Haralds Vasiļjevs is a Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

n ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 coach. He is a former national team head coach. He played for Dinamo Riga in the USSR Championship

USSR Championship

USSR Championship* Soviet Top League - football competition.* Soviet Hockey League - Top league of Soviet hockey* Soviet Championship - rugby union competition.* USSR Chess Championship - chess competition....

. Currently he is head coach of the youth programs for the Graz 99ers

Graz 99ers

-Current roster: Roster Updated as of: December 30, 2010 -Former players:...

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Coaching career

Vasiļjevs started coaching with an internship with Dinamo Riga after completing the Russian hockey coaching school after being deemed to have the highest qualification to coach necessary. He then had an internship with his original coach Viktor Tikhonov

Viktor Tikhonov

Viktor Vasilyevich Tikhonov is a Russian former ice hockey player and coach. He was the coach of the Soviet team when it was the most dominant team in the world...

. From 1985 to 1990, he was the head coach of RASMS Riga, the Dinamo Riga farm club. In 1990, he took the head coaching job at EHC Dortmund and through 1994 brought the team up from the Landesliga to the 2nd Bundesliga

2nd Bundesliga (ice hockey)

The 2nd Eishockey-Bundesliga is the second tier of Ice hockey in Germany. It is organised by the DEB, the German Ice Hockey Federation. In the 2007-08 season, it features 14 teams.- History of the 2nd Ice Hockey Bundesliga :...

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From 1994 to 2001, Vasiļjevs held various coaching positions in the Krefeld Pinguine

Krefeld Pinguine

The Krefeld Pinguine are an ice hockey team in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. They play in Krefeld, North-Rhine-Westphalia, Germany at the KönigPALAST. Founded first in 1936, the pro team became a limited liability company in 1994 and joined the top tier Deutsche Eishockey Liga...

 organisation, including head coach of the club's Junior team in the Deutsche Nachwuchs-Liga. In 2000, he received the highest approval from the Deutscher Eishockey-Bund

Deutscher Eishockey-Bund

The German Ice Hockey Federation , commonly abbereviated as DEB, has been the responsible federation of ice hockey associations since its establishment on June 16, 1963, for the sport of ice hockey in Germany...

 and received his Level A Head Coach license. He was the assistant coach of the Krefeld from 1998 to 2001. He was the head coach of the Pinguine until 2004.

He was most recently the head coach of HK Riga 2000

HK Riga 2000

HK Riga 2000 was a Belarusian Extraliga team based in Riga, Latvia. The team had played in the LHL since it was founded. In 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons the club also iced a team in the Belarusian Hockey League, and in 2005-06 finished 3rd. HK Riga 2000 was first foreign team to finish in top three...

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Coach of Latvian National Team

Vasiļjevs was coach of the Latvia men's national ice hockey team from 1999 to 2001 and coached in 34 games. He won two tournaments as the head coach: the 1999 World Cup of Hockey

World Cup of Hockey

The World Cup of Hockey is an international ice hockey tournament. Inaugurated in 1996, it is the successor to the previous Canada Cup, which ran from 1976 to 1991...

 qualifier held in Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and the Olympic

Ice hockey at the 2002 Winter Olympics

Ice hockey at the 2002 Winter Olympics were held at the E Center in West Valley City and Peaks Ice Arena in Provo, Utah. Both the men's and women's tournaments were won by Canada, defeating the host USA in both games.-Men:...

 Qualification that was held in Klagenfurt

Klagenfurt

-Name:Carinthia's eminent linguists Primus Lessiak and Eberhard Kranzmayer assumed that the city's name, which literally translates as "ford of lament" or "ford of complaints", had something to do with the superstitious thought that fateful fairies or demons tend to live around treacherous waters...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. Under his tutelage, the Latvians best finish at the World Championships was 8th place in 2002.

Trivia

• His son, Herberts Vasiļjevs, holds the Deutsche Eishockey Liga for points in a game with 8 (4 goals, 4 assists).