Bergman: The leader

From December 2014

A juniors’ team’s head coach at sixteen. Finnish Champion as coach at eighteen. Salibandyliiga coach at twenty-four. CEO of a Helsinki entertainment complex. Officer in Finnish military reserve. It can be debated whether some people are born to be leaders but Finn Petteri Bergman sure looks like one.

- There’s no denying I like responsibility and controlling large operations and processes, Petteri Bergman, now head coach of Helsinki team Tapanilan Erä at 35, says.
- I sure have tried to develop my leadership abilities.

Sixteen-year old head coach
In 1995, then 16-year old Petteri Bergman walked into the Finnish Floorball Federation office to introduce himself. Head coach, SSV juniors C, his calling card said.
Two years later, his team won the Finnish juniors’ title and the then 18-year old head coach was analyzing the final series as coolly as ever.
Bergman’s team was no ordinary unit. Their dress code included official team pants and shirts and they had their own sponsors, making eyebrows rise wherever they went. All this had been arranged by Petteri Bergman, the perfectionist who wanted to have every detail prepared to win.
There’s more. The junior coach’s 18th birthday also meant he was now a grown-up and he duly became chairman of mighty Helsinki floorball club SSV.

Player alongside Esa Jussila and Mikko Kohonen
Within a week from coaching his juniors C to the Finnish title, Petteri Bergman won the Finnish juniors B title as a player. The hard-working forward scored a hat trick in the decisive final and got called to Finland’s U19 national team alongside players like Esa Jussila, Mikko Kohonen and Timo Toivonen.
- I think I was pretty much a straightforward goal scorer with not that much skill for fancy tricks, Bergman now recalls.
- I tried to keep my plays simple and straight to the point. Defensively, you could say I was a hard-working player and pretty strong at one-on-ones.
The kid who had started as a footballer but had soon found floorball to be his thing seemed to be in for a big future but that was not to be. Petteri Bergman put his stick aside at the age of 20 and concentrated in being a floorball coach. A somewhat understandable decision for a man who had a passion for sports manager games but yet a big surprise at that point of a talent’s career.
- I had spent several seasons both playing and coaching and that felt like the right decision at the time. Many people have been willing to speculate what I could have reached as a players but I have no regrets for my choice. I’m not one to roll around wondering about “ifs”. I have got to experience and feel a lot of big moments as a coach, Bergman says.

New start with Tapanilan Erä
The coaching talent earned this spurs leading SSV teams but that was to change. In 2001, SSV merged with another big Helsinki team HIFK that had won the Finnish title in 2000 and European Cup the next season.
In the new organization of SalibandySeura Viikingit, still shortened SSV, Petteri Bergman felt his breathing space get smaller. Bergman and another important SSV coach Lasse Eriksson left the club for local rival Tapanilan Erä whose elite team was playing on the second highest level.
- In six years, I had won a lot of things and there seemed to be less room for young player talent as the club now wanted to sign big names from other clubs, Bergman later said.
- Also, there did not seem to be so many interesting coaching positions available in the club.
Bergman and Eriksson started working fervently for Tapanilan Erä and succeeded in bringing the team to Salibandyliiga.
The dynamic duo also got their chance on international level. Together with Jukka Hokka, they lead Finland’s U10 team to its first ever WFC gold medal in 2003 in Prague.
Lasse Eriksson is the name Petteri Bergman mentions when asked for someone he has looked up to as a coach.
- He gave me a lot especially when I was taking my first steps as a coach and still playing myself.

Almost champions again and again
Lasse Eriksson eventually left Tapanilan Erä after internal disagreements but Bergman stayed, bringing their first team up to a new level. The gang of talented juniors matured into a serious contender, first making the playoffs and gradually fighting for medals. In 2006 and 2007, Erä ended their season with bronze medals and after that it was time for finals.
Tapanilan Erä and Petteri Bergman played for gold twice but were stopped by their nemesis SSV. In 2009, Erä lost in three straight but in 2010 they got close. The title was decided in the penalty shootout of Game 5 in front at a sold out arena. SSV won that time, too, and in between the two final springs it was time for yet another bitter pill. Tapanilan Erä took on SSV in EuroFloorball Cup final in Danish Fredrikshavn and blew a 4-1 lead to see Santtu Manner win the game for SSV in overtime 6-5 with his sixth goal of the game.
Besides that EFC silver, Petteri Bergman's got two Finnish silver and two bronze medals, two Finnish Cup victories and the juniors' gold medals but still no Salibandyliiga gold medal.
After 2010, Tapanilan Erä started losing their big names and have not made the semi-finals since. Petteri Bergman went on for yet another season to then take a year’s sabbatical.
After a year out, Petteri Bergman coached Tapanilan Erä’s A juniors to the Finnish title and 2013 found him back behind the club’s Salibandyliiga team bench.
Almost 20 years after his debut as a coach, Bergman is the same but yet different.
- I think I’m now able to look at coaching more as a whole and also approach the players more as individuals. I must know the players and their lives well to be able to co-operate with them and help them develop. The years have probably also softened some of my sharpest edges as a coach.

CEO of Finland's mightiest floorball facility
Besides floorball, Petteri Bergman is the CEO of Arena Center, the Helsinki sports and entertainment complex that runs several floorball and sports facilities in the town.
- It’s a big responsibility but also a good opportunity to combine my work with coaching as the owners Heikki Vienola and Jarmo Perttilä are legendary floorball players and understand what it is about.
After an already impressive coaching career, Petteri Bergman does not exclude the possibilities of someday leading either the Finnish national team or some elite team outside of Finland. There definitely have been offers from several countries.
- At the moment, my work keeps me back here but maybe.
The Finnish broadcasting company YLE has been employing Petteri Bergman as their expert commentator for several years and he definitely has a grip about the state of international floorball.
- In Finland we are right now looking for means to pull along and ahead of Sweden. Whether it is about players' physical abilities, level of skill or ability to make the right decisions in full speed are the important questions, the floorball leader says.
- About Switzerland we wonder whether they are signing too many foreign players. Does that have a negative impact on the Swiss player production and then their national team?