OUR WAY
History
Association Mission in Sport (MIS) is the successor to Hockey Ministries International Slovakia (HMI - Slovakia), which was founded in 2008. In 2010, HMI - Slovakia was also accepted as a member of SZĽH. The main task of HMI - Slovakia was initially to organize summer Christian hockey camps.

In Slovakia, the camps took place: the first year in Nitra (year 2004 - 28 children), then in Trenčín (year 2005 - 55 children), the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh year in Trnava (year 2006 - 93 children, year 2007 - 78 children, year 2008 - 75 children, year 2009 - 66 children, 2010 - 97 children). In 2011 and 2016, the camp took place in Martin (from 70 to 90 children each year). In the camps were as coaches experienced players from the NHL and European hockey leagues, resp. current players of American, Canadian and European leagues. In the camps, experienced players from the NHL and European hockey leagues, resp. current players of American, Canadian and European leagues in the positions of assistant coaches. Usually, the camps have been assisted by: Glenn "Chico" Resch (longtime NHL goalkeeper, Stanley Cup winner and coach, now contract commentator for the NJ Devils), Laurie Boschman (former player and captain of the Ottawa Senators, NHL), David Booth (former player NHL), Bill Butters (former NHL player, now youth coach at Minnesota), Alex Pirus, Mark Osborne and Stu Grimson (former NHL players). All these players are members of the HMI. In our camps we met them on ice, but also in their private lives. During the camp, they talked about their hockey career or successes, but also about their faith in God and its application in hockey and in everyday life. Young players develop their hockey skills while learning about Bible stories.
The organization HMI - Slovakia and its successor Mission in Sport is a non-profit. Coaches and instructors work voluntarily without remuneration. This also applies to coaches from the American continent. Thanks to this approach and also thanks to the HMI subsidy for the mentioned camps, our camps are also financially accessible to players from socially and economically weaker backgrounds.
Our work and successful organization of camps in Slovakia were also appreciated by colleagues from the USA and Canada and, especially valuable, by Peter Budaj, who visited us in person at the camp, as well as our other famous hockey personalities: Andrej Mezsároš and Ľubomír Sekeráš.
One of the great successes of HMI-Slovakia's activities is the cooperation with the Goals and Dreams Foundation, which works for the NHLPA, which is actually an association of NHL players. Through the Goals and Dreams program, it is possible to obtain, with the help of youth equipment, equipment for stadiums, etc. Our organization assists in the elaboration of projects for the said program and subsequently we also help to enforce the mentioned projects in Canada. In recent years, we have managed to help clubs in Trnava, Michalovce, Banská Bystrica, Žilina, Martin. NHLPA awarded us by its trust, and based of our cooperation - - Slovakia was commissioned in 2009 to organize NHLPA world celebrations in Slovakia. A unique event took place in Trnava - the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the Goals and Dreams Foundation, which took place in 10 countries around the world.
At the time, at the initiative of our membership base, the organization of players' participation in tournaments also began. We managed to put together teams under the HMI - Slovakia, whose performances in tournaments were successful. The first stimulus was the Challenger Cup tournament in Prague. We were just gaining experience here. But the subsequent tournaments already showed our possibilities: our 95/96 team won a demanding international tournament in Prešov and won a nice 4th place in a strong tournament in Zvolen. Team 98 won the Grishun Cup in Žilina and 2nd place in a tough tournament in Switzerland in Flims. The aim of organizing participation in tournaments was to enable talented players from clubs where the player basement is low to participate in difficult and demanding events. It has been unequivocally confirmed to us that such activity makes a deep sense. Players gained invaluable experience with top-level hockey while playing in a strong team. In this way, it is possible to keep them in high game form. Players joined in our teams only with the written approval of the club.
During 2017 - 2019, the process of separating our organization from the HMI headquarters in Canada took place. The process culminated in the renaming of the organization to Mission in Sport and the era of a separate new brand of our work began. We launched a wide international cooperation, which resulted in participation in the Ice Rink for All project in the ERASMUS + program under the leadership of Slovenian colleagues. A particularly valuable experience that we brought to Slovakia within this project is the tradition of ice skating trainings with children with Down syndrome in Trnava. This work continues even after the completion of the Ice Rink For All project through separate projects subsidized by the city of Trnava and the Trnava region.
In 2019, we also started cooperation with the christian foundation from USA, International Sports Federation, on the basis of which we organized a charity stay of a university hockey team from Texas in Slovakia.