Meet Luca Risatti, President of Riva Hockey Club in Italy

Today, we are talking to former hockey international, current president and player for Riva Hockey Club, Signor Luca Risatti. Situated at the northern tip of Lake Garda in Italy, Signor Risatti is the representative of one of the leading clubs in the Italian youth hockey movement and organizer of the Bee Happy International Hockey Tournament, one of the largest of its kind in Europe.

Luca, can you tell us how you got into hockey and about your career as a player?

My passion for hockey actually started before I was even born. In 1971 my father attended the final of a European youth championship organized in Riva del Garda and from that point he began to follow the sport so much so that in the year after he went to Munich with a couple of friends to watch the Hockey tournaments in the Olympic Games.

Riva Hockey Club was founded at that time, my grandfather was president and my father, with other members, managed the club. Many years later, at the age of 5, my family made me start playing but I have always been passionate about hockey, and I played from 2004 onwards in the Italian top flight for UHC Adige. In a 15 year career there, we won the Italian championship. I play up front and I was capped by the Italian national team, playing against Sweden, Scotland, Poland, Belarus and Slovakia.

Tell us more about Riva Hockey Club and your role as president and player?

A few years ago, I decided to come back to my home club and the first thing I did was to expand the organization and get more people involved so that now there are 15 of us running things. On the technical side, we employed a full-time Argentinian coach who could promote and recruit boys and girls in schools, as well as train, coach and educate the various teams.

Year by year we have increased the number of players in both the male and female teams and now we have 180 players in total. Six years ago, our girls team won our first national youth title and since then we have won several Italian titles each year in various age groups.

Our philosophy has always been to offer formative experiences to all our players and to look to compete with teams from other nations and, in so doing, to face different playing styles of a high level. In fact, we have recently strengthened the technical structure of the club, employing a second Argentinian coach and entering into tournaments abroad, as well as playing against schools that come to Italy on tour. This year, in the year of our 50th anniversary, Riva Hockey Club were promoted to A2 in the national championship and over the next few years, Riva town council has committed to the construction of a new sports centre, with ever larger and more modern facilities.

This involvement of people in the club and the desire to play against foreign teams prompted Hockey Club Riva to organize the Bee Happy International Youth Tournament, can you tell us more about this excellent competition?

In 2016 we hosted the first tournament precisely because we wanted to play against teams from other countries. Playing and staying on Lake Garda, with its beautiful towns and abundant tourist attractions, meant that we immediately had 8 foreign teams sign up in that first year. In the years following, the tournament became a recognized event at international youth level with teams entering from all over Europe such as Spain, Hungary, Czech Republic, Holland, Austria, Germany and Belgium. Due to the pandemic, the tournament didn’t go ahead this year or last but I know from the past that as soon as the date of the tournament has been announced, just a few days later we have sold out all the places available. The tournament has always been played at a good technical level and is ideal for teams looking to prepare for the season ahead.