Sebastian Schwarz has played in all ice hockey leagues, for the Erding Gladiators' sake also in the national league.
In our ranking, he is in 63rd place.
Erding -
"Now we have really taken everything that was on offer in 2020," says Sebastian "Blacky" Schwarz and tries to smile.
His twins were born in April.
At birth, wife Stephanie and the children were in mortal danger, now Corona has also made the rounds in the young family.
“You have to get it all right first,” says the 34-year-old. “On the other hand, you get a bit grounded.” The Erding Gladiators defender doesn't have ice hockey in his head at the moment, the Bayern League season has been interrupted anyway, and he thinks about it at the moment even to end his career.
A career that earned him appearances in the DEL and the German Youth Championship with TSV Erding.
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Sebastian Schwarz took his first steps on the Erdinger ice at the age of six.
“I was only allowed to start when I was able to brake,” he recalls.
He received his running and technical training first from Kurt Hilse, then from Hans Huber and Thomas Pacina and from Paul Streschnak.
Like almost all players he starts as a striker, student coach Franz Steer converts him into a defender.
“I've never regretted it,” he notes.
"Of course, scoring goals is great, but I always found it appealing to make scoring goals as difficult as possible for the strikers."
And he does that brilliantly.
He is one of the pillars of the Erdinger school team, which moves into the final round of the German championship in Landshut - but without black.
"We had decisive games in Erding against Freiburg and Mannheim, which we had to win in order to get to the finals, because I played with a high fever," he says.
They made it to the final round, but Schwarz was diagnosed with glandular fever and had to take a break.
"It completely dismantled me and I was completely out three months."
German champion with TSV Erding
The compensation follows in the youth: TSV Erding becomes German champion.
“We only lost one game against Füssen in a shootout during the season,” he says proudly.
"That was so great when we played in the finals at such highlight locations as Düsseldorf or Iserlohn - and then won too."
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This is how it all started: The little boy in the TSV dress.
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It then continues with the juniors.
For him it is “the best that could have happened to us in terms of development”.
Usually three games on the weekend are the order of the day because the older ones are allowed to play in the first, which - after the Jets bankruptcy - was just starting over in the district league.
For the DM title only five goals are missing on Freiburg.
What annoys Erdinger the most: He plays in the German junior national team, but is not taken to the World Cup, "because I did not play in the DNL".
For him, in retrospect, as well as missing the school finals, this is “the greatest disappointment of my ice hockey career”.
With TSV Erding, Schwarz climbs up to the Bavarian League, does his Abitur in Erding and then decides to try it as a professional.
Landshut's sporting director Bernd Truntschka says: "We'll take a look, and if it doesn't work, nothing has happened." It works.
Erdinger fought for a regular place in the second division team of the EVL under coach Dany Naud at the side of the 16-year-old Petr Bares (“An old warhorse, that was great”).
He completes all 59 games of the season.
“The team included players like Cinibulk, Oswald, Daffner, Dietrich, Schinko, Hundhammer, Dylla and Geipel,” enthuses Schwarz.
“At the derbies against Regensburg and Straubing, the hall was sold out with 6500 spectators.
That was amazing. ”The following year, however, Erdinger injured his shoulder after a strong start to the season,“ and then I wasn't allowed to play as much ”.
DEL with the ERC Ingolstadt
Franz Steer placed him in the 2007/08 season for the ERC Ingolstadt DEL club, where he played 33 games and played 21 times for the EHC Munich in the second division.
“That was the wildest year I've seen,” says Schwarz.
In both clubs trainers and managers are kicked out, including Bernie Englbrecht in Munich, "and in the end I had five trainers in one year".
But he will always remember two highlights in Ingolstadt.
“I played in a row with Felix Schütz and I scored my first and only DEL goal,” he remembers.
"That was in Cologne in front of 14,000 spectators - and also against national goalkeeper Robert Müller."
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And something else stays in his mind: Ingolstadt's keeper Jimmy Waite.
"He was brutally upset," says Schwarz with a laugh.
The Canadian has a tidy-up tick.
“For example, if he went from the cubicle to the toilet, he would sort out all the drinking bottles on the way there and pick up every little piece of paper.
Then the boys quickly mixed up all the bottles again and threw paper on the floor, and when Jimmy came back he first trimmed and then tidied everything up again.
That's how it went regularly, ”recalls Schwarz
In 2008 he returned to Landshut.
A year later, the next DEL opportunity arises during the season, because Black is loaned to the Krefeld EV for three months, Martin Jiranek is the coach.
"They had a lot of injuries back then and I played a lot," he recalls.
Together with today's national player Sinan Akdag, he forms a defender pair.
“But then they signed up like crazy, in the end we were ten defenders, and it was clear that I was going back to Landshut.” Meanwhile, Tobi Abstreiter is the EVL coach, “I always watched him admiringly when he was still at Erding Jets played ”.
Ravensburg Towerstars: With Lake Constance on your doorstep
In 2010, Schwarz was initially without a club.
"Landshut didn't want me anymore, I could have gone to Bremerhaven immediately - like every year - but I didn't want to go there." When Peter Draisaitl, coach of the second division Ravensburg Towerstars, calls, everything goes very quickly.
