Riihimäki Cocks

Riihimäen Cocks
Riihimäen Cocks
Full name	Käsipalloseura Riihimäen Cocks
Short name	Cocks
Founded	1973
Arena	Cocks Areena, Riihimäki
Capacity	2,500
President	Jari Viita
Head coach	Bojan Županjac
League	SM-liiga
Club colours
	Website ; Official site

Riihimäki Cocks (Finnish: Riihimäen Cocks) is a Finnish professional handball club from Riihimäki. The club is playing in the Finnish Handball League (SM-liiga), and play their home matches in Cocks Areena.

Riihimäki

Location of Riihimäki Cocks

History

Riihimäki Cocks were founded in 1973 when the club decided to separate from RiPS. The newly founded team gained promotion to Finnish Handball League during the following season. The team won their first Championship medals in 1978, when the team finished second in the championship. Riihimäki Cocks got their first Finnish handball championships in 2007 and repeated the success in 2008. Cocks also won the Finnish Cup in 2007 and 2008, winning the double two times consecutively. So far, the club is a total of 12 champions and 11 cup winners.

Crest, colours, supporters

Kit manufacturers

Period	Kit manufacturer
- 2011	Puma
2011 - 2017	Adidas
2017 - 2018	Hummel
2018 - present	Macron

Kits

HOME
2010–11	2011–13	2013–14	2017–18

Sports Hall information

Arena: - Cocks Areena
City: - Riihimäki
Capacity: - 2500
Address: - Hj. Elomaan katu 4, 11130 Riihimäki, Finland

Team

Current squad

Squad for the 2025–26 season^[1]^[2]

Riihimäki Cocks

Goalkeepers

33 Eetu Nokkala
35 Eemeli Laitaharju
87 Vitalii Shitsko

Left Wingers

9 Niko Hållman
15 Teemu Tamminen
32 Joona Tamminen

Right Wingers

11 Daniel Tulander
19 Roni Syrjälä
31 Tuomas Rantanen

Line Players

17 Yury Lukyanchuk
25 Santeri Vainionpää (c)
48 Vertti Salminen

Left Backs

6 Soma Lukacs
22 Juuso Kangasniemi
36 Aaro Koskimies
84 Miika Kaukoranta

Central Backs

51 Roope Ahlgren
55 Calle Almander
91 Jiri Rasehorn

Right Backs

18 Elias Hartikainen
24 Urho Viita
99 Pavel Duda

Technical staff

Head coach: Bojan Županjac
Physiotherapist: Matias Savinainen
Physiotherapist: Pasi Hellberg
Team Manager: Petteri Kiviaho
President: Jari Viita

Transfers

Transfers for the 2025–26 season

Joining

Calle Almander (CB) from HK Drott
Soma Lukacs (LB) from HC Burgenland
Daniel Tulander (RW) from Cocks Akatemia
Tuomas Rantanen (RW) from Cocks Akatemia
Vertti Salminen (LP) from Cocks Akatemia
Jiri Rasehorn (CB) from Cocks Akatemia

Leaving

Lazar Petrović (RB) to Carbonex-Komló
Gergő Miklós (GK) to QHB-Eger
Dániel Fekete (LB) to AD Ciudad de Guadalajara
Albin Järlstam (CB) to Handball Sassari
Davor Basaric (LP) to Grankulla IFK
Julius Kemppainen (LW) to SIF
Nuno Santos (RW) to Albatro Siracusa
Kemal Hamzić (CB) to RK Konjuh Zivinice

Previous squads

2018–2019 Team
Shirt No	Nationality	Player	Birth Date	Position
2	Belarus	Viktar Zaitsau	(1992-08-27) 27 August 1992	Left Back
8	Finland	André Udd	(1996-06-05) 5 June 1996	Left Back
9	Ukraine	Oleksandr Kyrylenko	(1986-06-21) 21 June 1986	Central Back
15	Finland	Teemu Tamminen	(1987-08-27) 27 August 1987	Left Winger
17	Belarus	Yury Lukyanchuk	(1990-01-05) 5 January 1990	Line Player
18	Serbia	Bojan Županjac	(1983-10-16) 16 October 1983	Left Winger
19	Finland	Roni Syrjälä	(1995-03-28) 28 March 1995	Right Winger
20	Russia	Andrei Novoselov	(1986-08-25) 25 August 1986	Right Winger
22	Finland	Nico Rönnberg	(1992-04-14) 14 April 1992	Left Back
23	Moldova	Vitalie Nenita	(1987-06-04) 4 June 1987	Right Back
29	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Saša Puljizević	(1989-12-22) 22 December 1989	Central Back
30	Finland	Kalle Alander	(1995-06-13) 13 June 1995	Goalkeeper
31	Russia	Victor Kovalenko	(1982-01-13) 13 January 1982	Central Back
32	Lithuania	Giedrius Morkunas	(1987-11-07) 7 November 1987	Goalkeeper
33	Finland	Theo Westerlund	(1996-07-30) 30 July 1996	Right Back
44	Serbia	Davor Basarić	(1990-11-03) 3 November 1990	Line Player
55	Belarus	Aliaksandr Tsitou	(1986-10-28) 28 October 1986	Line Player
87	Russia	Vitalii Shitsko	(1987-09-09) 9 September 1987	Goalkeeper

