08/04/2007 Nelson Alves

Jimmy Trussel is the current team USA’s head coach, beeing in the leadership since two years ago, when argentinian Mario Agüero left.
Trussel had a very sucessful carreer as a rink-hockey player: he played for some italian clubs, like Vercelli, Valdagno and Thiene. He won the italian league in 1985/86 with Vercelli, and was CERS Cup finalist for Thiene, in 1993. He was for two times de 2nd best goalscorer in italian league, both times beyond the legend Pino Marzella.
In the team U.S.A, he lived some of the best moments of the american rink-hockey’s history: he remmenber the victory against Spain (3-2, at Novara, 1984), or the ties against Portugal, at the World Gasmes. In 1984, he was the World’s best goalscorer, yied with italian Enrico Bernardini and the spanish Quim Paüls.
As a coach, he doesn’t have a great experience, beeing this his first great challenge. In the last years, he coached a rink-hockey team in Salt Lake City, where he lives since he get back from Italy.

 

PORTUGUESE TOUR

How important it was for you, to be in Portugal?
It was an important experience, because we are trainning the United States team at a different level of play. It was important for us to see how good or bad we were, so we can go home, and train, to make some adjustments.

TEAM USA

Team USA will play against Portugal at world’s... What’s your goal for that game?
Well, it’s going to be a tuff game... But you know, I would say that every game has it’s story. I would like that it would be competitive, and we could play hard, and have a good game score’s. Portugal is obviously very good, very talented, and I will not make any promises on winning!!! But we will give them a good game; I really think we can compete.

What about the Championship? What it is the place you are fighting for?
There is no doubt we want to go in the “top-8”. We hope to get qualified in our “bracket”, and in the top part, just compete, to improve. Overcome some of our weakness, and have some sucess.

Now that two years passed, may you tell me what did United States won with the World’s Championship being held in your country?
The United States had the World Championships in 2005. It was an oportunity for us to host a great competition, but personally, I’am not sure we were big enough to host that type of evenment. But the americans did the best they could. Hopefully, it can help us to move our program forward, and maybe to get more people playing the sport...

AMERICAN RINK-HOCKEY

What are the major dificulties you have to play rink-hockey in the United States?
We have several. Distances are huge. To play a single game with the nearest club, I have to a distance that is almost the same of going from Portugal to Germany!
In the other hand, we have inline hockey. In my own skating rink, I have about 200 “inliners”, and only about 20 hardball hockey players. I’ve trying to bring some “inliners” to roller hockey, and the majority stays.
We also need to be Olympics. We have to recruit more players. Teams USA have to fight for the top places, just like Ice Hockey and Inline Hockey do. But we have a long way to walk...

What are your goals for rink-hockey in the United States?
United States hockey’s is growing. We are having some sucess in reorganizing the sport, but I think we are very small. 500 or 600 players in all of America, so it is not very big. But there are signs of growth, and there are signs that the organizational structure is better. We hope to double these numbers in the next few years. We also want to work strongly in the national team, so we can improve their play, and so... I have hope! I dont think it is good to complain, it is good to find solutions.

What about facilities?
We need more facilities. There are a lot of skating rinks in the United States. Many of them dont play hockey. But if we structure the leagues, if we structure our program, I’am confident that more facilities will be open to play roller hockey in the future.

In your program, you are trying to spread the sport in the whole country, or you’re beting in specific regions?
We have three regions: West, Central and East. Each region is about the size of Europe. It is a great country! Our goals are to grow the sport in each region, hopefully, organizing it as a championship, and from the three regions, clubs could qualify to our national’s. Would be great to have all the regions together in one tournament, and would be a great “promo” for the sport in the future.