ELF: Helvetic Mercenaries sign Michael Wood as DC
The Helvetic Mercenaries have announced the signing of Michael Wood as their new defensive coordinator for the 2025 European League of Football season.
The 61-year-old Wood spent the 2024 season as defensive coordinator of the Finnish champion Helsinki Roosters. Under his guidance, the Roosters‘ defense allowed a league-low 13 points a game over 14 games including playoffs.
In 2023, he served in the same capacity with the Alcobendas Cavaliers in Spain’s top league, the LNFA.
In 2022, he was the head coach of the Catania Elephants in Italy’s second division. He was the defensive coordinator for the Barcelona Dragons of the European League of Football for the latter part of the 2021 season joining the team with five games to go. With Wood running the defense, the Dragons won two of their final three games of the season.
Prior to joining the Dragons in 2021, Wood led the Milano Seamen to the Italian Bowl in where they lost in overtime to the Parma Panthers. He had been the head coach for the Seamen since the 2018 season leading them to a 28-4 overall record with two Italian titles and a second place.
The former Ohio State Buckeye defensive back, who played in four bowl games including the Rose Bowl, has built up an impressive coaching resume over the past 30 years following the end of his playing career which included two seasons with Germany’s Kempten Comets.
He has had coaching stints with the Paris Mousquetaires, the Italian national team, Ithaca College in New York, Columbia University, Pomona-Pitzer College, and Chapman University. His European coaching background includes the Bolzano Giants, Danube Dragons, Flash La Courneuve (2014), and the Allgäu Comets (2015). He served as the defensive coordinator of the Giants again in 2017. Following the Italian season, he then took on the defensive coordinator’s role with the Europe Warriors team that played against one of Mexico’s top college teams, the UNAM Pumas CU in August of 2017.
Needless to say, Wood is looking forward to the challenge and to working with head coach Marcus Herford again. Herford was Wood’s offensive coordinator with the Milano Seamen:
“Getting an opportunity to coach in the EFL and do it in Switzerland with the Helvetic Mercenaries is a challenge that I want to take on. I have coached with Marcus Herford in Milano with the Seamen, and we won a couple of championships. So, getting to work with him again is familiar, and I know that his work ethic and passion for the game are compatible with mine. Obviously, we have a big hill to climb, but those are the type of challenges that make coaching this sport so rewarding. We all know what has happened in the past, but 2025 is a new season and a new group of guys. We will be tested every day and have to find ways to improve our productivity. So, signing the right people and getting everyone on the same page is the first step in building a solid foundation for the upcoming season. Day by day, brick by brick.”
