Julia Reininger hardly had a quiet minute this week. The team manager of the American football team Frankfurt Galaxy was on the phone and on the phone and wrote e-mails and messages – all while the players and coaches were really resting.
After seven strenuous weeks with seven games and numerous training sessions, it was the so-called bye week for Galaxy, a game-free week that head coach Thomas Kösling was “really looking forward to” because it offered the opportunity that is usually abused in this sport Resting muscles and bones and “not thinking about football at all for a while.”
Frankfurt Galaxy needs wins
After a mixed start to the season in the European League of Football (ELF), Kösling identified a mental block in his team, which he saw as the cause of the often fluctuating performance and, above all, results. His hope: Eight days without training will cure this blockage, which he believes has been caused by the great pressure to perform, increased public attention and internal expectations; At the beginning of the season, those responsible for the Galaxy had given the title defense as the primary goal of the season.
With a record of four wins and three defeats, the team now faces the challenge of not being allowed to lose another game if they still want to qualify for the play-offs in the end. Whether Kösling’s plan has worked out will be seen this Sunday (3 p.m.) when he and his team are back on the pitch.
Organizational talent: Julia Reininger
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Image: Nathalie Ulbricht
This is exactly where Julia Reininger comes into play: The eighth game in the European league is taking place at the Panthers Wrocław in Poland. The planning for the trip away has been going on for weeks, together with managing director Christopher Knower, who is also heavily involved in the organisation, Julia Reininger had to clear quite a few hurdles: “It starts with the hotel: such a large group Recording for a weekend is a real challenge for many companies.”
With an airplane provided by a Galaxy co-owner, which has its own Galaxy design, the players and the coaching and support staff went along with the extensive equipment that a football team needs for the game – helmets, shoulder pads, jerseys, pants , shoes, team clothing, medical equipment as well as snacks and isotonic drinks – on Saturday to Poland.
Probably unique in European football: Frankfurt Galaxy adorns an airplane.
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Bild: German Airways
“In the evening everyone stretches their legs a little after the many hours on the plane and at the airport, then there is food and then most of them will go to bed,” Julia Reininger explains the process. “On Sunday, after breakfast, there are first meetings of the offensive and the defensive and then of the whole team, at the latest three hours before kick-off we are in the stadium.”
After the game, in which head coach Kösling has to do without the strong running back Kai Hunter due to a back injury, the team goes to dinner and then back to the hotel. The return flight is scheduled for early Monday morning. “And then a new week begins.”
Almost nobody at the Galaxy currently makes a living from football, among the players are students, many have a regular job – as do the coaches and supervisors, some work on a voluntary basis. “Nevertheless, we’re really looking forward to such away games, especially the players think it’s cool to be able to travel to other countries with their sport,” says Julia Reininger, who is employed as an administrative officer by the state of Hesse on a day-to-day basis.
She doesn’t complain that her tight schedule leaves little time for sightseeing or activities outside of the stadium, hotel and airport. As a team manager, she has a very pragmatic attitude: “The focus is on football. We’re not there for vacation.” Coach Kösling should see things the same way.
