Despite playing in a town of only 8m000 inhabitants, SonderjyskE Vojens have established themselves as Denmark's pre-eminent hockey power and are now competing against the best Europe has to offer in the Champions Hockey League.

by Michael Søvsø

SonderjyskE has grown out of the small town of Vojens in the southern part of Denmark, only 50 kilometres from the German border. The tradition of hockey is a big part of the town’s identity and the club was founded back in 1963 by the legendary Jens Peder Hansen. In addition to being the club chairman, he was also the coach and goalie in the early years.

Vojens IK was lucky in that a big refrigerator factory, called Brodrene Gram, was situated in the area. It was Brodrene Gram that sponsored the artificial ice rink in 1963 in Vojens and, about 10 years later, the outdoor rink was converted into a covered arena. It gave the club better conditions for practicing and Vojens IK rose to the top of Danish hockey.

The club’s first golden era came in the latter part of the 1970s and the beginning of the '80s when Vojens IK won three gold medals in 1979, 1980 and 1982. The team was led by Canadian-Danish goalie George Galbraith and Egon Kahl, who is still considered the best player in the club’s history.

The golden era was replaced by some tough years in the late '80s and early '90s, when Vojens IK shuttled back and forth between Denmark's top two divisions – not good enough for the best league, but too good for the second tier. Vojens finally came back to the top tier in 1992 and have remained there ever since.

For the rest of the '90s and in the beginning of the new century, Vojens sometimes knocked on the door to the medal games, but never advanced to the finals. The club often had economic problems during that era, and in 2004 Vojens IK’s elite team was forced to re-organize itself into SonderjyskE and became part of a big regional sports project. The hockey team is one part of the SonderjyskE organization which also has a football team in the Danish Super League, a men’s handball in the best Danish League and a women’s handball team in the second tier of the Danish League.

The four teams are spread over the whole region, but the hockey team's base is still in Vojens, the town of 8,000 inhabitants, and the youth teams still play under the name of Vojens IK.

A new golden era

In December 2005, SønderjyskE fired coach Stefan Nyman and replaced him with Mario Simioni, a former top player with the club. That might have been the best decision ever made by the club’s management. Simioni turned the struggling team around, and in the spring of 2006 he led the club to its first championship in 24 years.

After the triumph of 2006, SonderjyskE has never looked back, and since then the club has won four championships, four bronze medals, the bronze medal in the IIHF Continental Cup and three Danish Cup titles.

In 2011 the old rink, Vojens Skojtehal, was replaced by the brand-new SE Arena – with a capacity of 5,000 – and home attendance since then has increased steadily.

Simioni left the club in 2013 after winning medals every season since 2005–06. He was replaced in Vojens by his assistant, Dan Ceman, who is a former captain and championship winner of SonderjyskE.

In his first two seasons as coach, Ceman led SonderjyskE to back-to-back Danish championships, bringing their total to three in a row. 

Vojens and SonderjyskE are now considered the top address in Danish hockey, and the organization worked hard during the summer of 2014 to be ready for the Champions Hockey League challenge. The challenge paid off as they managed to win a game against Krefeld Pinguine and avoided last place in their group. The club then went on to win their third straight Danish championship, stamping their return ticket to the CHL.

Team facts

NOTE: This article has been updated since its original publication.

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