Meet Phoebe Schecter

Get Your Sports Thesaurus Out And Look Under “Dynamic Multi-Sport Elite Level Athlete”, They Will Probably Be A Picture Of Phoebe Schecter.

The twenty seven year old dual national (her mum is British, her dad American) is a multi-discipline competitor who leads the GB women’s team defence from her middle linebacker position. Blessed with power and speed, her biggest asset on the field is her ability to read and react. Ball hawk doesn’t do her justice, in the recent international against Spain, her closing ability and tough tackling made her the perennial thorn in the side of the Spanish offence. She racked up 15 tackles, 1 sack, 1 blocked punt and a fumble recovery. Pretty impressive, for someone who hadn’t played the sport until four years ago.

Phoebe came to England in 2012 from Connecticut, to work with the Dutch three-day eventing team (she is an accomplished equestrian). To supplement her income she started working as a mobile personal trainer but wanted to find a sport where she would be part of a team, she found it when she saw an advert for the Great Britain women’s American Football programme. Initially she was minded to play quarterback, but her propensity to play a physical role led her to the linebacker group and she excelled. Not being satisfied with just one version of the sport, she also plays the flag version for GB and contact for the Birmingham Lions women’s team. A natural coach, she quickly qualified to BAFCA level two and was enlisted to help the Staffordshire Surge adult contact side. It didn’t take long before she was actually playing for the team, initially as a safety and subsequently in her favoured linebacker slot. With her reputation as a top quality coach spreading, she is now part of the NFL’s “Play 60” team, who work with local children to help spread the popularity of the game, when the NFL International games are happening in London.

You won’t be surprised to learn that she doesn’t limit herself to gridiron derivatives, she also represents England in Kabaddi, the high intensity “team tag game”. The England team recently secured a very creditable runners-up spot in Canada, and in November, she will be flying out to India for the world championships.

You may just be thinking that her face looks familiar. Did you perhaps see her on TV on a Saturday night? If you watch Ninja Warrior UK, then you would have! Always looking for another challenge she was a competitor, and the producers were so impressed with her, they asked her to come back and be a course tester.

Her passion though is for Football and her ambition is to play for GB in a world championship. That looked to be on the cards after a runners-up spot in the European Championships and a convincing win against the Spanish, but recent wrangling within the International Federation of American Football has left things up in the air for now.

It would be reasonable to assume that if Phoebe isn’t asleep, she will either be playing or coaching sport. Her schedule takes her the length and breadth of the UK and often around the world, acting as an ambassador for the sport. Is there any chance she will start to slow down?...no! and that’s excellent news for the game in Great Britain and beyond.

GB v Spain - Kyle Hemsley