Calgary’s Oval X-Treme have hired Swedish hockey coach Bjorn Kinding to take the helm of the Olympic Oval’s female hockey club this season. This is Kinding’s first head coach job in women’s hockey after more than 30 years of experience in international men’s hockey.
“I am interested in coaching highly motivated hockey players, and the Calgary Oval X-Treme have a lot of those,” said Kinding. “It was not moving into female hockey that attracted me to this position, but simply working with elite athletes.”
Kinding’s coaching history includes head coach positions with the Swedish Elite League, Swiss National League A, Danish Men’s National Team and the Japanese 1998 Olympic Team. He began his coaching career at only 22 years old in the Swedish First Division and later spent three years as the Director of Hockey Development for the Swiss Federation.
“We are extremely fortunate to have someone with Bjorn’s credentials be part of our organization,” said Kathy Berg, Director of the High Performance Female Hockey Program at the Olympic Oval. “We are looking forward to an outstanding and successful season.”
In making the change from men’s hockey to women’s Kinding said, “I don’t have any ideas about that. When I worked with hockey teams around the world, people would ask what it was like to coach Swiss or Japanese players, and really I could not generalize, and so I feel the same will apply to this experience.”
Kinding brings an impressive academic background to the Olympic Oval. He holds a degree in coaching science, is an NCCP course conductor, is the author of eight instructional manuals and is fluent in four languages (English, Swedish, German and Danish). He worked with Canadian hockey coach Dave King to create the Hockey Canada Skills Academy Program and has worked with NHL players Dion Phaneuf, Nick Tarnasky, Shawn Belle and Drew Stafford at a skills academy in Edmonton.
The decision to move to Canada to coach at the Olympic Oval was made easier because his wife, Swedish National Figure Skating Champion Lise-Lotte Oberg, is living in Edmonton coaching at the Royal Glenora Club. Their two daughters also live in Edmonton and attend the University of Alberta.
Calgary Oval X-Treme
The first X-Treme home game of the 2008-2009 WWHL season is Oct. 22, 2008 vs. the Strathmore Rockies starting at 7 p.m. at the Olympic Oval. Tickets will be available in Sept.
Olympic Oval High Performance Female Hockey Program
The Olympic Oval is home to four high performance sport programs; long track speed skating, short track, cycling and female hockey. The Olympic Oval’s hockey program was established in 1995 and now consists of three levels which includes the Calgary Oval X-Treme at the top of the program, the University of Calgary Dinos women’s hockey team in the middle role, and a development level involving skills camps. For more information, please visit www.oval.ucalgary.ca.
