After opening the 2022 German Football League season by losing five of six games, the Marburg Mercenaries decided they needed to make a change at head coach. In stepped Augie Stevens. After a loss in Stevens’ debut as head coach of the Mercenaries, he led the team on a three-game winning streak to finish the season.
Fans in Marburg now have a season to look forward to as things seem to be trending upward under Coach Stevens. Even though the team finished sixth in the eight-team GFL South, the Mercenaries’ offense was able to put up 136 points with Stevens at the helm., including a 56-point game against Frankfurt.
Before finding his new home in Marburg, Stevens spent time in Poland as head coach for the Tychy Falcons in 2022. After finishing third in the regular season with a high-powered Falcons offense, Stevens then led the team to its first ever appearance in the Polish Football League semifinals.
This will not be Stevens’ first ride in the GFL as he spent 2021 as the offensive coordinator for the Ravensburg Razorbacks. During his time there the team went 5-5 and were middle of the road in terms of their offense as they finished eighth out of the 14-team league with 28.1 points per game.
In fact, the 33-year-old native of Mount Vernon, Washington has logged 16 years as a coach. Prior to signing in Germany and Poland, Stevens was the head coach of the Catalans Grizzlys in France and the Znojmo Knights in Austrian first division just before the pandemic hit, cancelling both seasons. He had been head coach of the Pribram Bobcats in the Czech league in 2019 in Division 1, leading them to a 4-4 season. Prior to arriving in Europe, Stevens was the running backs coach at Lindsey Wilson College (NAIA) (2016-17) helping the team to an 11-2 record with the starting running back earning All Conference honors. He also had stints coaching high school football in Washington state and also at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana (Div III).
With the momentum of a three game win streak at the end of the 2022 season Stevens is eager to get his second chance in the league and will look to try and make Marburg a contender in the GFL.