Another Head Coach Gone: Sweden’s Limhamn Griffins Fire Head Coach John Trana

| American Football | 05/28/2015

After 18 months on the job John Trana has been fired as the head coach of the Limhamn Griffins of the Swedish Super Series.

The team opened the 2015 campaign with a win but three straight losses seemed to seal Trana’s fate. The last one against the Orebro Black Knights was close though, a 21-7 decision  although Limhamn had their chances in the red zone.

Griffins’ offensive coordinator Johan Vajnlie takes over as head coach.

Trana took over a club in 2014 which had just been promoted back up to the top league in Sweden after many years in the lower division. Although the team posted a 1-9 record in 2014, there had been a marked improvement as they played much closer to their rivals in Sweden towards the end of the year last season.

Sweden - LImhamn - Trana

Limhamn general manager Carl Klimfors:

“John has done a fine job for the club, but ultimately our results this year so far have not met with our expectations so we have decided to go in a different direction. We only have good things to say about John and his efforts. He is a fantastic coach and highly knowledgable and will do well with his next job.

We felt that making this change was necessary not just for finishing off this season but also to be able to reevaluate our long-term committments.”

John Trana was caught off guard by the decision:

“I was surprised by the decision that was made by the general manager. We have had a rash of injuries and starters missing games for personal reasons. In the last game we were missing our top three interior defensive lineman, middle linebacker, strong safety, top corner and top two wide receivers. We lost two offensive linemen during the game plus our number two and three running backs.

And we played well enough to win the game. In fact, we had to dress two players with casts to make it to our 30 man roster.

The board felt like we were headed down the same path as last year but I disagree. As everyone saw from the last game The players were all developing very well and the were giving their maximum effort but in a tough league like the Super Series that is not always enough

I am disappointed in the lack of wins but proud of the development of the players.”

Trana is the second head coach to be let go in Sweden this year. The Carlstad Crusaders parted ways with their former head coach Duke Iverson earlier.

Roger Kelly is an editor and a writer for AFI. A former PR Director the B.C. Lions of the Canadian Football League for 7 years, he now lives in Sweden writing about and scouting American Football throughout the world.