27/08/2022
Elste`s Swiss Legacy
After 10 years of service to Swiss Hockey as a Coach & Manager, for men, women, boys and girls teams both indoor and outdoor, today marks Chris Elste’s 131st and final game in charge of a Swiss National Team. Furthermore, today’s Eurohockey Championship Qualifier against Scotland (world ranked 20) will be Elste’s 50th outdoor game with the Men’s National team.
Despite being a relatively small hockey nation, with less than 1600 registered players and limited funding, Elste impact on the long term growth across u18, u21 and Senior Men’s programmes has been second to none, and will leave them in a significantly stronger position to his arrival in 2013.
As is often the case with smaller hockey nations, as the Head Coach, Elste has had to, often singlehandedly, operate like the entire performance department of a larger hockey nation. His work ethic and dedication to creating the best possible learning environment for the players under his charge has been remarkable.
We asked a few of his colleagues to share a little bit about their experiences of working alongside Chris Elste. This is what they said:
Former Team Germany Olympic Coach Michael Behrmann, who has been Elste’s Assistant Coach for many Senior Swiss games, said of Elste,
“We had some fantastic tournaments together coaching the Swiss men’s Team. I will remember especially the Indoor World Cup in Berlin, where we played the quarterfinal against Germany in a sold-out Max-Schmeling-Halle, as well as the Olympic Qualifiers in Croatia, and Euros in Poland last year and the European Qualifier in Glasgow right now.
My best memory was winning the Eurohockey Indoor B division in front of a fantastic crowd in Lausanne with the winning goal in the last second in the final!
Chris has built a great Team and Staff under sometimes challenging circumstances sometimes, but has always made it a lot of fun, very supportive and with never-ending reliability. A fantastic time - I will never forget it - thank you!”
Mike Joyce, Swiss Team Manager for Elste’s final game in charge had this to say, “Chris is a student of the game and has been hugely dedicated and focused on the performance development of all players in his charge over the past 9 years. I was fortunate to start with Chris and the Swiss u18 almost a decade ago, and even more fortunate to have learned so much from him over the years. He has grown into a huge asset for a small hockey nation, something which I dearly hope will be recognised not completely lost. Swisshockey will most certainly be less without him here”.
Iain Delaney, Swiss Team Analyst and long term friend of Elste said “I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work alongside Chris and be part of his Staff for the last 8 years. I have learnt so much from Chris and it was always a pleasure working with him.”
Harald Rettich, mental coach, manager and friend of Elste said: “Chris is a perfectionist who meticulously plans every action down to the last detail, always putting himself at the service of the team, looking for the best solution without regard to his personal needs and always going above and beyond the call of duty. Thanks to his ability to cultivate strong personal relationships, he has always managed to put together a staff of international top performers despite very limited resources, thus creating the best possible conditions for his teams.”
Whist Elste’s official record will show 131 games, that doesn’t account for over 70 unofficial test matches over the 9 year period, bringing his real input to over 200 games for Switzerland. A remarkable effort and achievement by any account.
Christoph Elste Mike Joyce Iain Delaney Michael Behrmann Harald Rettich
