CATCHING UP WITH THE 'CUDA: JOSEF KORENAR
Aug 12, 2019
Once the 2018-19 season concluded, each Barracuda player returned back to his hometown or offseason hangout. Moving forward, each week, sjbarracuda.com will check in with a different Barracuda player and see what he is up to this summer. This week we catch up with Josef Korenar.
Since Development Camp in late June, what have you been up to this summer? After I got back home, I took five days off. I had some jet lag from all the traveling so I went and hung out with my grandparents who I hadn’t seen all year because of the season. So yeah, I had five days off and then I started working out every day. Two sessions every day. My whole summer has just been training, nothing else (laughs).
What type of training have you been doing? We don’t have too much ice here. It’s not like Canada, we just have two rinks around my home. It’s too hot for it. So, five days a week I’m at the gym and after that, we do other stuff like fútbol and tennis or whatever. Every week, we go to Telč and Jihlava which is about 15 kilometers away. They have ice for us there.
What are your biggest goals going into your second professional season? I want to play as many games as I can. I had something like 34 this past season so I want to play at least that many. Maybe if I get a chance in the Show (laughs), I'll try to play there too but I’m still young so we’ll see how this season goes.
Last week, your mask for next season was revealed, what was the inspiration behind it? It’s pretty similar to my last mask so I just wanted to add my Minions. I had them on my mask three years ago. I just like the movies and I think they’re funny so I like it. It’s pretty similar to my previous mask but it’s a bit shinier.
You’re a big fan of Minions, when did you decide you wanted to put them on your mask? I don’t really know. It was like three years ago I went to the cinema with my girlfriend and we saw the movie and it was really funny. So after the movie, I decided I wanted to put the Minions on my mask the next season so I did it and I liked it. Everyone seems to like it so I decided to keep it.
What does your schedule look like over the next few weeks? I think I’ll be back in San Jose around September 3rd. I’m pretty much just training like I have been. I have Saturday and Sunday off so I usually just lay around on those days. It’s nice weather here, sunny every day, hot. So it’s hard to practice in this weather so when I’m not training I’m usually just relaxing.
Have you had a chance to talk to Antoine Bibeau or your goalie coach Evgeni Nabokov this summer? Yeah, I text with Bibs sometimes but not too much. With the time change, I’m just enjoying my time here at home. It’s nice to speak Czech (laughs).
Throughout the season you don’t get to speak your native language much, it’s got to be nice to get to do it in the summers, right? It’s really nice (laughs). You could imagine, being in a different country where no one speaks your language for 10 months and now I’m back home where everyone does. It’s really nice. Just walking around, you can hear the people talking your language, it’s almost weird. But it’s also really nice.