Head Trainer Neil Walsky
Neil Walsky is the Head Trainer and President of the Szczecin Northstars Hockey Foundation. He grew up playing hockey in the U.S.A., competed while attending university in Boston and played professionally in the Swiss National Hockey League.
Neil Walsky has been living in Szczecin for over five years and dedicates his time to developing adult, youth, and children’s ice hockey in the area.
Neil Walsky is a native English speaker, speaks Swiss German and a little bit of Polish.
Specialty
He has a passion for developing strong puck handling skills and enjoys dynamic drills that improve a player’s ability to make decisions during a game.
Assistant Trainer Denis Lomatov
Denis Lomatov was introduced to ice hockey through a family friend at the age of 8 years old. He played and trained with the Children’s and Youth Olympic Reservice Sports School of Hockey No. 10 in Grodno, Belarus. His team was very successful at the Open Championship in Belarus at the age of 14 years old and Denis was chosen to represent Belarus on the U-15 National Team between the ages of 14 and 15 years of age. He continued playing with the Junior League until he was 18. As an adult, he moved to a youth team called Neman-2 and in the same season moved to play with Vitebsk-2 where he was considered the best prospect. He continued training with the Vitebsk-2 and spent two seasons in the league as captain.
Denis fluently speaks Belarussian, Russian, and Polish. He is also learning to speak English.
Specialty
Denis Lomatov enjoys teaching power skating, accurate passing (particularly out of the defensive zone), and stong, aimed shots. He also enjoys developing game IQ.
Assistant Trainer Piotr Kosiorowski
Piotr Kosiorowski has been ice skating his entire life. It wasn’t until he was 17 years old that he began playing hockey. Piotr was lucky to have many older players in Szczecin that mentored him. Notably, Leszek Frankowski, who played for and coached the SKH Gryfy. Trainer Piotr played for the Polish III Division and the Polish II Division with Poznań Hockey (Poznań Hokej). Assistant Trainer Piotr met Neil Walsky while ice skating in Szczecin and quickly became an important part of the growing program.
Piotr fluently speaks Polish, English and German.
Specialty
Assistant Trainer Piotr enjoys teaching power skating and technical hockey skating.
Parent Volunteers
Our program would not be successful without the help and support of our parent volunteers. A huge thank you to those who are able to lace up their skates, grab their hockey stick and join us on the ice to teach the fundamentals of ice hockey.
Thank you Marcin Walkowiak, Marek Tomkowicz and Ola Rupp.