Team Talk

TEAM TALK

Photo Credit: Mark Paterson/Skidpix.

Reflecting on his first season with Solway Sharks, left winger Stevie Balmer reveals his early inspirations, the reason behind his move to the Dumfries outfit and the differences between the NIHL’s North and South Divisions…

What has been your highlight this season?

The highlight of the season for me has been the push to clinch the final playoff spot. After a lot of doubts and injury trouble we managed to all pull together and turn around a slow start to the season.

What has been your greatest disappointment?

I couldn’t narrow down to a single thing on my biggest disappointment. Maybe a few games we lost points on towards that last stretch.

This season was your first with the Sharks. What do you make of your team mates and Head Coach Martin Grubb?

My first season for the Sharks has been awesome. I have played for a lot of teams and I have enjoyed my time this year as a Shark. I have made a lot of friends from the team, background staff and fans that I will stay in contact with over the summer. Martin has been a good coach this year. I have had my fair share of all types of coaches in the past, from guys who say next to nothing to guys who will scream at a team for little mistakes, but he generally keeps it cool until called upon which is good.

Having undertaken quite a journey this campaign, Solway secured a playoff place. Are you surprised by how much the Sharks have achieved?

To be fair, no I’m not surprised what we have achieved this season. We have a team that can contend with any other team in the league and we have before.

You played in both games on the penultimate weekend of the season and they were completely different in all respects. How did it feel to secure that playoff spot and then have to deal with a 7-0 defeat to Daniel MacKriel’s title winning Blackburn Hawks?

That weekend had a lot of mixed emotions. We beat Telford for double points and that secured our playoff spot and that was a good feeling. The Blackburn game was so they could take the league and we didn’t bring our ‘A’ game. Let’s not take it away from Blackburn; they are a good team and congrats to them on the league title.

What made you decide to sign for Solway this season?

I signed for Solway this season as I heard a lot of good things from other players about the club and the players at Solway. It was also a team I could commit to from Belfast while I worked and lived at home for the first time in a long time, so it was a big plus for me this season and the team were very understanding with my commitment as some weekends I could not make games.

Who do you feel has been the Sharks’ most influential player this season?

The most influential player is a tough one. It has been one of those seasons where everyone has had good and bad games but our most consistent is maybe [Marc] Fowley but it is hard to narrow down to a player.

What do you make of the opposition in the Moralee Conference and if you had to name one player who has impressed you this season, who would it be?

The Moralee Conference is a lot better than I remember when I played in Manchester. Teams are so strong; the standard has been that anyone can win on the night and there are a few standout players for me that I can put out there who are obvious but there are so many good players in the league. 

Like team mate Stevie Adams, you played in the IIHL at the start of your career. What was it like to ice with the Dundalk Bulls and the Latvian Hawks, and how did those two teams differ in terms of quality?

The IIHL was a good league when the Celtic League was around with Fife, Dundee, Solway and Paisley coming over and it was a great stepping stone for Stevie and I. We got an opportunity to play with some amazing players with the Latvian Hawks and picked up a lot of ice time as well to help out development. I would say the top players there would be much better than some of the top guys in the NIHL but the standard of teams were not as good as teams now in the league.

You made the switch to the English National League to play for Trafford Metros in their 2010-2011 campaign. What was the reason for this and how did it compare to ice hockey you’d played in the past?

Before Trafford, I had played in the IIHL in which only two teams came close to NIHL team skill. I wanted to get better myself and moving away from home was my only option. I went to America for try-outs for a few teams and signed for the Long Beach Bombers Junior A Team but I couldn’t go in the end due to my visa being declined. So I looked at a few teams in and outside of the UK and, as it was so close to the start of the season, very few teams would take a chance on a player they had never seen nor heard of but Trafford took me on that year. I wasn’t able to finish out the season with them and I only managed one goal in fifteen games so I didn’t have my most successful entry to the league but sure, it gave me something to work on.

The following season, you signed for Streatham Redskins in NIHL South Division One to achieve thirty five points, the most you have recorded in a season to date, although this appears to have been a particularly difficult season for the club. What was it like to endure twenty seven defeats despite giving your all?

My time at Streatham was amazing and I will never forget it. It was a team that didn’t deserve to lose that many games but that is hockey. It was a tough season for Streatham and they nearly got relegated but managed to pull it back in the last game of the season against Slough Jets ENL. I don’t think one player on that team didn’t give 100% each game. That’s all that matters at the end of the day and they managed to stay up in ENL One; that’s a plus.

You played for both Cardiff Devils NIHL and Slough Jets in the EPL during the 2013-14 season. What was it like to divide your season between these two teams and to play at a higher level of the sport?

When I went to Cardiff, it was to try and get a shot at the Elite team as well so I could get training on top of my ENL duties, but things took a turn for Slough that season and I got a chance to play EPL that I couldn’t turn away so I ended up going full time EPL for the remainder of the season. The EPL was a big step up in all aspects of the game but not over my head and I took away a lot from that spell, from on and off ice experience.

Having played in both NIHL North and NIHL South, which league do you prefer and why?

Having played both NIHL leagues, they both have teams that can play good hockey but I think North teams like to focus more on trying to hit than the South does. They are, as team play goes, ‘tougher’ but, especially this season with so many high class players, the skill has also gone up tremendously. South league has its spells of tough and chippy games but they are usually more open games which focus on executing systems a lot more. I’m not really sure what I prefer. It’s more just learning to keep my head up more and not getting steamrolled by the bigger guys. Ha, ha!

Which ice hockey player inspired you as a junior?

As a junior, I always used to watch the Belfast Giants and through the years, they had some outstanding players come and go but one guy that always stood out to me maybe was Curtis Huppe. He had one of the hardest shots I had seen and they looked effortless for him as well. The NHL is always a go-to for these sorts of questions and I was always a fan of Alex Kovalev. He had some of the best stick handling skills around and I always tried to be that sort of player in my own game.

Finally, what do you consider to have been your greatest achievement to date and is there anything you would like to achieve that you haven’t already?

One of my greatest achievements would be winning the gold medal with Team Ireland. It was with a team of guys I have been friends with for years growing up and, to this day, I wish Team Ireland was still going. I would like to have won the league title and NIHL so I could have the experience of winning both the league and the playoffs at that level.

Thank you to Stevie Balmer for taking the time to be interviewed by NIHL Northern Trio. 

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