Four days after Tom Rowe was fired, the Frankfurt Lions have found a new head coach. Tom Pokel takes over the gang job. The Hessians speak of a dream solution.
It was only on Sunday that the Lions Frankfurt had drawn the consequences of their sporting decline immediately after an 8-0 defeat against Ingolstadt Head coach Tom Rowe fired. Four days later, the Hessians can now introduce his successor: Tom Pokel will take over the coaching job.
Most recently, Pokel was on the boards of the Straubing Tigers in the DEL competition for eight years. Under his leadership, Lower Bavaria reached the Champions Hockey League three times and qualified for the round of 16 twice.
DEL Coach of the Year 2020
In 2020, the 58-year-old even became DEL Coach of the Year. In February, however, Pokel was released in Straubing and was therefore now available for an engagement in Frankfurt.
“Tom Pokel knows the league like no other coach and has proven that he can successfully and consistently develop a location. It is precisely this experience that is now important in order to use his impulses to drive forward the team’s desired development,” explained Frankfurt’s sports director Jan Barta.
In the Lions’ statement, Pokel spoke of Frankfurt as a “great city with a long and passionate ice hockey tradition.” He has “a very good feeling about this task.”
