Austria: Thalheim Graz Giants re-sign HC Michael Mattingly

The Thalheim Graz Giants have re-signed head coach Michael Mattingly for the 2024 Austrian Football League season.

This will be the 31-year-old Mattingly’s second straight season with the Giants who he guided to an 8-3 record (best record and most wins since 2016) and a semifinal berth in the AFL in 2023.

Mattingly had spent the previous three seasons as head coach of the Helsinki Wolverines in Finland’s Maple League leading the team to the semifinals in both 2020 and 2022 and a finals appearance in 2020.

The Ashburn, Virginia native, originally arrived in Finland as head coach of the Seinäjoki Crocodiles in 2018. He took over a last-place 2-10 team and in 2019 led them to the playoffs with a 6-6 record. He then signed on as defensive coordinator of the Ingolstadt Dukes of the German Football League for the 2020 season, but the GFL season was canceled due to the pandemic

A graduate of Tusculum University, he has also served as linebackers coach and game-day analyst for Broad Run High School in Ashburn in 2018-19, helping produce the number one defense in the region two years in a row.