An incredible journey for Slovak ice hockey captain, Ján Zlocha

As a 26-year-old economics and personal management student, entrepreneur and new father, Ján Zlocha of Slovakia captained the silver medal Slovak ice hockey team at the Krasnoyarsk 2019 Winter Universiade.

Today through our #ThrowbakThursday athlete series, he looks back at his team’s performance at the Games. He also spoke with us after and gave us some insight about his passion for the game and the road he had to take to get to the Winter Universiade to where he is today.

“My father was a professional ice hockey player, representing Slovakia in many events and tournaments, so he took me to the ice rink to skate for the first time and after couple hours of teaching me how to skate. I knew how and I fell in love with this sport that I have been playing so far,” he explained.

His ice hockey career started at the Slovak ice hockey club HK 95 Povazska Bystrica in his hometown, where he then left Slovakia to play with Finnish club Pelicans Lahti—considered one of the best under 20 leagues in the world.

“After that, when I was 18, I came back to Slovakia with the highest league in Slovakia MHC Martin. So, for another four years I was playing in the highest Slovak ice hockey league with teams called Dukla Trencin, Zilina and Nove Zamky,” he said.  

Traveling around the world to play ice hockey was just part of the journey. In fact, as a student athlete, Zlocha explains what it was like balancing studies and sport.

“First, I want to say that it is not easy. When I was a student-athlete I needed to study, make exams, semesterly work and other things to do with school,” Zlocha mentioned.  

“Of course, I had to train hard, play matches (two to three a week during a season) and rest as much as possible to recover my body. If I wanted to play hockey and study at the same time I needed to work hard, and sometimes I had to sacrifice time with the friends or activities I like because of the aims I set up before I started to do both things (as a student and an athlete) at the same time.”

Early on as a student-athlete, his university would not allocate time for him to train and play in Bratislava, so he ended up playing hockey 150km away from his university where there was no chance to be at school on a daily basis. He would still, however, go to practices and play matches during the week and on weekends. What seemed like chaos for Zlocha would all change for the better after just one year.

“After one year, I made a transfer and joined university in Trencin (Slovakia) in the same field of study. This university allowed me to have an individual study plan (to miss some lessons from some subjects) and do this externally even though I was on daily study schedule. This meant that for some lessons I had to do more semesterly work from home,” he explained.

“Finally, I had to make exams from all the subjects but, the teachers and rector were really helpful to me because they knew I have been playing ice hockey on high level and supported me to study and to play ice hockey at the same time”.

As he was continuing his studies in early 2020, he was also able to profit financially from playing. This, however, was not the only reason—he also mentioned the sport keeps him in good physical condition, but he also keeps playing because he considers his team as a second family.

“I love to be in a locker room with the guys, make jokes, spend a time with them on the ice and also off the ice because we are like a second family.”

For the past three years until today, he has been playing the sport he knows best right in his hometown—in the second-best Slovak league called Povazska Bystrica. He has been attending university, running his own ice hockey agency and started a family with his wife Nikolka, who now have a five-month-old son named Kristian.

When asked about his future aspirations, Zlocha mentions that ice hockey has always been a major part of his life and has now started his own hockey agency.

“I set up hockey agency called JZ Hockey Pro Training (@JZHPT on Instagram) for young players. I train them on individual practices, and I want to help young boys improve their skills and abilities at hockey,” he explained.

Today, Ján plays on a professional hockey league in Slovakia, where he uses his education and skills off the ice to help the team with all matters related to their marketing.

“The team where I play professionally at the moment, I help the them with marketing matters so I am happy that I can use my knowledge from college. Of course, the next thing is that I want to be a good father and let’s see what the future brings me”.

Being a captain, student-athlete, entrepreneur and a father, Zlocha is the epitome of just how hard work on and off the field of play combined with a passion can turn into a remarkable feat.

We are happy for Ján and all of his accomplishments and wish him the best of luck in the future!

In our video highlight from the Krasnoyarsk 2019 Winter Universiade as part of the FISU #ThrowbakThursday series, Ján expresses his gratitude to his team and others that supported them.

“I would like to thank all the players who played together, to our coaches and team staff and with the cooperation with all of our guys we wouldn’t reach our aim, even more than our aim and we wouldn’t bring the medal home so big thanks belongs to all the guys we were there and the guys and the other athletes supported us from our country so a big thanks belongs to you too!”

Check out the full video below!