There’s nothing quite like being the host team in a tournament and head coach of the Austria U17 Girls team Holly Thomas Kellner has his team ready to compete in front of a home crowd in Innsbruck on Thursday.
“Hosting a tournament is truly exciting, and having such a huge fanbase cheering for us will definitely fire us up even more,” says Kellner, who has been coaching national teams since 2017. “Playing in Innsbruck will be an incredible experience for every kid stepping onto the field on Saturday.
Being one of the more advanced American football nations in Europe, Austria has benefitted from having an established youth league for more than ten years. Such experience will prove advantageous to the older age group players and the team’s coaches.
“It’s hard to single out specific key players on the team because we are our strength, which has been the mindset throughout all four camps,” Kellner explains. “Definitely a strength of our team is our coaching staff. Having two outstanding coordinators as well as having the pleasure to work with a mental coach makes my job really easy and allows me to never lose focus on the big picture.”
Talking of the bigger picture, three years from now, flag football will make its Olympic debut in Los Angeles. Today’s U17 stars will be almost twenty-years-old that summer and might have an opportunity to be a part of Austria’s squad if they qualify.
“This might be the last generation with a real shot at LA 2028,” Kellner says. “For the others, we hope that Brisbane 2032 will become a reality. Nevertheless, the attention—especially in a country like Austria, which has a strong record of success on the highest stage with its adult teams—has grown significantly. This means more talented players are falling in love with flag football, and the competition is getting bigger and bigger.”
Austria’s U17 girls open their tournament against Czechia at 11.30am CET on Field 2 on Thursday.
A total of 31 teams from 12 nations will light up the American Football Zentrum Innsbruck and the Sportanlage Wiesengasse in the Tyrolean capital at the Boys U17 and Girls U17 and mixed U15 age groups. Games will be streamed live at IFAF.TV.
The full schedule and scores will be available at https://www.flagyouthec.at/.
