During the EuroHockey Championship II in Prague, the EHF President, Marijke Fleuren had the pleasure of awarding Gino Schilders, President of Czech Hockey, with the EHF Diploma of Merit Award.Gino, a Dutch national, who arrived for an adventure in the Czech Republic over 30 years ago, and is now more “Czech” than the Czechs!Under Gino’s watch as President, Czech Hockey has grown from strength to strength, with the emphasis now on developing leaders, players and coaches from a young age. He has used his business knowledge to assist Czech Hockey and our own Tom Pedersen Smith to tap into Erasmus+ funding.He is currently leading a 3 year Erasmus+ Sport program “Aspiring and Inspiring Youth Leaders” which is aimed at giving young sport leaders a voice at the sport management table. The project is a collaboration of 10 partners with 6 European hockey federations, the University of Copenhagen (DK), SportsInQ (NL), Streetgames (UK), and the European Hockey Federation (BE). This project alone is bringing nearly 400k Euro into the Hockey Family.
Marijke Fleuren, President said “It is rare to find someone like Gino, who, in his adopted country, has been able to tap into all that is good from both The Netherlands and The Czech Republic and use his enormous energy to get the best out of those around him. He has the foresight to understand that his best legacy will be to develop young leaders and to enable them to ensure that Czech hockey can continue to grow. The EHF Diploma of Merit is an award that highlights those who work, often behind the scenes for European hockey!
Gino is a very worthy recipient because of his contributions to hockey in Europe, especially for the development of good governance for volunteers, his innovative training programmes with his old colleagues from HC ‘sHertogenbosch and as mentioned above his considerable efforts in helping us to tap into Erasmus+ programmes, which enable us to deliver our programmes over the whole of Europe as more and more Member Associations come on board with us and the EU.
Gino, thank you for your energy, your enthusiasm and your leadership.”
Pictured: Gino (centre) is pictured with EHF President Marijke Fleuren and Angus Kirkland, Director General of the EHF
