Ice hockey professional Sebastian Busch once shot Landshut's DNL team to the German Championship
Langengeisling - When four-year-old Sebastian Busch participated for the first time in the running school of the ice hockey department of TSV Erding, led by Peter Semmler, the path to becoming a successful ice hockey player was not necessarily mapped out. “Dad actually wanted me to be a skier or soccer player,” says the 27-year-old today. "But I once watched my special Fabi Steiger during ice hockey training and then I wanted to play too." In the meantime, Busch has more than 300 second division and more than 100 league games in the statistics, a second division championship with the Landshut Cannibals and a German championship with the DNL team of EV Landshut.
He also tried football at the time, but admits: "I wasn't that talented there." So Sebastian Busch concentrated fully on ice hockey - and had excellent teachers in Erding. Up to his youth he went through all stages at TSV, had hockey legend Hans Huber as a coach for Bambini, later Ewald Steiger, Christoph Mosbauer, Ken Filbey, Franz Steer and finally Markus Knallinger in his youth. In his last Erdinger year, Sebastian Busch was third in the German championship. "At that time Iserlohn became first and rose to the DNL," he recalls.
The move to Landshut followed, where the Langengeislinger actually wanted to play for two years, but since the vintages were frozen, it turned into three years - with an unexpected success. The EVL had finished the 2010/11 season under coach Ewald Steiger in eighth place and then put on an incredible series. The coach, in particular, had a major share in the success, Sebastian Busch notes and emphasizes: "Hans Huber and Ewald Steiger were the two best coaches that I have ever had and that have helped me the most." In the quarter-finals, which were in Best was played of-five, the Lower Bavaria threw the champions and top favorites Mannheim out of the race (3: 2, 3: 4, 6: 4, 2: 1). It continued in the best-of-three mode, in the semi-finals second place Krefeld was thrown out of the title race (5: 2, 3: 1), and now Starbulls Rosenheim, who had finished the round in fourth place, were waiting in the final.
"It was just nice," Sebastian Busch describes the final series. "There were 3000 people in Rosenheim and Landshut - and that in a youth game." Game one went to the EVL with 5: 4 goals, game 2 to the Starbulls with 7: 3. The decisive game three took place in Rosenheim - 3: 3 at the end of the regular season and after extra time, the penalty shootout had to bring the decision. Three Rosenheimers and two Landshuters had awarded, the last shooter was Sebastian Busch. "Our coach, the Ewe, said we should shoot because the ice is so bad, but I have never shot in the penalty," recalls the Langengeislinger. "I wanted to do something different, but I didn't know exactly what, because if you think too much, it usually doesn't do anything." Busch finally started, pulled over goalkeeper Timo Herden and threw the puck into the goal - there was indescribable cheering in red. White.
"That was the highlight of my career so far, I often think back on that," says the 27-year-old and confesses frankly: "If I feel bad or if I experience a bad situation, I build myself up with the memory of it Penalty again. ”Back then, the Landshut team also featured many other current or former Erdinger players such as Florian Zimmermann, Felix Kürten, Lukas Krämmer, Robert Gebhardt and goalkeeper Thomas Mende, who was the substitute keeper behind the former Dorfen goalkeeper Thomas Hingel.
The surprise came when the then managing director of Landshut Cannibals, Bernd Truntschka, offered the 18-year-old Busch a three-year contract. "I was totally surprised," he says. "I had never thought about making money with ice hockey before." And what was best for him: "I was still able to complete a three-year course as a physiotherapist at the Physio School in Landshut." of his father Ernst, who runs a physio practice in Erding.
Of course it was often a stress with school and sometimes twice a day training, but the teachers had given him great support and helped him a lot, especially if he had to make up for missing learning material. And it went perfectly for the Langengeislinger, who was able to celebrate the second division championship with the adults in his first year - "the second absolute highlight in my career".
In the second year in the DEL 2, Sebastian Busch then had real bad luck. First he pulled his shoulder out and had to be operated on. When he was fit again and had just played a few games, he got a racket in the face during training, his maxillary sinus broke and he had to be operated on again. In the 2012/13 season, he only had 15 games in total: "A disease year."
When the contract with the Lower Bavarians expired after three years, Sebastian Busch's desire to change the club matured. "I wasn't so happy anymore, I just wanted to play more and not just play in the fourth row," he says. "I just wanted to regain confidence and that's why I'm a league down to the Northern Oberligisten Duisburg." The native Tölzer Franz Fritzmeier jun. as a coach "who was known for giving young players a chance". But things turned out quite differently: Fritzmeier was finally released and a new team of coaches came, "who preferred to play with big people". There was no more room for the 1.77-meter man.
"Then I was just about to quit," Sebastian Busch admits. "It was no longer fun for me." He wanted to go down a league in order to get more assignments, to take on more responsibility, "but it was ultimately worse than before".
It was ultimately fortunate that coach Sergej Wassmiller asked him in 2015 whether he didn't want to come to the Oberliga Süd in Bayreuth. "Sergei brought the fun back to me," enthuses the 27-year-old. “And we had a great team.” He completed 54 games, scored 45 scorer points, and ended up advancing to DEL 2. EV Regensburg had been eliminated in the semifinals. In the final, the Bayreuth Tigers lost to the Tilburg Trappers, but the team from the Netherlands was not eligible for promotion.
Finally, there was also a “family reunification” in Bayreuth, because his brother Valentin, who was almost six years his junior and was under contract with the Nürnberg Ice Tigers, was loaned to Bayreuth. The "Buschis" played in a row for two years. "Of course, as a big brother, you try to take care of your little brother and always look closely," says Sebastian Busch. "So of course I noticed when he was bad or when he didn't go well, and that was often transferred to me." Overall, however, it went "very well", with Sebastian as playmaker and Valentin as goal scorer , who even became "Rookie of the Year" in the DEL 2. "We used to play together in the basement and we always understood each other blindly," explains Sebastian Busch. "For me he is the best player I have ever played with." In this context, he does not forget to mention his parents, "because without mom and dad it would never have been possible for us," says the 27-year-old . "What they have put up with, surely not many do for their children."
The most recent member of the Tigers team was ex-Rosenheim's Timo Herden, against whom Sebastian Busch had once converted his most important penalty. "We still often talk about the final series from back then and tease each other," says Busch and adds with a laugh: "So rather I him."
Now Sebastian Busch wants to open a new chapter after five successful years in Bayreuth, because he is moving from Upper Franconia back to Lower Bavaria, to league competitor EV Landshut. To where he once started his professional career. "I needed a change of scenery again and wanted to get closer to home again," says the 27-year-old and adds with a smile: "To real Bavaria." What has he planned for the next few years? "First of all, be successful with the team and reach the playoffs," emphasizes Sebastian Busch. "As for me personally, I want to play a lot and have fun with ice hockey, the rest will come by itself."
At some point he would join his father in the physical practice, says the 27-year-old, and then he could well imagine playing at his home club in Erding again - where it all started. And then maybe Peter Semmler will drop by.