History

Latvianhawks are the winners of 2007 St Patrick’s cup.

Originally Latvianhawks team was founded back in February 2007 by members of  latvian community  who are living in Ireland.

The founder and idea owner was Ainars Elbergs. Team was set up upon opening of Dundalk Ice dome which was opened in same year and this facility is a new page in development & history of ice hockey in Ireland.

Our club was set up from guys who really like ice hockey and are great supporters of this sport, as ice hockey is sport number one in Latvia.

Most of players were guys who use to play ice hockey in childhood, but never really continued to play when reached adulthood, so it is fair to say that we were bunch of guys who liked to come on friday's and have a fun to play our favourite game.

Later on in summer 2007 few really good ex-players from Latvian league joined our club and it emerged that we can become competittive club in Ireland to play in local league with potential to grow and to have a big crowd of supporters behind us.

We had our first friendly game against Belfast Prowlers in June 2007. Later on that year we played in newly formed Irish ice hockey league(IIHA).

In season 2008-2009 Latvianhawks not only played in IIHA, but also took part  in Celtic Cup tournament.This is new project for  Scottish & Irish ice hockey teams and includes away games in Scotland and Ireland.

Also another 2 teams were created during this season - Latvianhawks B & Blackhawks and both teams played in newly fromed IIHL Recreational Division.

Introduction to coaches & best players

Club manager Aigars Brencis born in Riga, Latvia 1982,  play hockey since he was 7 year old. His first steps ice hockey were taken in “Dinamo” Riga school of hockey .

He is former player of professional team RIGA 2000, HK Zemgale/ASK and HK ASK OGRE in Latvia. These teams played in Extra league and Eastern European league, as well as Aigars played in team Latvia U-18, U-20 and one Challenge Cup game for senior national team of Latvia. Now Aigars is “Latvian Hawks” head coach and player.

Viktors Serdjukovs born in Riga, Latvia 1981, play hockey since he was 7 years old and also his first ice hockey experience is linked to “Dinamo”Riga ice hockey school. He is former player of  team “Liepajas Metalurgs” in Latvia, which play in  Extra league and Eastern European league, as well as he played few games in national team of Latvia. Later on Viktors played for amateur team RD Elektronics in Riga. Now Viktors is one of the best Latvian Hawks offence players & coach of Blackhawks team.

Janis Kipars born in Talsi, Latvia 1982. Janis plays ice hockey since he was 9 years old. His first ice hockey school was school of hockey in Talsi. He use to play for  LB Essamika team in Latvia Extra league. Now Janis is one of the best Latvian Hawks offence players and he is also coach of Hawks B team.

Viktoras Vaiciulionis  former  player of Lithuanian National Team and now he is the best defensemen in Latvian Hawks.

Mark Bowes born in Dublin, former Ireland National Team player for many years and now he is the one of best defensemen in  Latvian Hawks. He is also General Secretary of Irish Ice Hockey Association

Our team consists of players from many countries - Ireland, Latvia, Slovakia, Czech rep., UK, Canada, Estonia, Lithuania, USA, Russia, Kazakhstan, Hungary.

Latvianhawks in 2009 is consisting from 3 teams -

Chiefs (ex Latvianhawks) in IIHL & Celtic Cup

Hawks B (ex Latvianhawks B) in IIHL RD

Blackhawks in IIHL RD

All 3 teams in 2009/2010 season will play in Ireland as well as Chiefs will take part in Celtic Cup to compete with Scottish clubs.

We also look forward to develop ice hockey in Ireland by creating junior team in the future and we will initiate this process when the rink in Dublin will be open.