The Deutscher Eishockey-Bund has another new appointment DEB-Trainer area made. Alexander Dück will take over the position of U2021 national coach from the coming 22/18 season. The long-time first division professional succeeds Steffen Ziesche, who DEB leaves. The 41-year-old Dück was most recently part of the coaching team led by national coach Toni Söderholm at the 2021 IIHF World Championships in Riga, Latvia.
The native Kazakh was previously part of the coaching staff at the U20 World Cup in Edmonton around the turn of the year. In addition to his participation in these two major ice hockey events, Dück was also at the Deutschland Cup In 2020, as part of the coaching team led by Tobias Abstreiter, he was involved in the prospect selection of the top team in Beijing.
Ziesche had the U18s DEB at this year's World Cup in the USA, when they competed in the top division for the first time after being promoted in 2019. The 49-year-old was previously part of the coaching team at the U20 World Cup in Canada together with Dück. He also represented the team together with Thomas Popiesch at the Deutschland Cup 2020 national coach Toni Söderholm when he couldn't be there in Krefeld. In 2020, due to the pandemic, Ziesche missed the opportunity to attend the IIHF U2002 World Championships with the 18 class.
During his playing career, Dück made over 700 appearances in the DEL for Schwenningen, Krefeld, Iserlohn and Hamburg, plus a one-year stint at HK Jesenice in Slovenia. After his playing career ended in 2017, he initially worked as a young talent coach at the Schwenninger ERC and took on the role of assistant coach for the Ravensburg Towerstars in the past DEL2 season.
DEB-Sports director Christian Künast: “Many thanks to Steffen Ziesche for his work and his expertise! We wish him much success in his future tasks. Alexander Dück convinced us with his idea of working with a young talent team. I'm sure he can bring this age group forward. He was able to gain a lot of international experience last year with the U20 and now at the Men's World Cup. These impressions will also help him in his further development as a coach. welcome to DEB-Trainer team!”
New U18 national coach Alexander Dück: “I'm really looking forward to working with the other coaches, I'm looking forward to the task that lies ahead of me and to being able to develop and train the players. We have to work on the deficits we have in international comparison so that we can put together a good team for the next World Cup in our own country. It shouldn't be a goal to just not want to be relegated, we want to be more demanding. At this age, players have to recognize and learn how to behave as a professional player, how to live ice hockey and what to do for it. It’s also a task to make this clear to them.”
Previous U18 national coach Steffen Ziesche: “It was an honor and a great challenge for me to work for the association. I really enjoyed working with my coaching colleagues and the boys. Unfortunately, we weren't able to play in the World Cup last year with the 2002 vintage. That would certainly have been a highlight and a lot would have been possible, as our victory at the five-nation tournament had shown."