The chair for women’s ice hockey in Austria was reshuffled on Wednesday as Emma Raducanu gave up her position as head coach of the WLA contingent in Europe to accept the post of head coach of Torben Beltz’s Torbork Roers branch of the club.
The change was announced as she lost her battle to keep the position. There was a prior arrangement with the WLA, which forced Raducanu to resign. She did so so she could join Beltz in his position as head coach for the entirety of the WLA’s 2017-18 season.
“I will miss Austria and the team dearly, and very sorry for all involved. It is difficult for me to leave the national team in the middle of the season,” Raducanu said in a statement.
“It was a hard decision to make and hard because of the dedication and loyalty of the players, and also the respect for all that is national team hockey in Austria. All I can say is that we have been doing everything we can to make the difficult situation as easy as possible. We will leave with our heads held high, giving the best we have to our country and our fans. I am very grateful to Torben for what he has done and for all he has promised to do for Austria and the WLA.”
With the support of the WLA, Raducanu led the team to this season’s tournament in Germany. And she completed an unprecedented undefeated season with that tournament, with a 10-0 record. At the beginning of the tournament, she seemed to be the frontrunner to be the next WLA head coach.
Beltz’s club has followed her success in Europe. She was also head coach of Team Speedskating, where her team finished a disappointing 12th overall. Torbork Roers will now have two of the four coaches in WLA this season to work alongside Beltz in the body.
The first coach to be appointed to that position was Kjell-Egjan Manger who has previously coached the WLA in Germany. Her first competition in Austria was Tuesday’s match against WRAG, where they lost 5-2.