“That was the location, in the corner between Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with Lake Constance on the doorstep, one of the most beautiful stations in my career,” enthuses Schwarz, and adds: “And the most successful with winning the German second division Championship. ”He remembers a“ cool group with a professional environment, including great German players like Slavetinsky, Busch and Samendinger ”.
But one thing in particular sticks in his mind.
Every now and then coach Draisaitl takes his then 15-year-old son Leon, who was playing with the students of the Mannheim ERC, during training.
"He always jumped with us, we always laughed and always thought to ourselves what he actually wanted, but that has now changed," admits Schwarz.
Leon Draisaitl was voted MVP this year, i.e. the best player in the NHL.
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German champion: Together with Michael Vasicek, Sebastian Schwarz (r.) Celebrates the title in the DEL 2.
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Black plays in defense at the side of Michael Vasicek and enthusiastically talks about the final series.
"In the first round we won against my old club Landshut 4-0, then in the semifinals against Rosenheim with coach Franz Steer 4-1, and finally in the final against Schwenningen 4-0 - that was brutally cool," reports Schwarz.
End of professional career - studies at the University of Oldenburg
Erdinger stayed in Ravensburg for two more years, "including with many foreigners who had played in the DEL such as Thompson, Cabana, Kinch or Maloney - that was already strong".
In Ravensburger's second year, with coach Uli Liebsch and top star Bob Wren, there is a memorable quarter-final against Heilbronn.
"We were 3-0 down in the series and have always packed our going-away clothes for the next games because we wanted to party right after we were eliminated, but then we won 4-3," explains Schwarz with a laugh.
In the semifinals, however, the end against the later champions Landshut follows.
The following season is again in the semi-finals against Schwenningen.
During the lockout overseas, some NHL professionals cavort in the second division.
“It was quite an experience to stand on the ice with them,” enthuses Erdinger.
He plays with Adam Hall (Tampa Bay Lightning) at the Towerstars, the most prominent opponent is Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers, who has found accommodation in Crimmitschau.
In the Nuremberg stadium I had to compete in the national league - where I was ten years earlier in the DEL game with Ingolstadt in front of a full house in the Starting Six.
Sebastian Schwarz on his return to the gladiators
Black has now reached a crucial point in his life.
During his injury time in Landshut, he began studying business administration at the University of Oldenburg, a special course for top athletes.
Now he has to decide: "Go through with studies or not".
And so the Erdinger ended his professional career.
The way leads him back home.
"Why not Erding again, I thought", he says - especially where the gladiators play in the big leagues.
“The financial side wasn't the decisive factor.” Rather, he enjoys it “that I was able to play again with the guys I grew up with, and we were a good group”.
The gladiators move into the playoffs, the defender has 39 scorer points (6 goals, 33 assists) in 48 games, the best personal figure in his career.
“I was able to help the boys a little and also give something back to the club,” he says.
Many offers turned down
In the following season the gladiators are in the playdowns, in the first round the EV Füssen is waiting.
"Those in charge would have preferred if we had played another round so that we still had some income," he says.
“But the team did not accept it, showed character and won in the first round.” In terms of sport, they managed to stay up, but there was no more money and the gladiators had to go to the national league “with a slightly overqualified troop “, Says Schwarz with a smile.
It is a strange feeling for him when he has to compete in the national league in the Nuremberg stadium - "where I was ten years earlier in the DEL game with Ingolstadt in front of a full house in the Starting Six".
Leaving his hometown club is no longer an option for him despite several offers.
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Eight years have passed since the move from Ravensburg.
He was always able to cope with sporting disappointments.
"If you're eliminated in a playoff round, it's not a disappointment for me, you have to accept that in terms of sport," he clarifies.
“But it annoys me much more to see how things work in this business.
That a word often doesn't count.
That leaves a bad aftertaste. "
What personally affected him was the death of Robert Dietrich, who came from the offspring of ESV Kaufbeuren.
"We were really good friends, we played for the BEV and in the junior national teams from the start," recalls Schwarz.
In 2011, Dietrich switched from the Mannheimer Adlers to the Russian KHL to Lokomotive Jaroslawl.
In a plane crash in September 2011 on the way to an away game, the entire team was killed,
Future still open: "Now we have to calm down first"
Sebastian Schwarz now works as a major loss adjuster at Allianz, has been married since March 2019, and has been condemned to inactivity since March 2020, which he appreciates for family reasons.
The birth of his twins in April turns out dramatically.
The wife Stephanie developed eclampsia in the 32nd week of pregnancy, she had to be taken to the hospital with the emergency doctor, the twins Leonard and Carlotta were born eight weeks early - curiously, on the same day as Papa Sebastian.
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Dream duo: Stephanie and Sebastian Schwarz.
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After a short ice hockey interlude - the Bayernliga season 2019/20 will be stopped again in November - the family is still struggling with the corona virus, but has now survived the disease.
After the exciting months he still doesn't know whether he will continue as a player with the gladiators or at least stay connected to ice hockey in another role.
"Now we have to calm down first," says Sebastian Schwarz.
Wolfgang Krzizok
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