The Örebro Black Knights, Swedish finalists the last two years, have announced that they have signed former UCLA defensive star Randy Beverly Jr. as their new head coach.
“We are very pleased, happy and proud that Randy Beverly has chosen to come and be the head coach of the Örebro Black Knights,”
said Mats Hagsten who led the recruiting drive.
“Randy is just the coach that we have been looking for and we wanted for the club. He has extensive experience and knowledge as a leader and a coach. He can handle both the offensive and defensive game and in addition, he is a leader who can develop other leaders. We need a leader that we can grow with the team and that fits Randy perfectly.”
Randy Beverly Jr. grew up around football. His father Randy Beverly Sr. played defensive back for the NFL’s New York Jets, when they won Super Bowl III. Beverly Jr played for the great UCLA teams of the late 1980s quarterbacked by Pro Football Hall Of Famer Troy Aikman. As a defensive back and kick returner Randy played an instrumental part in helping those teams win Rose Bowl and Pac. 10 titles.
Following his playing career he worked extensively with NFL teams and their coaching staffs, including the New York Jets, Oakland Raiders and the Cleveland Browns teams throughout the late 1990’s to mid-2000’s.
For the past five seasons Beverly has coached the Milano Rams into post-season playoff appearances four times in Italy’s Division two league. The team appeared in four FIF Italian League Championships winning the title for the past two years.
He had taken the position as head coach of Norway’s Kristiansand Gladiators when the team folded in March. Although entering his position late as the Swedish league starts this weekend (Örebro has two bye weeks though), the Black Knight’s new head coach is looking forward to the challenge:
“The challenges I face here are many but similar; I will be looking to focus and enhance the playing capabilities of all Black Knight players. I will be looking to meet and exeed the challenges of maintaining a healthy and active player roster and I will be challenged naturally by the high level of competitiveness of Sweden’s top league.
As stated coach Beverly has a couple of weeks to familiarize himself with his new team before Örebro takes the field on May 17 against the Uppsala 86ers.