Jessy Ringelstein will make history this weekend when she takes charge of the IFAF Europe U19 Championship game between Great Britain and France.

Having already worn the white hat earlier this year for an IFAF Women’s European Championships game in Germany, the Hamburg native will be among the first female officials to referee a game of this magnitude at international level. GB and France get the weekend’s six U19 games underway at 19:00 (20:00 CET) on Friday, playing for seventh place in the final standings in Coventry.

“For me it’s a really great honor to work this game,” says Jessy. “It’s big, not just for me, but for all female officials in our sport. I’ve been working for a long time to get here and gained a lot of experience as a referee in local games. All the little steps over the last years got me to this game.

“In the Women’s World Championship in Finland it was about fifty-fifty male to female officials, which was good, and we had one other female head referee and she was from the U.S., so I was the only European, which is quite big. That was the first step towards this game because IFAF saw my potential and now here I am this week.”

Davie Parsons, Chair of the IFAF Officiating Committee, who assigned Jessy to the game said, “Historically we have been a sport dominated by male officials. We do have other females within our ranks now, but Jessy is the only one to take on the leadership position of referee and she has really earned this opportunity. Her success shows we are promoting diversity and attracting more females to our ranks.”

Jessy first discovered American football at the age of five when her father took her to watch the Hamburg Blue Devils of the GFL and later the city’s Sea Devils of NFL Europe, his interest having started when the NFL played a preseason game in Berlin in 1990.

“I was asked during one of the Sea Devils games by a local women’s team if I wanted to play and I was 15 years old at that time, so I started playing and I’ve been involved with the sport ever since,” she says.

Jessy played for five years as a linebacker with the Hamburg Amazons and joined the coaching and officiating ranks. Wearing the zebra stripes since 2008, she achieved the top GFL license in 2016 and has been a regular attendee at the Great Lakes Clinic in Michigan. Her success has led to officiating at numerous GFL playoff games, the German Bowl in 2018, the 2019 Ladies Bowl, and at the IFAF Women’s World Championship in Finland in last year.

While IFAF is working to ensure a gender balance across multiple areas for future championships, many sports have traditionally marginalized female participation, particularly in the world of officiating. Jessy has not experienced any major issues whether involved in male, female, adult or junior games.

“For the women’s games they’re always excited to have female officials and it doesn’t matter if we are an all-female crew or just two people, they’re just excited to see someone like them,” she says. “For the men’s games in the GFL mainly they don’t really seem to notice. I’ve had positive feedback, especially from U.S. coaches who are over here and are sometimes just surprised to see a woman officiating, but they have no problems with that.

“There will be two female officials on the field in the German Bowl this year, so I think we are on a good track in Germany. We have many good young female officials who are climbing the ranks and are getting into the higher leagues. I’m excited to see what’s to come.”

Jessy believes that women considering participating in American football either as players or officials, and those currently climbing through the ranks are finding inspiration in trailblazers such as Sarah Thomas, the first female to officiate at a Super Bowl. The NFL also has Robin DeLorenzo and Maia Chaka, the first black female official, on its crews this season.

“There is way more representation now,” she explains. “There are a lot more girls and women who just do it and don’t care about what other people think and are successful. Other people see it and believe they can do it too, which is the thing that matters. In the last few years I think social media has played a big part as well. It’s easier to get out there and be seen.”

For Jessy, her personal upward trajectory would mean wearing the white hat in the GFL, and more refereeing assignments in international competition beyond the borders of Europe.

“We’ll see how that goes,” she says. “It might take a few years but that’s okay. I’ve been learning while officiating. I’m just stoked to have had the games in Germany and Spain, and now to have this game. I just have to align myself with where I’m at right now and go from there. There are people who feel I am capable of this, so I’m just going to show them they’re right.”