During the buildup to the 2025 IFAF Americans Flag Football Championships, IFAF has posed three questions to the head coaches of the men’s and women’s teams about to compete for continental glory.
Brazil men’s head coach Heitor Medeiros started coaching American football in 2014 when he was only 17. He has coached with five teams since then: Mossoro Petroleiros (DC), Bulls Potiguares (HC), Rio Preto Weilers (OC), and Sorriso Hornets (HC/ST).
He is the receivers coach for the Brazil national tackle team, head for the flag football program (men and women) of Recife Mariners and the defensive coordinator for the tackle program of Mariners. In 2015 he started coaching flag football and joined the Brazil national team as offensive coordinator, before taking charge in 2022.
What are the goals for your team in this tournament ?
It’s to be on top fibe and get the spot to the IFAF World Championship next year.
What will be the strengths of your team and which players should we watch for?
The intelligence and the situational awareness, bringing some speed on the offensive side with new players. We changed our system and we worked during one year to correct the mistakes from last year’s world championship in Finland. This process gave us a lot of experience and awareness to be back on international stage this year. Keep an eye on Edmar dos Santos DB/WR, Victor Vilaça WR and Vitor Paiva QB.
What do you think of the group you have been drawn into?
It's a very tough challenge when you face the best team in the world in USA, and the team that beat them earlier this year in Canada, but it's these kind of games that give us more excitement to play. We want to play against the best on the planet on a big stage at early stages.
Colombia is making his first appearance in international stage as a national team but they have a lot of experience playing flag with players from other countries and US and Mexico players. They're fast and shifty so this is going to be a head-to-head battle. Guatemala is a wild card for us because we’ve never played against them, but they have international experience, they played at the IFAF World Championships in 2018 and they're bringing some skillful players, so we need to stay alert during the whole game and be ready to face a tough opponent for 40 minutes.
