Interest groups organized by the Leisure Center in Košice (CVČ) are used by approximately three thousand children. The offer of clubs is wide, but the greatest interest is in sports ones. Floorball, which CVČ offers in two gyms, is very popular: at Charkovská 1 in the Dargovských hrdinov estate and Juhoslovská 2 in Ťahanovce.

It is the development of floorball that CVČ focused on in the project Let's Support Children and Youth in Floorball, to which our grant program Together for the Region 2025 also contributed. Until recently, during trainings and tournaments, teachers with children marked out the playing area using benches. Today, also thanks to the support from the grant, they already use certified floorball boards. We learned more from Helena Labovská, director of CVČ (third from the right in the photo):
"The main benefit of the new barriers is to increase safety during floorball clubs. We no longer have to improvise with benches to mark the boundaries of the field, which gives training a more professional character. In addition, the balls bounce off the boards directly into the game, children do not have to run after them so much and jump over benches, it is safer. They have a better game experience."
 

Floorball tournaments organized by CVČ are already a tradition - they are held twice a year and always bring a lot of energy and joy from the game. Our interview and photos were also taken on one of them, the autumn one. The joy of movement was not lacking even outside the matches, the children used every break to "knock" a little more. A great point was provided by the match of children against parents.

"When we saw how passionate parents are about this sport at competitions, we also came up with such more fun inserts for tournaments. In this way, we connect not only families, but also generations, because we also have grandfathers, fathers, grandchildren here. We'll see who enjoys it more, the children or the parents," said Helena Labovská, while the fathers "dressed up". Well, the parents "gave it their all" and didn't give anything to the children.

The director of CVČ also talks about larger tournaments:
"Certified barriers will also help us in organizing district rounds of School Sport – Super Floorball Cup for primary school pupils for the districts of Košice I. – Košice IV. Up to 550 children are involved in them."

Proof that floorball has a firm place in the activities of CVČ is the floorball camp, which was held in the summer for the first time and met with great success. The young floorball players are also motivated by the fantastic result of the CVČ team at the 3x3 FLOORBALL event, where they placed third last year. And finally, the answers of the little athletes to what they like about floorball:

Dominik, 9 years old: "I like the attack. He is better in attack than in goal. And to score goals."

Martin Fitera, 10 years old: "That there are hockey sticks and it's similar to hockey. It's hard to know how to take the opponent and score goals, because you may not score in front of the goalkeeper."

Martinko is the son of Martin Fitera, who works in USSK as a crane operator in Shipment division and together with Radoslav Tomčo, an electrician-foreman from the crane maintenance department, they help with the organization of tournaments.