Patrick Esume New Head Coach of the French National Team
The French Federation of American Football announced that Patrick Esume will take over as head coach of the French National Team, on the senior side.
Coach Esume will also serve as offensive coordinator and has added former NFL coach Bob Valesente as his defensive coordinator.
Esume comes to the French team with an impressive resume, most recently as head coach of the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes where he won a German championship in 2010 and qualified for the German finals two straight years after that. He was named coach of the year in Germany in 2010 and with Kiel won the EFL (European Football League) title in 2014.
Kiel Baltic Hurricanes, German Champions, 2010
Coach Esume is very happy:
“This is truly a great honor for me, to lead such a great nation onto the gridiron and into the World Championships next year.”
He arrived in Kiel after a highly successful year as head coach of La Courneuve Flash winning the French championship in 2009.
His overall coaching record of 85-19 speaks for itself. He first started coaching with Frankfurt in NFL Europe in 2002 moving to Hamburg the following year, eventually becoming the offensive coordinator for the Sea Devils in 2007 (the only non-American coordinator in the history of NFL Europe). That team won the World Bowl championship in 2007.
La Courneuve Flash, French Champions, 2009
His accolades are too numerous to mention, but he also served as a guest coach at training camp for the Oakland Raiders, Cleveland Browns and the Philadelphia Eagles.
In 2006 and 2007 he was the director of the NFLE International Camps held in Germany, Holland, Sweden and England but helped run camps in a number of other places such as Mexico.
His defensive coordinator Bob Valesente coached for many years in the college ranks with stints at Cornell, Cincinnati, Kansas, Arizona, Mississippi State and Maryland. He started his NFL coaching career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, moving to the Green Bay Packers in 1992 and staying with them through the 1998 season.
Bob Valesente and Patrick Esume
With the Packers, he helped win a Super Bowl in 1996. After spending the 1999 season with the Carolina Panthers, he came to Europe as the defensive coordinator for the Frankfurt Galaxy in 2001 and stayed for three seasons. As defensive coordinator of the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes in 2010 he helped Coach Esume win the German championship.
France finished third in the 2014 European Championships and qualified for the championship game in 2010 ultimately losing to Germany.
The French national team has never won the European Championships.
