Mika Väärälä (born 22 January 1988) is a Finnish

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

coach and the current head coach of

KalPa Naiset Kalevan Pallo Naiset or KalPa Naiset are an ice hockey team in the Naisten Liiga (NSML), the premier women's ice hockey league in Finland. Founded in 1990, they play in Kuopio, the largest city in the eastern-central province of North Savo, at ...

in the

Naisten Liiga The Kansallinen Liiga ('National League') is the premier division of women's football in Finland. It was previously called the Jalkapallon naisten SM-sarja ('Women's Football Finnish Championship Series') during 1974 to 2006 and the Naisten Lii ...

(NSML).

Coaching career

Väärälä started coaching at age 22, as head coach of

JYP Naiset JYP Naiset or JYP Jyväskylä Naiset is a Finnish ice hockey team in the Naisten Mestis. Their home is the Jyväskylän harjoitusjäähalli ('Jyväskylä training ice hall') in Jyväskylä, Central Finland. JYP Naiset have won the Aurora Bor ...

in the Naisten SM-sarja (renamed Naisten Liiga in 2017) during 2010 to 2013. Moving to Austria in 2013, he helmed the Austrian national under-18 team for two seasons, achieving promotion to Division I in the 2014 IIHF Women's U18 World Championship. In 2014, he took the head coaching position with the

EHV Sabres EHV may refer to: *Equine herpesvirus, a group of viruses that affect horses *Extra high voltage, a type of power supply *Evangelical Heritage Version The Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV) is a translation of the Bible into the English language. ...

and won the 2015 Championship of the

Elite Women's Hockey League The European Women's Hockey League, abbreviated EWHL, is an international ice hockey league. Created as the Elite Women's Hockey League in 2004 by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the EWHL comprises clubs from several countries in ...

(EWHL; renamed European Women's Hockey League in 2019). Relocating from Austria to Hungary in 2016, he joined the Hungarian national team as an assistant coach and began his first term as head coach of KMH Budapest in the EWHL. During the 2018–19 season, Väärälä made his first foray into coaching men as head coach of the representative ice hockey team of

Kapfenberger SV Kapfenberger SV is an Austrian association football club from Kapfenberg. They won the 2007–08 Austrian Football First League and advanced to the Austrian Bundesliga. The club was founded in 1919 as ''Kapfenberger SC''. The club was renamed ...

(KSV) in the Österreichische Amateur Hockey Liga (ÖAEL) and won the 2019 ÖAEL Championship. He returned as head coach of KMH Budapest in 2019. Over the following three seasons, the team won the EWHL Championship three times and the

EWHL Super Cup The EWHL Super Cup is an ice hockey tournament for women's club teams organized by the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation (HIHF/MJSZ) and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It was founded by the IIHF in 2011 in an effort to provided opp ...

twice.

Personal life

His wife,

Esther Väärälä Esther is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther. In the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus seeks a new wife after his queen, Vashti, is deposed for disobeying him. Hadassah, a Jewess who goes by the name of Esther, is chosen ...

(), holds the record for most games played with the Austrian women's national ice hockey team.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaarala, Mika 1988 births Living people Finnish expatriate ice hockey people in Austria Finnish expatriate ice hockey people in Hungary Finnish ice hockey coaches Naisten Liiga (ice hockey) coaches People from Keminmaa Sportspeople from Lapland (Finland)