Sergei Mikhailovich Mikhalev - hockey player, Honored Coach of Russia, holder of the Order of the Second Degree "For Services to the Fatherland".
Sergei Mikhalev is one of the country's most respected coaches. All the teams with which he worked achieved good results, participated in the national championships and won them.
Sports future
Sergey Mikhailovich was born in the village of Shershni, Chelyabinsk region in 1947 on October 5. Sergei Mikhailovich's sports career began at the age of nineteen. The novice athlete did not have very good relations with local hockey.
Mikhalev played for Traktor, the main regional club, but never made it into the main squad. From the youth team, the hockey player was transferred to the semi-amateur "Burevestnik". He defended the Chelyabinsk Institute.
As part of the team, the new player spent four seasons, having received a great chance to return to big sport. The invitation from Salavat Yulaev was a lucky 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. Before completing an active hockey career, he played seven seasons. The forced departure to the Kuibyshev SKA took place only in 1974-1975.
In the ranks of the club, the athlete did military service. After a safe return to Ufa, Mikhalev ended his career after thirty years. He made the decision to switch to coaching.
Sergei Mikhailovich has successfully passed the exams at the Higher School of Art. He returned to the now native Ufa. It was there that the coach's work began. Years before perestroika passed for the novice mentor in the work of the coaching staff of Salavat Yulaev.
Coaching work
The famous club found itself in a difficult financial situation. At the end of the perestroika eighties, funds to pay for the work of the head coach were not found. The management decided to use its own personnel.
Mikhalev became the main candidate for the first roles. In 1987 he became the new head coach. The new head coach has shown good results from the very beginning. For three seasons, "Salavat Yulaev" did not fall below the third place in the Eastern zone of the first league.
The hockey player dreamed of reaching the Major League, but because of the loss of the Ufa team in the transitional games, the dream did not come true. In 1990, the management terminated the contract with Mikhalev. The coach found himself in a difficult situation, having lost his job.
The new place was "Lada" from Togliatti. It was headed by Tsygurov, a former pupil of the Chelyabinsk "Tractor". Soklubnik became his assistant. Sergei Mikhailovich felt the real victories in this capacity.
Since the beginning of the nineties, the provincial club was lucky to be the leader in Russian hockey. With a good selection of players and financial support from the regional leadership, Lada has been successfully fighting for the prizes in the MHL and the Russian championship for almost a decade.
A new round
Together with Tsygurov, Mikhalev won the MHL tournaments twice. In 1997 they gave the team the opportunity to win the European Cup. Sergei Mikhailovich has earned an excellent status for himself.
Now he had all the chances for a triumphant return to big hockey as a head coach. At the beginning of the 2000s, Sergei Mikhailovich was invited to work with the Cherepovets Severstal.
The provincial club had to flounder at the very bottom of the table. The region's hockey has had its worst times. The new coach managed to organize an excellent team play.
Even if the players in it were not the strongest, the excellent organizer attracted attention to the club and achieved its development. For the first year Mikhalev raised the team from fifteenth to seventh place and brought it to the playoffs.
"Steelworkers" already in the next season became bronze medalists of the national championship. To the top of fame in 2002-2003, Severstal reached the final of the drawing.
But the triumph turned into the beginning of the end. The strongest players were dismantled 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 Sergei Mikhailovich returned to Salavat Yulaev. The club had good reserves, with the players it was possible to solve problems of any complexity.
By the middle of the 2000s, the team was one of the most successful in the country, being called one of the favorites of the Super League. The strongest hockey players in the country played in the club with the support of the republican leadership.
Mikhalev managed to lead the players to the playoffs of the series, making him the seventh in the Russian championship. However, the Ufa team did not manage to pass further than the quarterfinals. The following year, the team finished third in the Super League.
But again, after failing in the quarterfinals in the early stages, the players left the tournament. Such failures did not please the ambitious club management. The coach's fate hung in the balance.
However, in the 2008-2009 season, "Salavat Yulaev" had no equal. The team just flew around the site. The result was the first place in the drawing and winning the playoff series.
Now Mikhalev received exclusively champion tasks. But after the first defeat in the new season, the head coach was fired.
The coach started the 2009-2010 season at Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod. The athlete was not satisfied with the terms of the contract. This was followed by an unsuccessful six-game series.
As a result, the resignation was the result.
Completion
The venerable specialist decided to leave sports creativity for a year and a half and devote time to his personal life. He retired to a country house in Podstepki, near Togliatti.
By this time, the sports patriarch had married. The young wife Olga in 2008 presented Mikhalev with an heir. The boy was named Stepan.
The coach gave his family all the time. Six years later, Sergei Mikhailovich and Olga had a second child, a son, Semyon. The coach took up active work again in May 2011. The mentor returned to Salavat Yulaev once again.
But things were going badly, the team was constantly losing. Under the pressure of the opinion of the fans, the management again recognized the responsibility for all the coach's failures and parted with him. In 2012, representatives of Spartak were in talks to work with Mikhalev.
However, the athlete did not become the head coach of the team. The last years of Mikhalev's life were in administrative positions in "Salavat Yulaev" and "Lada".
Until the last days, the sports patriarch maintained excellent shape and health. The life of an athlete and coach was cut short by tragedy. In 2015 Mikhalev went to the funeral of coach Valery Belousov. On the way back in the early morning of April 21, a truck crashed into the car of the famous hockey player.
Sergei Mikhailovich died on the spot from his injuries. The athlete and mentor was buried in Togliatti.
