Poland’s Krakow Kings have signed championship winning coach Malik Jackson as their new head coach for the 2020 season.
The Kings play in the South Conference of Poland’s Liga Futbolu Amerykańskiego and finished the 2019 season with a 3-5 record.
Jackson spent the 2019 a head coach for the Hamburg Pioneers in Germany’s Division 3. In 2018, he served as head coach of the SBB Vukovi Belgrade in Serbia’s top league, guiding Vukovi to the Serbian Bowl where they lost to the Kragujevac Wild Boars. He coached with the Hamburg Huskies in the GFL for the final six games of the 2018 season.
He was the head coach of the 2015 Carlstad Crusaders who won both the Swedish league title and the European Champions League crown. He then served as defensive coordinator for Vukovi in 2016 as well as the Serbian national team. In 2017, Jackson was the defensive coordinator for the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes in the German Football League, helping the team reach the German semifinals with one of the top five defenses in the country.
The 47-year-old Jackson originally came to Europe from De Anza College in California where he served as defensive coordinator. His background includes a successful career at City College of San Francisco where as defensive secondary and special teams coach he helped the team win the junior college national championship four times since 2001.
AFI: How did you end up signing with the Kings?
Jackson: The club approached me and I had already heard so many good things about them that it didn’t take long to make a decision. Strangely, Krakow was a city I have always wanted to visit. I learned about the town 15 or so years ago from a group that I met when I was at San Francisco City College. So this worked out perfectly.
AFI: What do you need to do to improve?
Jackson: They have built a solid foundation and are ready to expand on what they do football wise. The team’s base of players is excellent including a couple of young quarterbacks. I am really looking forward to getting there and working with the folks at the Kings and my new offensive coordinator, Dustin Hawke Willingham, who I have known for a few years.