Keramin (hockey club)

HC Minsk (1999-2001)

The Minsk Hockey Club was established by the Minsk City Executive Committee in the summer of 1999 at the initiative of the Youth Youth Sports School management to provide game practice to the adult pupils of the school and to employ Belarusian hockey players who were left without game practice in foreign clubs. The head coach was appointed Mikhail Zakharov . The team began to play home games in the new ice palace on Pritytsky Street . As sponsors , several metropolitan enterprises were assigned to the club. In the first season, the team took second place in the championship, only one point behind Tivali , and also debuted in the Continental Cup and VEHL ^{[4] [5]} .

In the 2000/2001 season , the Youth Youth Sports School re-announced its own team to the national championship, headed by Mikhail Zakharov, and Valery Polzakov became the new head coach of Minsk. During the season, Polisakov had health problems, and the team was actually led by his assistant Alexander Vladykin , and in January 2001 Valery Voronin became the head coach ^[5] . Despite great financial difficulties ^[4] (players were not paid a salary for several months, there were problems with hockey equipment and inventory) the team was able to win silver medals again.

The heyday of the club (2001-2008)

After the decree of the President of Belarus on supporting hockey clubs was issued, the Keramin factory became the main sponsor of Minsk HC, and the team began the third season in its history with a new name - Keramin-Minsk . The financial position of the club was strengthened, the organization of the training and game process improved, the composition of the club was more than half-updated. In the 2001/2002 season , Belarusian championship medals were first played in the playoff series - without losing a single defeat in eight matches, Keramin won gold medals for the first time. In the 2002/2003 season , the team was headed by Evgeny Lebedev, under whose leadership Keramin twice became the champion of the VEHL, but twice in the championship of Belarus he stopped at the second step of the podium. In 2003, Keramin was the first Belarusian club to reach the Continental Cup Superfinal, where it took fourth place. The next year, the team almost repeated this success, taking 5th place in the super final, held in Gomel .

During the 2004/2005 season , Evgeny Lebedev was forced to relinquish the post of head coach Vasily Spiridonov , under whose leadership the team won silver for the third time in a row. In the 2005/2006 season , the team of Vasily Spiridonov took only 5th place in the championship, having flown out of the playoffs in the quarter-finals. Such results did not suit the club leadership, which decided to entrust the reins of government to Andrei Gusov , who ended his playing career in Keramin several years ago. The change of coach turned out to be successful - in the 2006/2007 season the team once again won silver medals, losing to Dynamo Minsk in the final, and in the 2007/2008 season for the second time they won the champion title, having beaten dry in the Youth final.

Decline (2008—2010)

After winning gold medals, several leading Keramina players moved to Dynamo Minsk, which became the representative of Belarus in the KHL . However, the team managed to conduct a high-quality selection and win the pre-season national cup . As it turned out, this was the last success of Keramin. After Keramin beat Dynamo 6–2 in a friendly match on August 21, 2008 , the coaching staff of the latter expressed a desire to see several Keramin players in the Belarusian KHL representative. In early September, “Keramin” officially became the Dynamo Farm Club ^[6] . In addition, the best young players were transferred on lease terms to the Bobruisk “ Shinnik ”, which the Belarus Hockey Federation made the youth club base club, ^[7] . The weakened team was able to finish only sixth in the championship, but “ Keramin-2 ” under the leadership of Sergey Petukhov for the first time became the winner of the national championship in the major league (D2). It was Sergei Petukhov who headed Keramin in the 2009/2010 season, the last in the team’s history. Having broken relations with Dynamo, Keramin again took only sixth place.

Disbandment

In July 2010 , when the team left vacation and began preparing for the season, information appeared in the press about the disbandment of Keramin ^{[8] [9]} . At a meeting with fans on July 15, club leader Alexander Letetsky confirmed that the Keramin-Minsk hockey club ceases to exist ^[2] .

One of the reasons for the disbandment of Keramin HC was the creation in Minsk of two youth teams of the Dynamo and Yunost clubs, which needed to have arenas corresponding to the requirements of the league and strengthen their roster and financial position to perform in the MHL . The Minsk Ice Palace on Pritytsky Street, where Keramin was based, will be used as the home site of Yunost MHC . The financial resources of the title sponsor of the team of Keramin OJSC were allocated to help HC Dynamo-Minsk ^[3] . It was assumed that the Dynamo MHL Minsk Bison team would change its name to Dynamo-Keramin, but later this idea was abandoned ^[10] . Most of Keramin’s hockey players signed contracts with other Belarusian clubs, and youth players joined the Dynamo Minsk team ^[3] .

VEHL

Belorussian Championship

Belorussian Cup

Continental Cup

• Champion Vehl 2003 and 2004 .
• Champion of Belarus 2002 and 2008 .
• Silver medalist of the championship of Belarus 2000 , 2001 , 2003 , 2004 , 2005 and 2007 .
• Winner of the Cup of Belarus in 2002 and 2008 .
• Participant in the superfinal of the Continental Cup 2003 , 2004 and 2009 .

In 2002, the youth composition of Keramin HC was declared in the first league of the Belorussian championship under the name Keramin-2. For eight seasons spent in the second division, the team climbed the podium three times: in 2008, taking third place, in 2003 - second, and in 2009 becoming the champion.

Ceramin HC spent almost all of its matches in the Minsk Ice Sports Palace on Pritytsky Street .

The leadership of Keramin has repeatedly voiced plans to build its own arena ^[11] , but construction has not yet begun.

•   Mikhail Zakharov (1999-2000)
•   Valery Polshakov (2000)
•   Alexander Vladykin (2000-2001)
•   Valery Voronin (2001-2002)
•   Evgeny Lebedev (2002-2004)
•   Vasily Spiridonov (2004-2006)
•   Andrey Gusov (2006-2009)
•   Sergey Petukhov (2009—2010)

• Official site of Keramin-Minsk HC
• Valentin Vaytekhovich. To remember. Saga of the "dragons" (neopr.) . Pressball Archived March 2, 2012.