After winning the silver medal at the Women’s World Floorball Championships in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, the Swiss Floorball Association prolonged the contract with the head coach Rolf Kern until 2024. In April, he will start the new WFC project with the team.
The Swiss women’s national team made a sensational comeback in the WFC semi-final against Czech Republic and went on to win the silver medal as the WFC host country in December 2019. One of the people responsible for the “miracle of Neuchâtel” is the head coach Rolf Kern. Kern has been the women’s head coach since 2016 and has also won bronze at the Women’s WFC 2017 in Bratislava. Now he will continue as the head coach for four more years.
– Working with the team is enough motivation. Our goals were to stand together as a team, go together and do everything for success. The women did that and that is why I am really motivated, to continue on this path we have chosen, says Kern in Swiss Floorball Association’s interview.
Remo Manser, who is responsible for the Swiss national teams, is convinced that Kern is the right man for the future:
– Our women’s national team has gained so much quality with him in the game that they showed during the WFC in Neuchâtel. Continuity and belief in what we do are important cornerstones of our work. The four-year contract should be another sign of this, Manser comments.
“It all begins from scratch”
Rolf Kern is aware that one or more silver medalists will retire and a new WFC project will start. The WFC 2019 is over:
– The great results do not help us anymore. It all begins again from scratch. The new start is a big challenge for all of us.
That is why he and the other staff members were concerned about whether a majority of the staff would be willing to give everything for the team again. Some of them said yes.
– It was important to me that most of the staff stayed together because we have a good harmony, says Kern.
In addition to Kern, the assistant coach Kari Koskelainen and the athletics trainer Philipp Purkert, have signed new contracts and Melanie Rüdisüli remains as the physiotherapist. Discussions with the other staff members are still ongoing.
The women’s national team will get together in the end of April for a training camp in Zuchwil. Then, the new WFC project Uppsala 2022, begins.
Source: swiss unihockey
