Radim Ostrcil: Background History
Youth Levels
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Being the son of an active hockey player, Radim Ostrcil was brought to the game at the mere age of three. His parents wanted him active and hockey was a no-brainer due also to the tradition of the sport in the Vsetin region in general even though at that time the senior team was toiling at the lower Div I level.
He joined a talented team consisting of 1989-born players at the beginning of their respective careers. After learning to skate and handle the puck at practices, led by head coach Jaroslav Plachtovic, it was obvious that, besides the nickname 'Gosa', Ostrcil also inherited his father's hockey talent as he showed all the basic mechanics to develop into a good player.
He was slotted to play defense, a fact he didn't worry about. "I performed on defense since the very beginning of my career. I found it suitable for me," says Ostrcil.
Through the various youth levels, Ostrcil emerged as the most promising player from his birthyear and soon started to perform at a higher age group as his peers did not provide him with a serious enough challenge.
Ostrcil liked performing in the back rows, but was never reluctant to jump into the play and support the attack with his deceptive passing skills. This brought him lots of points in the lower age categories, however playing against older competition required him to also demonstrate defensive responsibility.
Coach Fischer (4th-5th grade) followed by coach Ladislav Marsalik the following two years, taught the talented blueliner how to take care of his own end better, which made him a more coveted pee-wee player.
As a sidenote, it should also be noted that Radim's career was slightly influenced by the breakthrough of the Vsetin seniors into the Czech Extraleague in 1994. Consequently, he didn't have to move to another team with a better developmental system like many of his peers.
Breakthrough Season
Under coach Marsalik, Ostrcil's play took a sharp rise. He served as defensive anchor also wreaked havoc with his numerous offensive raids. Vsetin participated in numerous tournaments with Ostrcil often taking home the 'Top Defenseman' award for his inspired two-way efforts. During the four seasons prior to moving up to midget, Ostrcil actually hoisted the top defenseman trophy four times at tournaments played either in the Czech capital of Praha at the Slavia Praha facility or in Brno.
As a 7th grader, he led the organization to the championship title as the Vsetin squad battled their way to the final-four tournament and in the end went home with gold medals.
However, a big new challenge would await Ostrcil. After overcoming a broken leg, Ostrcil was extended a trial-by-fire in the midget Extraleague as a three-time underager. Listening to references from the various youth levels, Vsetin midget head coach Jiri Hudler and assistant coach Jaroslav Plachtovic, who already knew Ostrcil, made the highly unusual decision to promote a 12-year old player to the midget level. Hudler was eager to see whether Ostrcil's puck-moving savvy would already translate to the higher level against players up to three years older.
"I consider my season for the 7th grade as my best before moving up to the midgets full-time. Everything went just well that season and both our team and me could be happy with our performances."
Ostrcil accepted the challenge and never looked back from pee-wee. He left a solid impression on a pairing with 1986-born Martin Novak, earning a regular spot in coach Hudler's defensive rotation and securing a spot for the next season.
2002-03:
Already serving as a full-time member of the Vsetin midgets, he managed to play his way into the first defensive pairing despite being two years younger than a majority of the opposition. Ostrcil switched to a more defensive role at first to focus on learning defense. However he lacked the strength to outmuscle the opposition, although his smarts did enable him to be useful still on the defensive side. He would up playing an integral role in the team's playoff run, where they knocked aside all opponents except for the final one, Kladno midgets, and finished in second place in the midget Extraleague. In 44 games, Ostrcil registered 5 points for 2 goals and 3 assists, along with a mere 10 minutes in penalties.
2003-04:
Already an established midget Extraleague veteran, Ostrcil was asked to step up his role and serve as a leader on a team depleted by the graduation of a number of key players to juniors. After concentrating more on defense during the previous two campaigns, he regained his offensive touch, distributing the puck with poise and making use of his offensive vision to run the powerplay effectively. He flourished in November and December en route to setting career numbers with 12 assists in 45 games, along with a minus-3 rating and 44 PIM's.
Ostrcil was a lock to start his international career as early as 2003-2004 given all his previous midget Extraleague experience. However, after some rather unimpressive results in July at the physical testing for the new U-16 team camp, his international debut was postponed until November, where he dressed for a three-game series against the Swiss U-16's. He was then invited to the next event, a three-game series against the Russian U-16 team, closing out his first international season with an appearance in the final three-game series against the Slovak U-16 team in April. In his first season for the Czech U-16 national team, Ostrcil registered one assist in 9 games.
2004-05:
Showed that he has nothing left to prove in midgets during '04-5, already his third full season at this level, and was a dominating blueline force. He frequently joined the rush and performed almost like a third forward. However, his own-zone coverage suffered as Ostrcil had a tendency to be over-aggressive in attack and failed to fulfill his duties as conscientiously as needed.
In order to calm him down and also help an injury-ravaged junior team, Ostrcil was promoted to the Vsetin juniors as a twice underager in October. He spent the next three months splitting duty between the two levels, with the junior Extraleague experience helping to hone his defensive awareness. He bid goodbye to the midget Extraleague in January having notched 8 goals and 23 points in 31 games (along with a plus-2 rating and 85 PIM's). Ostrcil was provided with a decent portion of playing time by head coach Bretislav Kopriva in order to accelerate his adjustment period to the elite junior level.
En route to the junior Extraleague championship title with the Vsetin juniors, Ostrcil dressed out for 22 games (0-3-3, minus-1, 16 PIM). He saw a very reduced role in the playoffs and was returned to midgets for three games to help the squad in their playoff run, proving dominant with four points (1-3-4, 4 PIM).
Ostrcil did not however continue his stint with the 1988-born junior national team and instead performed for the U-16 team again in '04-5, playing the complete schedule and making use of his experience. After a rather lukewarm effort in a three-game series against the U-16 team of Slovakia, Ostrcil picked up his game and impressed in the following three-game series against his Swiss peers in November. His strong international performances continued through the season's top event, the Four Nations tournament in Podolsk, Russia, even though he wasn't as dominating as expected. In 15 games for the U-16 team, Ostrcil registered for 2 goals and 5 assists and 14 PIM's.