A Lithuanian on the block - Tauras Karazija [2/2]

[ontanis 7]

- Childhood -

 

Tauras Karazija hails from a small, peaceful and a beautiful country of 3 million people called Lithuania.

 

 

Lithuania is mainly known for its three stereotypes: beautiful women, great beer and basketball.

 

Tauras Karazija was born in 15th of February 2001 in an enterprising railway town of Telsiai, Lithuania. Telsiai is one the smaller towns in Lithuania with just over 25.000 people inhabiting the town with a bad stadium and even worse infrastructure for other sports. So, as you can probably sense it already – not the best place for ice hockey greatness.

Tauras' not-so-yet-thrilling hockey career started in the Telsiai ice rink, located near the Telsiai town stadium. It was one Tauras‘ first hockey memories, as his dad, an ice hockey enthusiast took him down there to see him play with his fellow friends: „I remember being five years old and wobbling my way around the rink, trying not to fall over and smash my nose on the ice as my dad laughed on seeing me struggle“. But something about that wobbling and struggling made Tauras feel strange. It was that strange feeling of gliding through the ice so effortlessly. And that feeling is what made Tauras to fall in love with the beautiful game of hockey.

 

 

 

While attending school in Telsiai, Tauras practiced hockey in the nearest town that had an open-24/7 ice arena in the town of Mazeikiai, a 1-hour bus ride each day from Telsiai. Tauras played centre for local minor hockey teams, helping and leading them to various successes, including the Lithuania Little Hockey League championship.

 

- Teenage years -

 

After turning 14 years-old Tauras Karazija was called up to the Lithuania U-16 team and off to his first national team training camp. And the good thing about hockey in Lithuania, is that the funding for it is so low that all levels of the national team use only one ice rink arena. So that means when U-16 train with, there‘s always a couple of players from the National team, taping their sticks, shin pads or just getting ready for their practice after ours, because ice time was limited. Just as Tauras was finishing up his practice and he was pulled to the side by Mantas Armalis.

 

Mantas Armalis was the starting goalkeeper for Lithuania National team and quite a known hockey player around. But he was a good player, playing hockey overseas. “You are quite a player”, said Armalis. Tauras could feel the sense of achievement bubbling up inside of him. But a second later, Mantas made sure that Tauras would not get his head up in the clouds for a very long time: “You don’t look right. Your balance is all wrong. You don’t look up enough. You keep your head down too much… You will get murdered by proper defenders if you keep those habits up.” But then, he kept on going with that emotional rollercoaster of a conversation: “Do you ever want to play professional, Tauras?” And at that moment Tauras realized that he has never thought about playing hockey for a living. He never thought about making money off of it. Tauras was a kid who was just happy to put on skates five times a week and just play for the love of the game. But that was the crystallizing moment of his life when Tauras had to decide if he wanted to do this properly or not. All Tauras could mutter out was squeaky “Yeah… Who wouldn’t?”

 

 

- Skating towards the ultimate goal -

 

After Tauras‘ first U-16 tournament in Liepaja, Latvia he was picked up by Dinamo Riga. Dinamo Riga were going to be playing a friendly match with HC Spartak Moscow and invited Tauras to watch the game. Tauras and his father knew what was in the play. A few days later Tauras was in the car on his way to Latvia’s capital city Riga.

 

Once in Riga, Tauras Karazija was liked for his skating and his size, so coaches decided that playing defense would be a better fit for Tauras. Truth be told, HK Rīga had very few defensemen, so they needed another guy back on the blue line anyhow. One coach in particular, Aigars Cipruss was the one who taught Tauras how to really play defense, and that’s where Tauras‘ career took off.

Tauras made their team and ended up playing junior for the HK Rīga of the Russian Junior Hockey League (JHL) because it was the best youth league in the Eurasia region.

 

 

Aigars Cipruss taught Tauras how to play in a position that was different and new to him - offensive defenseman. It combined Tauras' strengths with team needs. Tauras was moulded as an offensive defenseman that possesses a high level of puck skills, broad rink vision and sense, and smooth skating skills. He was taught that rink vision and passing skills are critical to breaking the puck out of the defensive zone. It’s the ability to complete the first pass successfully that leads to the second, third and fourth passes up ice.

But for a defenseman to play in the biggest minutes of a game, besides being gifted offensively, he must be a responsible defensive player. A defenseman must be able to defend late in periods, execute on the power play and penalty kill, and defend when the game is on the line.

 

And Tauras really wanted to be that player. So he soaked up every bit and piece of knowledge the coaches gave him. Tauras studied every second of film. Watched every minute of videos that showed how great offensive defensemen played. And he tried to emulate what he heard, saw and learned.

The first year after moving to the bigger club - Dinamo Riga, he was sent to affiliate HK Riga and their junior academy. There Tauras Karazija ended up having a season that did not stand out of the rest very much: 29 games played, 6 goals scored, 9 assists, 15 points in total.

 

 

After continuing to work on his skills, fitness and skating, Tauras immediately showed that hard work pays off. Tauras Karazija was given the chance he needed and finished his last season with HK Riga, scoring impressive 13 goals, contributing with 24 assists and 37 points total in 47 regular season games. He scored most points and assists among all defensemen in the JHL. His play in the juniors also contributed to him during the end of the season regularly being a member of Dinamo Riga senior team and sitting on the bench during KHL regular season games.

 

Time went on, seasons passed and Tauras became more and more comfortable with the notion that he will be a professional hockey player. That he will be doing what he really loved and what felt closest to his heart. The world of hockey and the people that were involved in hockey on and off the field were also getting quite comfortable with the thought of Tauras Karazija playing professionally. Not long after his last season with HK Riga concluded - Tauras Karazija declares himself eligible for the upcoming VHLM draft. 

 

Edited June 26, 2019 by ontanis

[Big Mac 310]

Review: Solid biography though I’m pretty sure every country has beautiful women. The first quote by you at least it looks like a quote did not have opening quotation marks ,but it instead had two commas or whatever that was. One of your pictures are just simply blank. Your childhood or teenage years could’ve been more in-depth. Solid bio 6.9/10 congratulations, you’ve gotten the best number ever. 

[Datools 7]

Review: The childhood picture really made this one come alive for me! Background story makes me think of Kaspars Daugavins. I think you've done a great job outlining the type of player Tauras is and which parts of his hockey upbringing led him towards that style of play which is a nice piece to have. Like Big Mac I'd also love to know a bit more about his childhood and his family upbringing! Solid first 3 pics out of 5 (last one didn't work)