“Athletes’ needs are understood at Haukilahti”

Ice hockey player Kalle Kuntanen is a first-year student at the Haukilahden lukio upper secondary school. He is satisfied with the school’s support for athletes, high-quality teaching and good team spirit.

Kalle Kuntanen is a first-year student at the Haukilahden lukio upper secondary school. Kalle applied to the school, also known as Jeda, for the sporting opportunities offered by the school. “I applied to the sports programme, but didn’t quite make the cut. In the general programme, I was given athlete status,” Kalle says.

Kalle praises the schools for how well athletes have been taken into account at Haukilahti. Thanks to his status as an athlete, Kalle is able to leave classes earlier for practice. If he has practice in the morning, he can send a message to the sports coordinator Heikki Taskinen, who in turn will send a message to the teachers. This means that Kalle is given permission to be absent from class.

Kalle also praises the “I as an athlete” course he took this autumn. During the course, they have discussed things such as the psychological aspects of training. People invited to speak at classes included a coach who worked with Finnish Olympians at the Paris Olympics and who taught the basics of physical characteristics to athletes studying at the Haukilahden lukio upper secondary school. If Kalle is absent from class, he can do the exercises remotely. For example, he has reflected on where he is now as an athlete, what his goals are and how he can achieve them.

Kalle plays hockey in the club Kiekko-Espoo. When asked when he started playing hockey, he calculates when Porin Ässät has last won the Finnish championship: “My family is from Pori, and my father took me to games when I was young. We managed to get tickets to the final. I got so excited about the Finnish championship that I begged my parents to let me go to hockey school,” Kalle says.

Kalle also played in Pori for a year. He says that in his heart, he is a mix of Pori and Espoo. “Rauman Lukko is my mortal enemy,” he says.

Before his current team, Kalle was the team captain. He now plays in the U18 team in the Finnish championship series qualifier. If you put the practices and games together, hockey takes up a total of 14 hours of Kalle’s week. In addition to his own training, he can also attend the school’s Urhea practice at the sports venue Otahalli. “Different sports and each athlete’s development areas are taken into account here.”

Kalle’s first impressions of the Haukilahden lukio upper secondary school as has been good. “Everything runs smoothly. The school has great new facilities. The teaching is good and the teachers are nice. Teachers care about their students,” Kalle says. He also praises the school’s team spirit: “Even if you do not know everyone, it still feels like we all know each other.”

Naturally, Kalle’s goal in hockey is to play at a professional level and win the Finnish championship. “I’ve always wanted to play as a professional, and that is what I work for every day,” Kalle says. He does not yet have an alternative to a career in hockey, but he is interested in more physically active professions, such as a firefighter or police officer. In addition to P.E., his favourite subjects in upper secondary school are maths, Finnish and languages.

Kalle’s advice to night-graders is not to stress too much. “You should stay focused and be active. Remember to have fun and keep a positive attitude. You don’t have to disregard all fun to focus at school,” Kalle says.