Sergei Mikhailovich Mikhalev - hockey player, honored coach of Russia, holder of the Order of the Second Degree "For Merit to the Fatherland".
Sergey Mikhalev is one of the most respected coaches in the country. All the teams with which he worked achieved good results, participated in the national championships and won in them.
Sports future
Sergey Mikhailovich was born in the village of Shershni of the Chelyabinsk region in October 5, 1947. Sergey Mikhailovich's sports career began at the age of nineteen. With a local hockey, the novice athlete did not have a very good relationship.
Mikhalev played in Tractor, the main regional club, but did not enter the main team. From the youth team the hockey player was transferred to the semi-amateur "Petrel". He defended the Chelyabinsk Institute.
As part of the team, the new player spent four seasons, receiving a great chance to return to the big sport. The invitation from “Salavat Yulaev” was a happy ticket for the young hockey player.
The team played in the first league. In the Ufa team, the athlete spent his best years as a player. Until the end of his active hockey career, he played seven seasons. Forced departure to the Kuibyshev SKA occurred only in 1974-1975.
In the ranks of the club, the athlete served in the military. After a safe return to Ufa, Mikhalev ended his career after thirty years. He decided to switch to coaching.
Sergey Mikhailovich successfully passed exams at the Higher School of Economics. He returned to his native Ufa. The work of the coach began there. The years before perestroika passed for a novice mentor at work in the coaching staff of Salavat Yulaev.
Coaching
The famous club was in a difficult financial situation. At the end of the perestroika eighties, no funds were found to pay for the work of the head coach. Management decided to use their own personnel.
The main candidate for the first roles was Mikhalev. In 1987, he became the new head coach. The new chief mentor showed good results from the very beginning. For three seasons, “Salavat Yulaev” did not fall below third place in the Eastern zone of the first league.
The hockey player dreamed of entering the Premier League, but due to the loss of the Ufa team in transitional games, the dream did not come true. In 1990, management terminated the contract with Mikhalev. The coach was in a difficult situation, losing his job.
A new place was the "Lada" from Togliatti. It was headed by Tsygurov, a former pupil of the Chelyabinsk Tractor. Soklubnik became his assistant. Sergey Mikhailovich felt real victories in that very quality.
With the beginning of the nineties, the provincial club was lucky with leadership in Russian hockey. With a good selection of players and financial support from the regional leadership, Lada has been successfully fighting for prizes in the MHL and the Russian Championship for almost a decade.
New round
Together with Tsygurov Mikhalev won the MHL tournaments twice. In 1997, they provided the team with the opportunity to win the European Cup. Sergei Mikhailovich earned a status for himself excellent.
Now he had every chance for a triumphant return to big hockey as a head coach. At the beginning of the two thousandth Sergei Mikhailovich was invited to work with the Cherepovets Severstal.
The provincial club had to flounder at the very bottom of the table. Hockey in the region was going through the worst of times. The new coach managed to organize an excellent team game.
Although the players in it were not the strongest, the excellent organizer attracted attention to the club and achieved its development. In the first year, Mikhalev raised the team from fifteenth to seventh place and reached the playoffs.
“Steelworkers” in the next season became the bronze medalists of the national championship. To the top of fame in 2002-2003, Severstal reached the final of the rally.
But the triumph turned into the beginning of the end. The strongest players were pulled down by the most prestigious clubs in Russia. As a result, the team again took only the bottom lines of the rating.
Return
In 2004-2005 Sergey Mikhailovich returned to Salavat Yulaev. The club had good reserves, with players it was possible to solve problems of any complexity.
By the middle of the 2000s, the team was among the most successful in the country, being called one of the favorites of the Super League. With the support of the republican leadership, the club played the strongest hockey players in the country.
Mikhalev managed to withdraw the players in the playoffs of the series, making them the seventh in the Russian championship. However, the Ufa team did not manage to go further than the quarterfinals. The following year, the team finished third in the Super League.
But again, after failing in the quarter-finals in the early stages, the players left the tournament. Such failures did not please the ambitious club leadership. The fate of the coach hung in the balance.
However, in the 2008-2009 season, “Salavat Yulaev” was not equal. The team just flew around the site. The result was the first place in the draw and the win of the playoff series.
Now Mikhalev received exclusively champion tasks. But after the first defeat in the new season, the head coach was fired.
Coach began the season 2009-2010 in Nizhny Novgorod “Torpedo”. The terms of the contract did not suit the athlete. This was followed by an unsuccessful six-match series.
As a result, the resignation was the result.
