Tom Pokel

Tom Pokel
Coaching stations
1995-1997	EHC Timmendorfer Strand
1997-1998	EHC Trier
1998-2001	Bietigheim Steelers
2001-2002	Schwenninger Wild Wings
2003	ERC Ingolstadt ( assistant trainer )
2003-2004	EHC Feldkirch
2005	EHC Lustenau
2005-2007	EHC Feldkirch
2007-2008	Graz 99ers
2008	Austria U18
2008-2009	EK Zell am See
2009–2012	Aquile FVG Pontebba
2012	Netherlands
2012-2013	HC Alleghe
2013-2014	Italy
2013-2014	HC Bolzano
2014-2015	Vienna Capitals
2015-2017	HC Bolzano
since 2017	Straubing Tigers

Thomas Jerome "Tom" Pokel (born September 2, 1967 in Green Bay , Wisconsin ) is an American ice hockey coach and former ice hockey player. Since the end of October 2017 he has been the head coach of the Straubing Tigers in the German Ice Hockey League .

Career

Pokel played on the ice hockey team at the State University of New York at Fredonia in the late 1980s and early 1990s and graduated from college with a degree in economics. After a cruciate ligament injury at the age of 23, he ended his career and worked in the advertising department of the Buffalo Sabers of the National Hockey League (NHL) before he was offered the opportunity to enter the coaching business in Europe in 1995. In Germany, he took over the post of head coach at the then second division club EHC Timmendorfer Strand , which he looked after for two years.

He spent the 97/98 season in an identical position at EHC Trier and then agreed in 1998 to work with the Bietigheim Steelers . Pokel led the team as head coach from the third to the second highest German division and in 2001 said goodbye to the German Ice Hockey League (DEL): He became assistant coach at Schwenninger Wild Wings and rose to head coach after one season. With the Wild Wings on the last place in the DEL table, Pokel was dismissed in October 2002.

For the 2003/04 season he took over the post of assistant coach at ERC Ingolstadt from the DEL, but left the club at his own request in November 2003 when the Austrian first division club EHC Feldkirch offered him the post of head coach. The EHC withdrew to the National League after the season , Pokel left. In January 2005 he became head coach at EHC Lustenau (then also national league). For the 2005/06 season Pokel returned to Feldkirch. Due to the tense financial situation of the club, the club decided to cut the full-time coaching position after the end of the 2006/07 season and not to sign up for Pokel. During Pokel's two-year tenure, Feldkirch had completed the basic season of the National League once in first and once in second place.

In December 2007 Pokel became the head coach of the Graz 99ers and stayed until the end of the season. In April 2008 he also looked after Austria's U18 national team at the B World Cup, which ended with third place. For the 2008/09 season he was head coach at EK Zell am See in the national league and left the club after one season for Italy, where Aquile FVG Pontebba signed him from Serie A as head coach . In his three-year tenure, Pontebba reached the playoff quarter-finals.

In the 2012/13 season Pokel worked at Serie A competitor Alleghe Hockey and also reached the playoff quarter-finals with the club. At the 2013 World Cup of Division I, Group A in Budapest, Pokel led the Italian national team to silver and promotion to the highest group.

In July 2013 he was then signed as head coach by HC Bozen to lead the club in its debut season in the Austrian Ice Hockey League (EBEL). It promptly led Bozen to the EBEL championship title.

In May 2014 Pokel was again active as head coach of the Italian national team and supervised the selection at the World Cup in Belarus . But Italy had to accept relegation there.

After making Bolzano the 2014 EBEL champion, league competitor Vienna Capitals secured the services of the American. Pokel took up his post in Vienna for the 2014/15 season, but was dismissed in February 2015. In August 2015 Pokel returned to Bolzano as head coach and managed the club until the end of the 2016/17 season.

At the end of October 2017, he took over the head coach of the Straubing Tigers in the German Ice Hockey League .

Achievements and Awards

• 2020 DEL Trainer of the Year

Web links

Commons : Tom Pokel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Tom Pokel at eliteprospects.com (English)
• Tom Pokel at linkedin.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tom Pokel: From the NHL to the Timmendorfer beach. In: krone.at. Retrieved April 3, 2016 . 
2. ↑ Class Notes Fall 2013> Alumni & Friends | Online Community | State University of New York at Fredonia. In: alumni.fredonia.edu. Retrieved April 3, 2016 . 
3. ↑ HC Bozen is going into the third EBEL season ?? With coach Tom Pokel. In: www.sportnews.bz. Retrieved April 3, 2016 . 
4. ↑ A brief review of the last season ... (No longer available online.) In: Bietigheim Steelers. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016 ; Retrieved April 3, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Dino Reisner: Schwenningen in need: Trainer Pokel first victim . In: Welt Online . October 7, 2002 ( welt.de [accessed April 3, 2016]).
6. ↑ Tom Pokel leaves Ingolstadt in the direction of Feldkirch. In: erc-ingolstadt.de. Retrieved April 3, 2016 . 
7. ↑ Chronicle. In: www.veu-feldkirch.at. Retrieved April 3, 2016 . 
8. ↑ marksoft: Tom Pokel new trainer in Lustenau - hockeyfans.at. In: www.hockeyfans.at. Retrieved April 3, 2016 . 
9. ↑ VEU Feldkirch and Pokel separate. In: vol.at. Retrieved April 3, 2016 . 
10. ↑ news networld Internet service GmbH: - The Graz 99ers have a new coach: Tom Pokel trained. In: news.at. Retrieved April 3, 2016 . 
11. ↑ ENTRY LIST BY TEAM AUSTRIA. IIHF, accessed April 3, 2016 . 
12. ↑ Pokel becomes a “polar bear”. In: vol.at. Retrieved April 3, 2016 . 
13. ↑ HockeyTime.net: Tom Pokel alla guida delle Aquile FVG Pontebba. Retrieved April 3, 2016 . 
14. ↑ HOME. In: www.iihf.com. Retrieved April 3, 2016 . 
15. ↑ The HCB Südtirol is Ebel-Meister - Hockey club Bolzano. (No longer available online.) In: hcb.net. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016 ; Retrieved April 3, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
16. ↑ Italy - 2014 World Cup - International Ice Hockey Federation IIHF. In: www.iihfworlds2014.com. Retrieved April 3, 2016 . 
17. ↑ Italy is facing a new beginning again - without Tom Pokel. In: sportnews.bz. Retrieved April 3, 2016 . 
18. ↑ UPC Vienna Capitals website. In: www.vienna-capitals.at. Retrieved April 3, 2016 . 
19. ↑ Tom Pokel is returning to Bolzano as head coach! (No longer available online.) In: erstebankliga.at. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016 ; Retrieved April 3, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
20. ↑ https://www.straubing-tigers.de/saison/aktuelles/aktuelles-im-detail/article/tom-pokel-wird-trainer-der-straubing-tigers/