Head coach Franziska Busch moves from the U18 to the senior women’s national team.
photo: Steve Kingsman / HHOF-IIHF Images
The German Ice Hockey Association has named Franziska Busch head coach of the women’s national team that will compete at the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship in Canada.
Busch replaces Christian Kunast, who has been appointed sport director ad interim recently. She will be assisted by Norbert Weber and Thomas Schadler. The coaching staff at the Women’s Worlds will be completed with goaltending coach Jan Kamenik and athletic coach Florian Klausner.
Busch was already coaching the team last month when Germany won two out of three exhibition games against Switzerland.
“I’m of course looking forward to take over this task but I see ourselves as a coaching team. The cooperation with the entire staff works very well and is fun. We are in a process to adjust our preparation according to the requirements for the World Championship in particular with the strict quarantine rules that apply for all nations,” Busch said.
“We can now profit from our experiences with the World Juniors. From the sport side it’s difficult to evaluate before the World Championship because there have been few games but we will be well prepared and we’re really looking forward to it.”
The 35-year-old was a top-level player in Germany until 2015/2016. She represented Germany in eight IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship tournaments (six in the top division) and two Olympic Winter Games before becoming a youth coach.
She took part in the Coach Development Program of the 2018 IIHF Women’s High-Performance Camp in Finland and in the same year was promoted to head coach of the U18 women’s national team. In her second year she led Germany to gold at the 2020 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women’s World Championship Division I Group A and a return to the top-level nations.
At the senior level Germany has been playing in the top division since 2017. In the two-tiered preliminary round Germany will play in Group B in Truro at the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship and aim at a top-3 finish against Japan, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Hungary to reach the quarter-finals.
Busch replaces Christian Kunast, who has been appointed sport director ad interim recently. She will be assisted by Norbert Weber and Thomas Schadler. The coaching staff at the Women’s Worlds will be completed with goaltending coach Jan Kamenik and athletic coach Florian Klausner.
Busch was already coaching the team last month when Germany won two out of three exhibition games against Switzerland.
“I’m of course looking forward to take over this task but I see ourselves as a coaching team. The cooperation with the entire staff works very well and is fun. We are in a process to adjust our preparation according to the requirements for the World Championship in particular with the strict quarantine rules that apply for all nations,” Busch said.
“We can now profit from our experiences with the World Juniors. From the sport side it’s difficult to evaluate before the World Championship because there have been few games but we will be well prepared and we’re really looking forward to it.”
The 35-year-old was a top-level player in Germany until 2015/2016. She represented Germany in eight IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship tournaments (six in the top division) and two Olympic Winter Games before becoming a youth coach.
She took part in the Coach Development Program of the 2018 IIHF Women’s High-Performance Camp in Finland and in the same year was promoted to head coach of the U18 women’s national team. In her second year she led Germany to gold at the 2020 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women’s World Championship Division I Group A and a return to the top-level nations.
At the senior level Germany has been playing in the top division since 2017. In the two-tiered preliminary round Germany will play in Group B in Truro at the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship and aim at a top-3 finish against Japan, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Hungary to reach the quarter-finals.