Schelling, first female GM of men's team, gets settled in new job

Florence Schelling expected there would be some interest in her story after she was named the general manager of SC Bern, the defending champion of Switzerland's top professional men's league, on April 8. She did not expect what has happened in the week since.

"It's been crazy. It's been a lot," she said Friday. "A lot of interviews. A lot of messages and phone calls that I've received. It's almost been a bit overwhelming."

The 31-year-old is the first female general manager of a top-level men's professional hockey team. She retired from playing hockey in 2018, but before then, the former goalie had been a mainstay on the Swiss national team, playing in 11 World Championships and three Olympics. She helped Switzerland win a bronze medal at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and was named tournament MVP.

So she is no stranger to pressure.

In late March, Schelling got a call from the CEO of SC Bern, Marc Luthi. It would change the trajectory of her career. Luthi told her she was one of two favorites for the GM job.

She thought it was a joke. Then she was hired by SC Bern, a 16-time champion of Switzerland's National League, including three titles in the past four seasons prior to this one.

"It wasn't the intended path that I was thinking I could go right now," Schelling said. "It was definitely in the back of my mind, just not for right now. At the same time, I was coaching and I really enjoyed coaching, but it wasn't giving me the satisfaction that I wanted.

"I think it was approximately three, four weeks ago that I made the decision for myself that I do want to go back to men's hockey as a coach or in some other way -- and then it happened."

She got the call, out of the blue.

"Receiving the phone call was very, very surprising," said Schelling, the only woman ever to play in the Swiss men's national B league. "But at the same time, this is what I wanted."

Since ended her playing career, Schelling had explored coaching. She was working as the coach of the Swiss under-18 women's team and traveled to Boston in February for a week to study under her former coach at Northeastern, Dave Flint, shadowing him.

She paid her own way, just for the chance to learn more and work on her skills. And though Flint was also surprised to hear about her new position when she called him to relay the news, it was something that made sense to her former coach.

"It's just the type of person she is," Flint said. "She wants to make a difference. She's so committed in everything she does. … She's just always trying to get better. 'What can I do to learn, to get better?' You see sometimes you have these amazing athletes and they think, 'Hey, I just want the job and I should get the job because of who I am.' But she understands, 'I've got to work. I've got to educate myself, and when I get the opportunity, I need to be the best that I can be to prove that I can do it.

"With her, with that mindset, I think she's going to do amazing things."

Schelling began her duties on Tuesday, having just moved to Bern. Though it is certainly not business as usual because of the coronavirus, she has started working with Bern's players on developing strategies for tackling the realities right now.

"I have to take it step-by-step," she said. "Obviously this isn't a regular time currently, with the coronavirus, so we would have started with off-ice summer training around this time and obviously with all the limitations and restrictions that we have, we have to kind of work around it and build up different scenarios on how we make sure that the players are staying in shape and what our possibilities are.

"It's all about figuring out the best solutions for right now."