Boys, the Crashers' predecessor club, had to file for insolvency. Torsten Buschmann doesn't like to talk about that time. Not because it makes him uncomfortable, but because he prefers to look forwards rather than backwards. "We're playing a great season with the youngest squad in the regional league, average age early 20s. That's what counts." And yet the insolvency was a very important factor for the path the Crashers had already taken. They made a virtue out of necessity and relied exclusively on young amateur players for the 1st men's team. The concept has worked so far.

Have you learnt from the mistakes you made back then?
Of course we had to learn from the mistakes of the past. We are a completely new team. We are looking at new ways of structuring the situation in such a way that we can master promotion at some point, and not just in sporting terms.
In other words, we have a sensational foundation with our young talent. We have just cracked the 150 mark for active junior ice hockey players. We have well over 200 members in the club and have great partners with the sports high school and grammar school as well as the Olympic training centre. We co-operate with the Icefighters from Leipzig and the Eispiraten Crimmitschau, which gives our young players the opportunity to gain match practice in professional teams.

Your goal is to form a team with young players that could even compete in the Oberliga. How many years have you given yourself to achieve this goal?
We are very close. We've only played against third division teams in preparation and have kept up well.
We benefit from our U19 Bundesliga team. They play at the level that leads to the third division. We incorporate these players into our regional league squad. Because we have so many players in this youth team, we regularly give two, three or sometimes even four players the chance to play in the men's team. There were even five at the last home game.

The highlight of this season was the 1,850 spectators against Preussen from Berlin. "That was sensational," says Torsten Buschmann. "However, we need an average of 1,500 spectators so that we can play in the Oberliga without any stomach ache," he says. Buschmann wants to get even more people from Chemnitz interested in the fastest sport in the world. The city has the potential. After all, the top league has already been played in Chemnitz. "In 1994, the year the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) was founded, there was a mixed team from Weißwasser and Chemnitz. They called themselves the Sachsen Füchse," says the 41-year-old.

Currently, you can only buy your way into the 1st league or a team gives up its licence. There are endeavours to allow promotion and relegation again. Will it be possible to build on this one season in the top division or is that utopia?
The location offers a lot. I don't think it will be enough for the DEL. We would definitely need a new arena. Perhaps we could then build a multifunctional arena for several of the great clubs, such as the NINERS. But that's all pie in the sky, still too far away.

Can a city like Chemnitz cope with several higher-class clubs?
Sure - with a population of just under 250,000, you can afford it. People once said that nobody cares about ice hockey and that it's impossible to attract more than 1,000 spectators to the stadium. We've managed to draw more than 1,500 three times in a row and I think we can do even better. And that doesn't harm either the CFC or the NINERS. On the contrary, we're bringing the people of Chemnitz back to the stadium! Everyone benefits from that.

You founded the ESV youth club in 2003. As already mentioned, you have an excellent youth programme: some of you are among the best in the world. How proud does that make you as a coach?
It definitely gives me goosebumps (laughs). I think we are the absolute pioneers in Saxony and are ahead of the clubs in the state. It was only possible thanks to the sports high school and grammar school. Because we can basically organise our training schedules there and the school builds the timetables around it. In the fifth grade, the young athletes already train 10 to 14 hours a week. And then there are two competitive matches at the weekend. It's a lot of work, even for us as coaches. And you need parents who are behind it and support it.

Torsten Buschmann discovered his love for ice hockey relatively late. "At 16, I got into speed skating via gymnastics and then into ice hockey," he says. "Because I realised that I definitely wouldn't make it to the top as a player, I reoriented myself relatively early on and studied business administration and sports science in Chemnitz. I really wanted to stay with ice hockey. My final thesis focussed on the integration of ice hockey into school sport on the basis of competitive sport. With the support of Mr Kulakov from the sports high school, I completed my master's thesis and then implemented and established the project within a year." Since then, ice hockey has been part of the profile sport at both Chemnitz sports schools and is a very important cornerstone for the excellent youth work at the club.

How would you get an undecided child interested in ice hockey?
I would take them to the stadium, put their skates on and put them on the ice. Believe me, the dwarves who have been to our ice hockey stadium, been given equipment and had a stick in their hand, have come back. True to the motto: Once you've tasted blood.... There are very few people who didn't enjoy it. Because it's simply a great sport.
With our taster projects, we got over 100 children on the ice in just a few weeks - via the kindergartens and primary schools we work with.

You could say, also on the basis of your performance: without you, there would be no more ice hockey in Chemnitz?
No, you can't say that. But perhaps at a different level.
It was always my plan to play competitive sport here. So not just playing a bit of ice hockey and training, that's been around forever. But with a proper concept and a plan - especially with goals - to go from hobby to professional, from amateur to competitive sport.

What are your tasks at the club now?
Together with Rico Kühnel and Hendrik Künzel, we have been the managing board since April 2016. Philip Potempa (PR) and Tobias Rentzsch (Sport) are also members of the board. I am also the Sports Director. Tobias Rentzsch is now also Head of Youth Sport. I coach the 1st men's team, am a junior coach and sports teacher for ice hockey at the sports high school and the sports secondary school. I can't complain that I have nothing to do (laughs).

Is Chemnitz a sports city for you?
The city has an important sporting history. I was in class with some really big names at my former sports school, back then opposite the market hall: Mandy Wötzel, for example. The city has many great names in its Golden Books. But it has become difficult. Times are different. It's no longer so easy to get children or their families interested in competitive sport. Today's world simply offers much more than it did back then.
To be a city of sport, the city has to invest even more in its sports facilities - which it will now start to do with the major construction work at the Sportforum. The conditions we have here in Chemnitz are basically great. We have a great sports high school and a great sports secondary school, a great boarding school, a good university and training companies in all disciplines in the city that support sport. We experience that regularly. I look for companies that support us for my players who have finished tenth grade or their A-levels. There are more than enough of these partners.
The city needs to invest much more in the social infrastructure if it wants to return to the old days. Among other things, we need more committed and qualified coaches. The clubs need much more support when it comes to financing staff and the sports centre usage fees in the city, which have now become very expensive. Our club, for example, pays well over 40,000 euros per season. That eats up more than one coaching position. We could also invest the money very well in our management.

Where do you see yourself and the club in 2025?
The second Bundesliga would be brilliant. But a decent 3rd division would also be desirable. In any case, I want to continue to see a club known for its excellent training work.
We have to manage to regularly attract a regular audience of 1,000 to 1,500 ice hockey fans and additional event spectators to the arena. Then it will definitely be possible to be a top third division venue in eight years' time or perhaps even play in the 2nd Bundesliga in Chemnitz. The location has what it takes. I'm sure of that.