2015–2016 Team
Shirt No	Nationality	Player	Birth Date	Position
3	Finland	Jani Tuominen	(1992-01-30) 30 January 1992	Left Winger
4	Finland	Antti Valo	(1983-12-28) 28 December 1983	Right Winger
5	Russia	Kiril Morozov	(1988-03-11) 11 March 1988	Goalkeeper
7	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Mirza Mimič	(1988-06-11) 11 June 1988	Right Back
9	Finland	Kristian Jansson	(1986-04-14) 14 April 1986	Central Back
11	Moldova	Gheorghe Safronii	(1986-01-21) 21 January 1986	Left Back
15	Finland	Teemu Tamminen	(1987-08-27) 27 August 1987	Left Winger
17	Belarus	Yury Lukyanchuk	(1990-01-05) 5 January 1990	Line Player
18	Finland	Andreas Rönnberg	(1983-12-27) 27 December 1983	Central Back
19	Finland	Roni Syrjälä	(1995-03-28) 28 March 1995	Right Winger
20	Russia	Andrei Novoselov	(1986-08-25) 25 August 1986	Right Winger
21	Finland	Robin Sjöman	(1992-08-25) 25 August 1992	Line Player
22	Finland	Nico Rönnberg	(1992-04-14) 14 April 1992	Left Back
23	Moldova	Vitalie Nenita	(1987-06-04) 4 June 1987	Right Back
30	Finland	Kalle Alander	(1995-06-13) 13 June 1995	Goalkeeper
31	Russia	Victor Kovalenko	(1982-01-13) 13 January 1982	Central Back
47	Belarus	Andrei Kaliarovich	(1993-08-18) 18 August 1993	Left Back
85	Finland	Niko Leikama	(1985-09-24) 24 September 1985	Left Winger
87	Russia	Vitalii Shitsko	(1987-09-09) 9 September 1987	Goalkeeper

Retired numbers

Riihimäki Cocks retired numbers ^[3]
N°	Nationality	Player	Position	Tenure
4		Antti Valo	Right Winger	2002–2017
10		Markku Tuomi	Centre	1990-2002
13		Jarmo Lepola
14		Pekka Lehtinen

Honours

Finnish Handball League: 13
- Gold: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2025
- Silver: 1978, 1979, 2005, 2011, 2023
- Bronze: 1998, 2000, 2006, 2012, 2022

Finnish Cup of Handball: 11
- Gold: 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2023

Baltic Handball League : 4
- Gold: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
- Silver: 2010, 2013, 2015
- Bronze: 2014

EHF ranking

As of 06/10/2025^[4]

Rank	Team	Points
136	Parnassos Strovolou	28
137	HK Malmö	28
138	Viljandi HC	27
139	Riihimäki Cocks	27
140	HF Karlskrona	27
141	IBV Vestmannaeyjar	27
142	VÍF	26

Former club members

Notable former players

Nico Rönnberg (2013–2020)
Roni Syrjälä (2012–2022)
Teemu Tamminen (2004–)
Antti Valo (2002–2017)
Igor Mandić (2022–2023)
Aliaksandr Bachko (2016–2018)
Yury Lukyanchuk (2015–)
Aliaksandr Patsykailik (2018)
Evgeny Semenov (2019–2021)
Aliaksandr Tsitou (2016–2021)
Viktar Zaitsau (2017–2019)
Nikola Kedžo (2021–2022)
Marius Aleksejev (2013–2015)
Stefano Arcieri (2020-2021)
Nils Kreicbergs (2019–2020)
Ignacy Bąk (2020–2021)
Piotr Rybski (2022–2023)
Mircea Muraru (2007–2009)
Aleksandar Gugleta (2019–2020)
Ivan Mošić (2020–2021)
Mykhaylo Krivchikov (2014–2015)

Former coaches

Seasons	Coach	Country
2001–2003	Jan Rönnberg
2003–2004	Pekka Peper
2004–2006	Markku Tuomi
2006–2011	Raivo Laast
2011–2012	Toni Kallio
2012–2016	Kaj Kekki
2016–2020	Gintaras Savukynas
2020	Kaj Kekki
2020	Boris Dvoršek
2021	Kaj Kekki
2022	Lasse Boesen
2022–2023	Christophe Viennet
2023–	Bojan Županjac

References

^ "HC Cocks Season 2025/2026 | BHL".
^ "Cocks, Riihimäki | Aktialiiga".
^ "Retired numbers for finnish team handball players". users.abo.fi. Retrieved 2025-08-24.
^ "Eurotopteam, classement européen des clubs de Handball".

External links

[1] "HC Cocks Season 2025/2026 | BHL".

[2] "Cocks, Riihimäki | Aktialiiga".

[3] "Retired numbers for finnish team handball players". users.abo.fi. Retrieved 2025-08-24.

[4] "Eurotopteam, classement européen des clubs de Handball".

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