A lot of question marks popped up, when the Cologne Centurions announced the departure of head coach Kahlil Carter a few weeks ago. Who will be the team’s head coach? Who will take over the defense that played awful over the past two seasons? And when will the Special Teams Coordinator be announced? As of today, all these questions have been answered.

Lambropoulos remains at the helm

After Carter’s departure it was announced that offensive coordinator Christos Lambropoulos would take over as the interim head coach. There was never a doubt about the Greek’s qualities as a coach, which he already showed with the Saarland Hurricanes, but he is the opposite of the coach that was supposed to lead the team into the season. After two years of offensive minded head coaches, an experienced American that can finally fix the terrible defensive performances seemed like a great choice. But a young, up-and-coming “players coach”, as sports director David Drane describes him, is an intriguing option as well.

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Returning defensive coordinator and new special teams coach

In case the Centurions stick with Lambropoulos, it seemed certain that an experienced American defensive coordinator takes over the struggling defense. Surprisingly, that did not happen, and the 2021 playoff participants re-signed defensive coordinator Javan Lenhardt. Despite his defense being one of the two worst performing units in the league in both of his seasons, Lenhardt gets a third chance to make it right. He will get some assistance from former CFL player Dave Donaldson, who will also be the special teams coordinator. No easy task, since the special teams have also been a problem for Cologne over the past two seasons, but definitely not an impossible job.

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Despite a tumultuous off-season and difficult tasks ahead, head coach Lambropoulos cannot wait for the season to start:

"I am looking forward to working with our coaches and players to continue to build on the foundation we have started to lay. I'm optimistic we'll put a competitive team on the field that could be good for many surprises."

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