Interview with Péter Gulyás

 

Telekom Veszprém’s former world-class player, Péter Gulyás, is now dedicating all of his time to our youth system. After his first full season with our youngsters, we asked him about his experiences.

 

 

There were a lot to do right after the 2016/17 season, in which I helped and tried to take as much part out of as I could in order to make the youth system’s workflow as efficient as possible. From last summer the academy adopted hummel sportswear, which gave us some tasks that I could manage alongside other employees. The adjustment went well and I was waiting for this to be able to work after my last season as a player. I think that we were doing everything to be able to work well in the 2017/18 season.

 

I would say it was good, if our junior and U18 team would not have had a bigger slope in the season, although our U20 team was beyond expectations in the second division. The team worked very well despite that we had Attila Tóth, Erik Szeitl or Zoltán Szita leaving.

In the second half of the season, we developed a desire that we can get to a better spot in the U18 championship and we eviscerated our players so we had to take back from the pressure, which I think we should not have done. It was a part of a learning process. We are trying to get to a common place with the trainers; we make every important decision together. I feel like we can tackle our problems for the next year.

Our U18 team, born in 2000, developed more than we thought they would. They were a merged team from two U16 teams, and they developed a lot. This spectacular progression was visible in a tournament in Brcko in December, and after this, they played very well in the Balaton Cup in January as well. They got closer to that quality handball Celje or Zagreb plays.

Our U16 team arrived into a totally new system, as they came from a different city and school as well with 3-4-5 trainings a week. They took the rhythm of 7-8 trainings a week with games in the weekend well, and for spring they achieved a visible change physically and also in attitude and in knowledge. Fortunately, we can play some youngsters in U18 despite being 16 years old.

Our U14 team is a very young one, where a lot of players came countrywide. There was only a few players born in 2003, which is the ideal age, the rest of them were younger than that. Hard work payed off for them also for spring.

The biggest development of all happened at the U12 team, as technically they showed the most progress. They work well and it was a great decision to appoint Viktor Károlyfi as their coach.

The U10 team, which is a common team with DEVM Handball Academy and Telekom Veszprém, made progression as well. We could see some nice things from these kids as well.

The youngest teams, such as the U7, U8 and U9, it is visible that we will have great material to keep working at the highest level for years to come.

 

We tried to put together a coaching team – with many former legends of Veszprém – that works well together. We are on the road to have a mutual thinking and to work alongside that thinking. There are things to be worked on but I think that it was the biggest positive point of the last season.

 

If we think about Carlos Perez, his name sounds very good in the handball world. He enjoys his work and he can give many tips, which are useful for the kids. I think I do not have to introduce István Gulyás neither, because he was not only one of the biggest star of Veszprém, but he has a huge experience in coaching as well. We found his place with our U20 team well. We can say the same thing about Csaba Tombor, who is in our system for a long time now. Ivo Diaz – with Tamás Rapatyi – was also a good decision; they work very well with the U16 team. The hands of Gergő Iváncsik are also visible on our wingers plays, of which he is in charge. There is an U16 boy, who was a playmaker, but with the work of Geri, this boy was our best winger in the Balaton Cup, which shows the work of Iváncsik.

 

 

We summarized his goals regarding us, to which we are trying to adjust. However, he left the professional work for us, he gave us free hands in this. We are trying to integrate a lot of things from the first team, and we do some things just as they do it, so when once a young player practices with the first team, they do not encounter many new things.

 

We participated in seven tournaments with different age groups, like U12, U14, U16 and U18. It is important so our players can see and try to copy the attitude of the southeastern youngsters. We were very far from that kind of attitude at the beginning of the season, then we participated in a tournament in December and January after which the progress was instantly visible. I think that there is no real difference in knowledge, but their teams are trained in the right attitude for a much longer time, like they do it in Zagreb or Celje. I think they have an advantage in that for now. After five weeks, we saw this good attitude fade in the Hungarian league, so we decided to put two more tournaments in our schedule. After participating on those, the high competition level was kept for the rest of the season.

 

They are integrated in our system. Sümeg just started this year and we could sense the same enthusiasm as we sensed in Tapolca when they started. The work is coordinated by Mihály Velky in these places, just like he does from U7 to U12. His role has an impact on how much these children improved last year. It does not show in competitions yet, so much in their technical abilities. We plan to merge two age groups from Sümeg and Tapolca and lift them up next to our team in Veszprém. I think it would be a great achievement to form one U16 team out of three teams in the future.

 

Dávid Ubornyák will go to Gyöngyös. He was a key player in our U20 team this season, although he had an injury and went downhill during spring. We worked hard to get out of it mentally. He will go to the recent world tournament with the U20 national team. I feel like it was good for him to know his future and to sign with the new club. Benedek Szakály signed with FTC. I can only say positive things about him this and past season as well. He was the top scorer of the second division, which can be a good base for him to be a great player in the first division. If his progress goes on like this, we would like to see him in the first team, if they think so too. Our left wing, Balázs Molnár signed to Eger. He battled with injuries but despite that, he closed a good season in which he could develop. We would like every player to be like them mentally. We had some players leave to the second division; we tried to get their life in line as well. We make sure that all leaving players get to a good place where they can play.

We hope that many players will debut in the first team of Veszprém. We could see Uros Borzas with the first team, and he trained with them as well. When he came back to the U20 team and he was okay mentally, he did a very good performance. His form was uneven, maybe because sometimes he felt like he is with the first team and thought more of himself returning to the U20. We still expect him to come back to the second division and still expect him to be a key player; because that is the only way, he can pave his way to the first team. There is a very strong left-handed player, who in our hopes, can stick with the first team as homegrown player. Not only are these players in the spotlight, but others too. We would like to give players not only to Veszprém, but to the Hungarian handball also and I think that we are on a good way to create great players.

 

Less injuries for sure. In a certain period of the season we had many injuries, which made the coaching staff reconsider the training methods, although I think the problem was not that the boys were tired. There were some injuries that were because of mental problems, and there were injuries that were unavoidable, and is in the sport. For the next season, I wish less injuries and more and more development for the children in the future.