GB goalie Joshua Mroczynski: “We’re here to have fun and win small victories”

How do you approach a game when you know you’re going to face so many shots?
You prepare yourself for the hard shot but always play for the save. I love a challenge. Sometimes you come out of it with a couple of bruises or a minor injury but, yeah, I love it.

Realistically, you know you’re not going to win most of these games. When that’s the case, how do you motivate yourselves before a game?
We’re out here to have fun, play some good hockey, and take whatever small victories we can from it. We’re doing a lot of good things out there. We’re not scoring lots of goals but we’re blocking shots, we’re making passes, we’re executing a breakout, making saves. All of those are victories and if you look at it that way, we could lose 100-0 and we’re still winning something. We’re not going to get angry if we lose or try to start fights or anything like that.

Have you played in a World Junior Championship before?
Yes, this is my second. I played U16 last year in the Czech Republic. We only send one team each year and we rotate every year playing U16, U18 and U20 because we don’t have the numbers to make more teams. I’m 16 and we’re a team that ranges in age from 14 to 18, and so the age gap and the skill gap against our opponents is huge. But like I said before, we’re here to have fun and win small victories.

So you’re saying there aren’t many ball hockey players in Great Britain?
No, not many at all. It’s a very small sport. We have to drive three hours to practices and games, but all of us here are putting in the effort and the work, and we love it, and that’s why we’re here.

You have one more game remaining against Switzerland for fifth place. How do you approach that one?
We approach it from the beginning, from the first shift, with the score 0-0. We start from there and see what happens.

Do you think you have a chance to beat them?
We always have a chance. It’s a small chance but we can, and hopefully we do.