By Michael Preston
Germany’s Nicole Manthey is the only female head coach leading a nation from the sidelines in the 2023/24 IFAF Women’s European Championship.
Despite being appointed earlier this year, the A-License coach is on familiar ground having previously served as competitive sports director for women at the AFVD.
“I got a call in January asking if I wanted to be the head coach and I was kind of surprised,” she admits. “Because I’d been involved with the national team before, it was like having a baby who had been born and now you’d come back to nurture it. The national team didn’t go the way I wanted it to in the past, so now I have the chance to come back and change things and that’s quite exciting.”
A changing of the guard at the German federation brought about Manthey’s return and an opportunity to establish her nation among Europe’s elite, and to ultimately improve on a fifth-place finish at last year’s IFAF World Championships.