The goals are not less than it was for Sapporo. The women’s national team has been getting better and better every year and just missed out on getting promoted to the A-Pool. The goal is to get promoted to the A-Pool and to qualify to the 2022 WInter Olympics in Beijing, China. Pat Cortina will be able to help the national team achieve these goals with is knowledge and experience. This year’s Women’s Division 1/A World Championships will be held in Budapest in April at the Vasas Jégcentrum.
Cortina will be joining Jari Risku and the national team during the February international where the team will be taking on the host nation of France along with Norway and Slovakia.
“It is always a great feeling to be back in Hungary, this will always be a special and important place for me.” said Pat Cortina. “Hungarians have always treated me well, there were moments in my life that I will never forget. It is exciting for me that I will have a chance to work here again.”
With regards to the new position Cortina had this to say: “We will figure out what I will be doing exactly when I sit down with the coaching staff. We need to figure out what our strengths are and to see how we can work together and what our weakness are and to see how we can fix those.” This is not the first time that Cortina has worked in women's hockey, years ago he had worked with the Italian national team. The coach gave his opinion on what is the difference between preparing with women and men. “I have noticed that women’s hockey has developed a lot during the past few years, it has become a lot more technical. I can’t wait to see and observe the these girls in their games. Aside from not being any physical contact there is not that much difference between men’s and women’s hockey and how to prepare for the games. It is a great honor that I will be able to represent Hungary and Hungarian hockey. I will do everything that I can to help the team.”
He does not know the team yet but he had the following to say. “I have only heard good things about the team and I am excited to meet the team, to share what I know with them and to learn from them as well. I am sure they will work hard to get better from day to day. “
Will the girls be able to historical World Championship win like the men did in Sapporo? “It is too early to talk about this since I am not familiar with the entire picture. Right now we need to believe that it is possible and we do everything to achieve this. We are the ones that create the right attitude, everyday we have to act like we are already in the A-Pool or that we are preparing for the Olympics. We need to concentrate on this, it is important to dream, but we also need to work hard to achieve these dreams.
Pat Cortina took over as the Hungarian national team head coach in 2003 he was in charge when the team won promotion to the A-Pool in 2008 and was the head coach in 2009 at the A-Pool World Championships. Even though he left Hungary after that he has always been an honorary Hungarian. He also considers himself as that as well, he keeps tabs on what is going on in Hungary and was in Budapest for last years Division 1/A World Championships as well as the 90th Anniversary gala that the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation held. Over the past decade was the head coach of EBEL team in Innsbruck as well as German clubs München and Schwenninger. He was also the head coach of the German national team.
