Naisten joukkueen alkuvuosi on ollut muutoksien aikaa. Alkuperäinen valmentajatilanne muuttui äkillisesti ja joukkueenjohto alkoi selvittää tilannetta. Eric Slivoskey luotsasi joukkuetta vajaat kaksi kuukautta, minkä jälkeen kauden pysyvä päävalmentaja ja puolustuksen koordinaattori Ruben Contreras saapui. Joukkueenjohtaja Heini Tirkkonen kommentoi valmentajakiinnitystä: ”Teimme paljon töitä etsiessämme päävalmentajaa, joka vastaisi joukkueen tarpeisiin. Työ palkittiin, kun Ruben saapui Mikkeliin maaliskuussa. On ollut ilo seurata joukkueen kasvanutta intoa sekä sitoutumista kehittymiseen. Uskon Rubenin tarjoavan joukkueelle sitä mitä tarvitsemme.” Tirkkonen lisää vielä olevansa odotettua tyytyväisempi, että vaatimustasoa on nostettu ja pelaajat haluavat vastata siihen.

A little bit about yourself: Who are you and how did you end up coaching the Lady Bouncers?
”My name is Ruben Contreras Salazar, I was born in Mexico City, 41 years ago. I’ve played football since the age of 6 till I got retired from football at age 35. I played 3 years of college football under full scholarship, I played as cornerback and safety, then I played 6 years as an import in countries like Germany, Spain, Austria and Czech Republic.

I started to coach when I was 22 in Mexico and at 24 was my first contact with the University of Oregon, where I kept going more times till recent years.Some of the Coaches from Oregon went to University of California Berkeley and I decided to go there to keep learning more about defense and strength and conditioning. The same story happens with some coaches from California, went to coach to University of Texas, then I decided that I will go there to be and intern in the summer 2021.

I’ve been coaching around the world my whole life, but in 2008 I moved to Vienna, Austria to live permanently and started to coach there and as well in Prague, Czech Republic where I was living for a couple of years.I like to travel, and I love to coach, so when I saw the opportunity to come to Finland to spread the knowledge and share my experience I didn’t even think twice.”

What’s your experience on the team after a week of practices and a camp?
”I have a good experience after two weeks of training, I see a lot of talented athletes with a lot of good skills and passion for football.”

What are the team’s strengths in your opinion?
”The strength of the team is the experience of most of the players, they know how to play, and they have the athleticism.”

What are your strengths and how will you help the players in preparing for the upcoming season?
”I’m a very disciplined coach that believes in commitment, consistency and hard work. My strength is that I’ve played a lot of years and I’ve coached a lot of years as well, I know what it takes to have a champion team. It’s still a long way but we are preparing every day to be ready for the season. Right now, we had two weeks of athletic preparation where they could set a higher standard for themselves, now they know that we will keep training at a higher level for the rest of the season.I’m gonna push our players, not only physically but mentally and emotionally.

”For our fans and followers, I want to say, that football is not an easy sport. Football is supposed to be hard and difficult, it’s supposed to hurt and be exhausting, but we are preparing like professionals and what I expect from everyone is that they understand that is a process, and we are going to take the right steps to win games.”

Winning starts Today!

@duck4.pro