Július Šupler
Július Šupler ( born October 27, 1950 in Poprad, Czechoslovakia ) is a former Slovak ice hockey player and current coach. He was most recently in the 2012/13 season, head coach of the Ukrainian Donbass Donetsk HK in the Continental Hockey League.
Career
As a player
Július Šupler began his career as a hockey player in his hometown at TJ Lokomotíva VAGONKA Stavbar Poprad, for which he took up as well in the second Czechoslovak League, as then for the Partizan Liptovsky Mikulas. Finally, from 1970 to 1972, he stood for Slovan Bratislava and CHZJD 1972-1976 for VSZ Kosice in the first league, the highest Czechoslovak league, on the ice. Then he ended his active career at the age of 26 years.
As a coach
From 1979 to 1985 Šupler was assistant coach at his hometown club from Poprad and then two years of its head coach.
In the 1991/92 season he was awarded the HC Dukla Trenčín Czechoslovak champion. From 1993 to 1996 he was the first coach of the Slovak national ice hockey team founded again after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. At the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, he led his team to sixth place. Within two years he succeeded with Slovakia, which first had to start in the C World Cup, the rise in the A Championship.
From 1996 to 1998 Šupler worked as an assistant coach for the Canadian junior team Portland Winter Hawks of the Western Hockey League. With these he could at first the WHL championship and then the championship of the Canadian Hockey League, the Memorial Cup win the President's Cup in the 1997/98 season. For the 1998/99 season he was taken as head coach of HC Sparta Prague in the Czech Extraliga under contract. As an assistant coach he stood by his commitment in the Czech capital František Výborný aside. Even during the current season, resigned and was replaced by the Šupler Pavel Richter.
In the season 2002/ 03 he was Slovakian champion with the Slovak capital club HC Slovan Bratislava. Following this success, he was head coach at the 2003 Belarusian HK Dinamo Minsk in July, before he was hired in November for the remainder of the season 2003/ 04 of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the Russian Super League.
In the following years, he moved to Latvia, where he oversaw the HK Riga 2000 from 2004 to 2006 in the Belarusian Extraliga, as well as the Latvian Hockey League. With the Latvians he won the 2005 and 2006 the Latvian league title and finished with the team in the season 2005/ 06 on the European level to second place in the IIHF Continental Cup.
From 2006 to 2008, he returned to the position as the main responsible for the Slovak national team. With the team he could win the Cup Germany in November 2006, though, but was replaced after two disappointing World Championships in June 2008 by his compatriot Ján Filc. He then accepted the contract offer from Dinamo Riga of the Kontinental Hockey League newly founded, where he was head coach from the 2008/09 season. With Dinamo, he immediately reached in the first two KHL seasons, the playoffs and was eliminated with his team in the first and second playoff round.
After the 2010/11 season left Šupler Dinamo Riga and was taken from the HK CSKA Moscow as head coach under contract. There he stood until February 2012 under contract before his contract was terminated he wurdeund by his assistant coach Vyacheslav Buzajew replaced. In April 2012, he was introduced as head coach of the KHL Freshman HK Donbass Donetsk and received a three-year contract, which was dissolved after the 2012/13 season.