Jag Bal returns as HC for Berlin Thunder

‘The Berlin Thunder of the European League of Football have announced the signing of Canadian Jag Bal as their new head coach.

Bal returns to the team he originally coached in 2021. He replaces Dean Cokinos who was forced to travel back to the United States suddenly for personal reasons.

Bal started the 2024 ELF season as defensive coordinator of the Cologne Centurions but stepped in as head coach after Gregg Brandon was released part way through the season. He spent the 2023 season as DC of the Berlin Rebels in the German Football League. Under his leadership, the Rebels allowed the fourth fewest points per game in the league (22.5), the fewest passing yards (173.4), and the fifth fewest rushing yards per game (110.6).

Bal was defensive coordinator for the Raiders Tirol of the European League of Football, ELF in 2022 after serving as head coach of the Berlin Thunder in 2021. Under Bal, the Raiders defense allowed the fourth fewest points and second fewest yards in the ELF.

The 40-year-old Bal, a native of Vancouver, B.C., Canada, played at Butte College in Oroville, California, (the same junior college that quarterback Aaron Rodgers transferred from the year before) and arrived in Europe as a defensive lineman with the Dresden Monarchs in 2007. After stints with the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes and Berlin Rebels, he entered the coaching field in 2010 with Croatia’s Zagreb Raiders as their defensive coordinator. He went on to become head coach of the Zagreb Patriots in 2011 winning the Austrian Second Division title. He joined Italy’s Catania Elephants in 2012 as head coach leading them to the Italian title game that year. The following season, he joined the defensive staff of the Swarco Raiders before settling in as defensive coordinator of the Berlin Adler for two years.