Every week during the countdown to this summer’s IFAF Flag Football World Championships in Lahti, IFAF will profile the nations heading to Finland from August 27-30 by exploring their pedigree and featuring some of the players to watch.
The quarterfinals of major tournaments have proved to be an unsurmountable hurdle for Italy’s women’s team. Beaten in the last eight by Mexico at the 2021 IFAF Flag Football World Championships, Panama at The World Games and Spain in last year’s continental competition, the Italians are agonizingly close to competing for a medal.
This summer, the women’s team made headlines with a significant coaching change. Head coach Omar Passera has returned to playing the game, opening the way for Katie Sowers to take over the responsibility for leading Italy to glory.
Sowers, a former player in the Women's Football Alliance, and is a true trailblazer having coached with several NFL teams, including the Atlanta Falcons, Kansas City Chiefs and in particular the San Francisco 49ers, with whom reached Super Bowl LIV. She is the Director of Athletic Strategic Initiatives at Ottawa University in Kansas where she also coaches the university's women’s flag football team.
Her impressive résumé convinced a national team with big ambitions that she is the coach to make a push for the IFAF world title and qualification for the World Games and ultimately the Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
At the 2023 IFAF European Championships in Ireland last summer, Italy was knocked out of medal contention by eventual silver medalists Spain. The Italian women currently sit 12th in the IFAF Flag Football world Rankings but will pose a threat come this year’s tournament in Finland in August.
Italy held two evaluation camps in March under the watching eye of coach Sowers with more than 70 athletes participating from across the country and a third session is planned for June.
Luke Zahradkra was a notable absentee for the Italian men’s national team in Ireland last year as the team’s established quarterback was unable to line up under center due to club commitments.
Italy had posed the biggest threat to the United States’ dominance at The World Games in Alabama in 2022. Led by Zahradkra, Italy topped their group, beating Austria, Mexico and Germany, then following a quarterfinal win over France, saw off the challenge of Mexico in the semifinals. The final against USA was a close one, ending in a ten-point defeat with a silver medal as a credible consolation.
“Winning the silver medal at the World Games was an unbelievable and unforgettable experience for all of us,” said wide receiver Flavio Piccinni. “It was a high-level tournament where almost every game was decided in the final minutes, if not on the last play.”
A year earlier an unbeaten 4-0 group stage record – with Denmark, Japan, Switzerland, and Brazil all beaten – led to a 27-24 quarterfinal win over Austria. The semifinal was an even closer contest, but Italy came up a point short, in a 36-35 loss to eventual silver medalists Mexico. Only five points separated Italy and Panama in the third-place game, but there was to be no bronze medal for the Italians.
A team missing its first-choice quarterback was still competitive in Ireland winning three and losing one group game but were no match for eventual champions Germany in a 44-13 quarterfinal reverse. Ranked sixth in the 2023 IFAF Flag Football World Rankings, Italy’s men will expect to be challenging for medals when the focus turns to Lahti in Finland this August.
# # #
