Alavuden Peli-Veikot

Alavuden Peli-Veikot ry or APV is a sports club in Alavus, Finland. APV was founded in 1953 as a speciality football club – tradition holds that it was the first specialty football club to be founded in rural Finland – but expanded to include other sports over time. The club now offers programs in football, futsal, ice hockey, and pesäpallo and is best known for its youth and junior teams. APV’s representative ice hockey teams play in the men’s fourth-tier II-divisioona and in the women’s second-tier Naisten Mestis.
Early on, APV supported a project to establish a skating rink in Alavus. The project was funded and supported entirely from community donations, the municipality did not provide any grants to the initial construction or maintenance. Donations of note included an initial monetary donation made by Urmas Seppä with his wife and pharmacist Hannes Leinonen, some lumber donated by Mr. Hakkola of Hakkola Sawmill in Tuuri, and the efforts of Nepa Sinkkonen, who transformed an old truck engine into a water pump to spray water through an attached hose and resurface the ice. Unfortunately, operating the ice rink became unsustainable after several years and the project was ended.
== Ice hockey ==
Ice hockey was officially included in APV’s program in 1964. Alavus Areena serves as home ice for the men’s and women’s representative teams. The arena was completed in 2008 and can seat 421 spectators.
The men’s representative team plays in the Keskimaan lohko (Central Division) of the II-divisoona. The team won the regional championship in the 2012–13 season and progressed to the Suomi-sarja qualifiers (karsinta), however, they did not earn promotion at that time.
In December 2019, the women’s representative team gained promotion to the Alempi jatkosarja (Lower Division) of the Naisten Liiga from the Ristiinkarsinta (Cross-qualifiers) of the Naisten Mestis. The promotion marked the team’s first return to the top-tier Naisten Liiga since the 2009–10 season. APV was relegated in the Karsintasarja (Qualification series) in March of the 2019–20 Naisten Liiga season.
APV’s junior program is well regarded and has produced such players as Kärpät forward and Olympic medalist Saila Saari, goaltender Pekka Tuokkola, coach Tuomas Tuokkola, and defenceman Lauri Taipalus. Rally driver Jari-Matti Latvala played junior hockey at APV.
=== Notable alumni ===
* Petteri Haveri, alternate-captain of Peliitat Heinola
* Katja Manninen, Naisten Liiga player from 2003 to 2005
* Saila Saari, won bronze with Naisleijonat at the 2018 Winter Olympics
* Lauri Taipalus, awarded Liiga Most Assists by a Defenseman (2014–15)
* Eveliina Tuokkola, Naisten Liiga player from 2003 to 2006
* Pekka Tuokkola, Liiga Champion and Jari Kurri Award winner in the 2008–09 season
*Tuomas Tuokkola, head coach of KooKoo since 2016
== References ==
Content in this article is translated from the existing Finnish Wikipedia article at :fi:Alavuden Peli-Veikot; see its history for attribution.
Category:Ice hockey teams in Finland
Category:Naisten Liiga (ice hockey) teams