Soldiers will participate in floorball league, they want to inspire young people to join Army

Defence Minister Peter Gajdoš wants to stir up pupilsʼ and studentsʼ interest in doing sports and following a healthy lifestyle as a prerequisite to join the Army. Towards this end, the MOD has teamed up with the TV JOJ Foundation to cooperate in the SVK Floorball League project. Symbolically, the league was kicked off today (23 November) with a friendly floorball match between the Olympic legends team whose careers have been closely associated with the Military Sports Centre (VŠC) Dukla Banská Bystrica and the SVK female national floorball team. Both teams turned out at the Sports Hall of the VŠC Dukla Banská Bystrica to demonstrate their support for some 500 primary school pupils from around Banská Bystrica and Žilina and the project itself.
 
Joining in with the VŠC Olympic legends team, Defence Minister Peter Gajdoš said: “Sports have belonged to the military profession and the floorball league provides us with a unique opportunity to bring soldiers and students together. I believe that our servicemen and women will inspire young people to fight and compete and that they will be the right role models to instil a desire in them to join the Army one day.” He further noted that soldiers will compete in a separate category of the SVK Floorball League and that the MOD encourages them to visit schools and train pupils and students in their spare time.
 
Vladimír Fatika, administrator of the TV JOJ Foundation, said:“We highly value the cooperation with the SVK MOD and we are happy that the students involved in our SVK Floorball League can see positive role models, while the advantages of the military profession are explained to them. Through the floorball contest, we have managed to attract huge crowds of students – we are now into the second year with over 100,000 children taking part in the league. Also thanks to such events as this friendly match between the Olympic legends led by Minister Gajdoš and our best Slovak female floorball players, students can better understand the importance of sports, movement and healthy lifestyle.ˮ
 
Today the SVK female national floorball team played a friendly match against the VŠC Olympic legends team, allowing pupils and students to see Matej Tóth, Elena Kaliská, Jozef Pribilinec and other Olympic medallists in action.