The IFF welcomes its new intern James Varečka from the United Kingdom, who will be strengthening the IFF office team for the next months. James will for example be working on the IFF Sustainability Manual for Event Organisers and different communication, marketing and other tasks.
Your background and connection to floorball?
— I am from London, UK and have been involved with sport all my life. It is my main passion and what drove me to study Sports Management at the University of Gloucestershire in Gloucester, UK, from which I graduated in 2021. My background consists of half British and half Slovak. From a young age I was always watching and playing various sports, eventually concentrating more on tennis which became my main sport that I played growing up. My focus switched to coaching which started at age 15 from which I continued to do for over 10 years, combining with my academic studies.
— I became involved in floorball by volunteering at the Men’s World Championships that took place in Helsinki in December 2021. After receiving the news that I would be team guide for Denmark at the championships I studied the sport, to learn as much as possible and found many similarities between it and the rules of ice hockey (of which I am a big fan). I plan to play floorball as much as possible and try and get into an amateur team to practice and play on a regular schedule.
Why did you decide to apply for internship at the IFF?
— My time as a team guide at the World Championships was extremely enjoyable. This experience increased my desire to work in an sports organisation or for sports events. Floorball is also a very fun sport to watch and I enjoyed the limited time I have spent practicing it so far also.
— I have always been fascinated by the “behind the scenes” aspect of sports organisations and events. I decided to apply to the IFF in order to gain experience and first hand knowledge of a major sports federation and how they run on a “day to day” basis. My internship will last for 6 months and I will be working on creating posts for social media, building a sustainability and media guide for various IFF campaigns, events and future event organisers, working on a portal for IFF media and various other promotional and marketing projects.
The IFF office welcomes James to the team!
