The Deutscher Eishockey-Bund has filled the position of women's national coach. From the coming 2021/22 season, Thomas Schädler will take over the position and succeed Christian Künast, who now holds the position of sports director. Franziska Busch, who was temporarily in charge of coaching DEB-Women, continues her work as U18 women's national coach.
Schädler had DEB has previously worked as a U16 national coach and in the last few months Busch has been an assistant coach with the DEB-Women supported. After the IIHF Women's World Championship was postponed to August, the Rosenheim native also worked as a video coach in the national team's World Cup preparations.
Schädler was an ice hockey professional himself and began a coaching career in 2004. He has supported it ever since DEB regularly before the 53-year-old started working as U16 national coach two years ago. Schädler repeatedly looked after various U-national teams, mainly in the U16 to U18 age range, as a fee-based coach. He worked as the head coach in charge, but also as an assistant alongside other coaches. Schädler was involved in the U18 national team's return to the top division at the U2007 World Championships in 2012 and 2016 (top division) as well as in 2019 (division IA) and 18.
DEB-President Franz Reindl: “With his CV, enormous wealth of experience, quality and acceptance, Thomas Schädler is predestined for this challenging and important competitive sports position. He has the full support and absolute trust to lead the women's national team into the future. In addition to the IIHF Women's World Championship 2021 in August, the final Olympic qualification tournament in November will be the first very important milestone for Thomas Schädler in his new role.”
DEB-Sports director Christian Künast: “Thomas Schädler is a very good and experienced ice hockey expert. We are pleased that we were able to sign him as women's national coach. He has worked very intensively on the women's coaching staff in the last few weeks and months and is very motivated to further develop this important area for us and to continue the upward trend of the last few years. This also includes stable support from the Bundeswehr's sports support group, which enables us to work under professional conditions. We would also like to thank Franziska Busch, who took over the position on an interim basis and did a very good job during this time.”
Women’s national coach Thomas Schädler: “I am full of anticipation and am tackling the new task with enthusiasm. Nevertheless, there is a bit of sadness about leaving the U16 after two years. I would like to thank the executive board and sports director Christian Künast for their trust. I would like to further develop what Christian has built and further promote the acceptance of women's ice hockey. I would also like to have a trusting collaboration with the players, the clubs and our U18 women’s national coach Franziska Busch. With the World Cup and Olympic qualification, there are two major events coming up in the next few months that we need to prepare for now.”