While at this year’s world championship in Canada, Sedláček scored goals and helped the Czech Republic to a historic bronze, at the IPH tournament, which is being held in Ostrava these days, he reigns in the goal area of the national team of the Czech Republic.
“I’ve been thinking about this transfer for a long time, because I used to catch in the goal when I was healthy. I used to catch floorball, I used to catch soccer, I was always somehow drawn to the goal. Even before the World Cup, I went to try it out a few times because we didn’t have a goalkeeper at training and I liked it there,” confides the 22-year-old Sedláček.
At first, the coaches of the national team did not like the idea of a talented striker. “When I heard that, I wasn’t happy because Patrik played the last World Cup for us as the first center. I thought to myself, like from the first attack on the goal?” the coach of the national team, Jakub Novotný, himself a former goalkeeper, admitted his doubts.
“But Patrik is doing well so far. He was putting everything he could into the game and he’s putting just as much into catching now. I feel that there is something extra, that he could be a good goalkeeper. We supported him and we will continue to support him in order to create competition for Martin Kudela and Michal Vápenka,” says Novotný.
I felt good in goal
Sedláček has so far caught two games in Ostrava at the IPH Cup. In the jersey of the European selection of IPH against the USA (0:6) and a day later, as the goalkeeper of the Czech national team, he faced shots from the players of the IPH team. And thanks to him, the Czechs won 2:1 after raids.
“I had a lot of fun and I felt good in goal. Although of course I was nervous. It is a different responsibility than in the position of a striker, who plays some forty-five seconds and goes to substitute. I’m in goal the whole match and a small mistake can decide that the whole team is angry with you,” smiles Sedláček.
The participant of the Paralympic Games in Beijing (2022) and two World Championships (2021 and 2023) believes that in goal he can help the Czech team to another medal from a major tournament. “This is a big challenge. We’ll see how the coaches react to it and whether they’ll leave me in goal,” says the para-hockey player.
Patrik Sedláček as a striker at the World Cup in Canada
However, returning to the ranks of the attackers would probably not throw him off. After all, in the Sharks Karlovy Vary team, whose colors he defends in the para-hockey league, he will continue to ride on the sled in the attack. “We have two goalkeepers there. I take it as such a diversion that I won’t go to the goal completely. I can play normally in the attack, but I have a big handicap in that due to my medical complications, I had my whole stomach ripped open and my abdominal muscles cut, which we need a lot in this sport. And so I’m not that fast or agile,” Sedláček describes.
“On the contrary, it doesn’t matter so much in the goal. In addition, I catch in that Canadian style and take up more space in the goal than the guys from the national team. So I can bring something new to it,” reflects Sedláček, who took up para sports after a serious illness and subsequent amputation of his right leg four years ago.
“I had a double pulmonary embolism and thrombosis at the age of seventeen. No oxygen was going to my brain, my heart stopped and the doctors resuscitated me for about three quarters of an hour. I was really close to death. Practically all the organs in my body were gone, and in the hospital they gave me one percent that I would survive. And if, then I’ll be a lager for life,” Sedláček returns to the moment that completely overturned his life’s priorities.
“The fact that I was able to do it thanks to my family is my biggest win. Although it took some time. But now I’m relatively healthy and enjoying everything that life has to offer,” the para-hockey representative emphasizes.
2023-10-11 21:44:38
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