The Deutscher Eishockey-Bund has filled the positions of national coach for the women's national team and the U18 women's national team. From January 1, 2019, Christian Künast will look after the women's national team as national coach on a long-term basis. Franziska Busch is now taking over as interim coach of the U18 women's national team.
Christian Künast will train the U20 national team until the end of the year and will therefore also be at the 2019 IIHF U20 Ice Hockey World Championship Div. IA in Füssen (December 9th to 15th, 2018) behind the gang. After the turn of the year, he will take over the management of the women's national team with the long-term goal of preparing the team for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and qualifying for the tournament.
Franziska Busch has already taken over the management of the U18 women's national team at the four-nation tournament in Bad Tölz and is preparing DEB-Selection currently based on the upcoming 2019 IIHF U18 Ice Hockey Women's World Championship Div. IA (January 7th to 13th, 2019 in Radenthein). Busch will look after the team as interim coach until the end of the current season.
DEB-President Franz Reindl: “The upheaval and reorganization in the women's area for the new Olympic cycle is taking giant steps. We are very happy to have gained an experienced, motivated women's national coach in Christian Künast and a young, newly trained U18 women's national coach in Franziska Busch for the important and difficult tasks ahead. Our women’s national teams have to assert themselves in the world and participation in Beijing 2022 is the absolute goal.”
DEB-Sports Director Stefan Schaidnagel: “Christian Künast convinced us with his concept and vision for German women's ice hockey, as did Franziska Busch with her perfectly complementary orientation for the U18 national team. Both are well trained, have experience at an international level and want to actively shape the positive development of the women's teams. The players can look forward to a sophisticated sports concept.
At the same time, we would like to expressly thank Benjamin Hinterstocker and Tommy Kettner for the work they have done over the last few years and wish them both all the best for the future.”
Christian Künast: “After almost four years as a Young Talent national coach, I am looking forward to my new tasks with the women’s national team. Over the past few years we have created a philosophy and structure in the men's and young talent areas, which we will now build on, further develop and implement on the existing basic structures of the women's national teams."